Nothing Like It in the World

Rating:
Summary: Great Train Story
Review: This was the first Stephen Ambrose book I read. I just finished it and immmediately ran out to the store to purchase another. He does a great job of telling the tails of the CP and UP racing towards financial success and history. He does an excellent job of getting the reader to empathize with the plight of one Theodore Judah, the man with the vision, knowledge, and ambition to get the transcontinental railroad. I don't want to give away too much, but this book is definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: A solid account of an amazing undertaking
Review:
In a sizeable break from his series of World War II histories, Stephen Ambrose turns his attention to the largest engineering project of the American 19th Century- the building of the first transcontinental railroad. Although the subject doesn't at first seem to have the world-changing impact of "D-Day" or the intensely personal stories found in "Band of Brