About the Author

Sarah Gordon teaches American history at the Tikvah High School for Girls and Quinnipiac College, both in Connecticut.

Reviews

A compelling argument.
*Journal of Southern History*

Engaging and nicely written, with a definitive and sustained point of view.
*Virginia Quarterly Review*

Continually intriguing and particularly rich...layered.
*Chicago Tribune*

One of the best accounts I have read of the railroad in America. It blends history, technology, business, and social concerns to achieve a total perspective.
*Columbia University*

A quite wonderful book...richly textured and intellectually stimulating.
*Columbia University*

The principal argument of this highly readable social, economic and political history of the first 100 years of American railroads is that after the Civil War the nationwide web of train tracks unified the country, increased national communication, facilitated transcontinental expansion and then went on to destroy small-town America. By funneling money and labor power to cities, especially those in the North, the railroads undermined the rural economy and weakened the economic and political power of local as well as national government. Gordon, who teaches American history on both the high school and college levels in Connecticut, presents her case in solid academic fashion, but she also has an eye for telling social detail and makes apt references to the popular culture. She underlines the irony that once railroads had stretched across the country, a new emphasis on cost-cutting, efficiency and higher profits began reducing services to the small communities that were the original building blocks of the system. She even examines lawsuits involving property damages and personal injury to show that decline of services. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Jan.)

A compelling argument. * Journal of Southern History *
Engaging and nicely written, with a definitive and sustained point of view. * Virginia Quarterly Review *
Continually intriguing and particularly rich...layered. -- Michael Kennedy * Chicago Tribune *
One of the best accounts I have read of the railroad in America. It blends history, technology, business, and social concerns to achieve a total perspective. -- James F. Goodwin, former president, Connecticut Central Railroad * Columbia University *
A quite wonderful book...richly textured and intellectually stimulating. -- Elizabeth Blackmur * Columbia University *