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Summary: The Greatest Race of the 19th Century
Review: I stumbled onto this book almost by accident while I was looking for something to read over Thanksgiving. Before reading Ambrose's new book on the transcontinental railroad I had had very little interest in railroad history or the Gilded Age. However, Ambrose's narrative sucked me into this gripping story of the men who fearlessly tamed the western frontier of North America.The story of the railroad, like most of the best stories in history, is that of a race. In this case, the Central Pacific (which built the western end of the line) was pitted against the Union Pacific (which built the eastern end of the line). The race is one for the highest stakes, with the victor receiving a mountainload of government money and -- even more important -- the bragging rights to having won. Along the way, Ambrose introduces us to the wonderfully colorful characters who built the railroad: the dreamer and UP chief engineer Grenville Dodge; the ambitious and driven "Big Four" of the CP; and the devious and cunning "Doc" Durant. Ambrose does an excellent job of describing the overwhelming obstacles that had to be beaten to build the railroad. Both companies bled money at a furious pace in the 1860s; the surveyors, graders, and track layers braved the elements and harsh terrain of the far West; and there was the ever-present threat of Indian attacks. Despite these trials, the men who built the Pacific Railroad succeeded in uniting the nation together after a Civil War that nearly sundered the nation in two and were instrumental in the ultimate settlement of the West. Ambrose does a fine job in detailing all of these elements, especially for those of you like me who are general readers in this subject. As the ultimate compliment I can give to Mr. Ambrose for this thrilling book, he has stimulated me to read more on railroad history and I have just picked up David Bain's book on the same subject.
Rating: 
Summary: tragic
Review: A mind is a terrible thing to waste. As a young man, Ambrose gave us beautifully written books of intellectual substance. Now he gives us bestsellers, but they are shallow, facile, poorly researched work that panders to the public taste for simple stories simply told. He could have been a great historian and left a mark on his era.
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Summary: History Comes Alive!
Review: This story made history come alive. I loved listening to the tale of how the railroad was built. The different perspectives and the the detail made the story an absorbing one for our long daily commutes. Generally, I prefer fiction to non-fiction but this story ranks high on my list of entertaining reads. It is amazing that so many people and incidents conspired to cause this great American achievement!
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Summary: Tedious transcontinental tale
Review: This is a story about two companies building a railroad line between Sacramento, California and Omaha, Nebraska. While the workers are fighting Indians and blowing holes in granite and each other, the owners are scalping the country of millions. There is a great story here somewhere, but Stephen Ambrose has missed it completely.
Rating: 
Summary: Written In A Hurry?
Review: I blistered through "Undaunted Courage" in a day, skipping meals and ignoring phone calls. When I found out about "Nothing Like It", it was on my doorstep without haste. Ambrose is a gifted, passionate academic, indisputably. While I enjoyed his latest, there was a hollowness about the work: the race between the UP and CP was dynamic (and drives the book), but the more cynical (or at least critical) reader learns little about what is behind the Eastern and Californian capitalists save for some cursory details of financial interests and political machinations. Of course they were in it to make money! Sling some dirt about Stanford, or at least try to get inside his head! Hey, it's still a good read, mind you, but Mr. Ambrose didn't seem to have his heart in this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Historical Review
Review: The book is a good historical review of the building of the transcontinental railroad. The book is a little slow reading at times, since the ending was already known...yes they did finish the railroad. If one is interested in United States Railroading this is a must read.
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Summary: Nothing like it, hopefully something better.
Review: The author admits in the introductory pages that there are numerous books dedicated to the development, construction, and impact of the transcontinental railroad. Therefore, there must be numerous books which have dealt with this subject matter better. This book has all the narrative structure of a high school senior project. In some places the author repeats himself almost word for word (for instance, he uses the example of the Civil War uniting North and South and the transcontinental RR uniting East and West at least five times). In other areas he contradicts himself (i.e. see pages 42 and 357 for his before and after travel time comparisons). With any history book you cannot have enough maps, the more detailed the better. Maps here are too few and not detailed enough, occasionally omitting locations discussed at length in the text (for example, find Fort Kearney on any of the maps). In one egregious example the map is in the wrong place in the book entirely. The map for the Central Pacific's transit over the summit of the Sierras is in Chapter 16, and the narrative for this is in Chapters 7, 9, and 11, which have no maps whatsoever. The author also refers to photographs taken at the time of certain events, many of these photographs are not to be found in the section of photographs in the book. The overall work seems a rush job. Rather than enhance the narrative, he shortcuts the process by liberally quoting daily diaries which comes off flat, often out of context, and appear as filler. Again in the first few pages of the text, the author admits this wasn't his idea in the first place, and this shows throughout.
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Summary: Too bad.
Review: Ambrose usually writes such great books. This is the exception. His "facts" are not always so. They bothered me so much that I had to force myself to finish the book. Better luck next time, Mr. Ambrose.
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Summary: HEADLINE NEWS - Late 1860s
Review: With the end of the Civil War in 1865, except in the ex-Confederate States where reconstruction news dominated, during the late 1860s the headline news in the U.S.A. was the building of the transcontinental railroad. Stephen Ambrose does an excellent job narrating this event beginning with Lincoln's 1859 meeting with Grenville Dodge, later chief engineer for building the Union Pacific, to the driving of the golden spike on May 10, 1869. In 1853 Congress called for a survey of possible routes. A discussion of route selection opens the book, with the last miles actually not being settled until shortly before the Central Pacific and Union Pacific met at Promontory Point. Most interesting is the author's narration of the early pioneer surveyors especially Theodore Judah who determined the most feasible route through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Alternate chapters cover the progress of each railroad, beginning with the Central Pacific in the west followed by the Union Pacific from the east. This is fascinating reading as the Union Pacific moves west battling Indians and many adversities while the Central Pacific struggles with the Sierra Nevada's granite mountains where tunnel progress was measured in inches per day. Both railroads were troubled by weather especially heavy snow. The Central Pacific ultimately had to build almost 50 miles of snowsheds to protect the railroad in the mountains. For both the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific, each chapter describes the construction, financial, political and organizational problems for the project phase being covered. The chapters are well documented with the frequent references and quotations from letters and telegrams resulting in a comprehensive narrative. The book notes that without the assistance of the Federal Government the construction of the railroad during the 1860's probably would not have been possible. The author describes how Congress passed legislation which fostered a race between the two railroads as they built toward each other. The Federal Government awarded land grants and cash to each railroad based on the mileage graded and tracks laid with premiums paid for the difficult/expensive mountain construction. The cash was to be repaid by bonds which were guaranteed by the Government. A race was a natural result as each railroad tried to build the most trackage. Consequently, as the time of completion neared, the two railroads actually graded for track that paralleled and passed each other. The description of how the actual meeting point was established and the associated financial maneuvers by each party makes for fascinating reading. Throughout out the book, Ambrose develops a balanced description of the major players; none are all bad or all good with the contributions of each being described. As expected personalities were a major factor which both aided and/or abetted their cause. Their lives after completing the transcontinental railroad is given thereby completing their story. The book also notes a rarely considered fact that even before the completion of the transcontinental railroad "there was an event of grand importance to the scientific and industrial revolution....the first transcontinental telegraph line was opened." With the telegraph line in operation the East Coast could communicate with the West Coast in a matter of seconds and was a great, albeit expensive, assistance in building the railroads. The building of the transcontinental railroad would have been very difficult, if not virtually impossible, had just land and sea communications been only available. The reader should note the large number of telegrams that the authors quotes which is only a faction of the total number sent while the railroad was being planned and built. The last chapter is an epilogue. Here Ambrose writes "Mistakes were made all along the line, caused both by errors of judgment and certain cynicism, encouraged by Congress, and cheered on by the population at large. There was an emphasis on speed rather than quality, on laying much track and making as much grade as possible rather than doing it right." He continues "One glaring reminder of the waste was the two grades running east and west from Promontory Summit, parallel to each other." Following the completion of the transcontinental railroad, newspapers launched what the author calls "the biggest scandal of the nineteenth century", and Congress went after the railroads because the transcontinental railroads would not exist without the government having loaned them money with government bonds and given them land grants. Ambrose notes that "The land grants are much misunderstood, especially by professors teaching the American history survey course." He concludes that while many of the owners of the railroad's stocks and bonds were guilty of most of the charges made against them, the author states that the land grants never brought in enough money to pay the bills of construction. Furthermore, he notes, that the bonds were not a gift but loans which had to be paid back in thirty years or less. This obligation was met. Other transcontinental routes were later completed including in 1881 a railroad over the southern route consisting of the Texas and Pacific and Southern Pacific and by the end of the 19th century the United States had four transcontinental railroads. However, the Central Pacific with the Union Pacific was the first transcontinental railroad and this book is their story. This book is a history of a critical period in the United States, the end of the 1860s, when both transcontinental transportation and communication was completed put in operation so that the East Coast was now united with the West Coast. The book concludes with the statement "Things happened as they happened. It is possible to imagine all kinds of different routes across the continent, or a better way for the government to help private industry, or maybe to have the government build and own it. But those things didn't happen, and what did take place is grand. So we admire those who did it -- even if they were far from perfect -- for what they were and what they accomplished and how much each of us owes them."
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Summary: After a war that nearly tore south from north...
Review: This is another very fine effort by one of my favorite historians. The technological accomplishments were impressive. The paradox of the transcontinental railroad both compressing time by shortening the days required to travel from coast to coast and making Americans more aware of time than ever before was delightful. The hard work and daring of the engineers and track layers and graders and so on were stirring. But over a month after finishing this book, the theme that has stayed with me is that not long after a civil war that nearly tore the country apart north and south citizens and even noncitizens, i.e. African Americans, were almost universally united in the effort to bind the country together east and west. My one complaint is that it doesn't have the same immediacy that eyewitness accounts provide to Ambrose's military history books. I suspect that despite the voluminous newspaper accounts available, Ambrose has come to rely so heavily on first person history either in person or through diaries and journals that it caused him to flounder a bit. I think that explains some of the complaints others have made. Despite that caveat, this is still a wonderful book. I grew up not far north of Council Bluffs where the UP section of track began and thought myself pretty well steeped in railroad history, but I still learned a lot and had fun doing it.
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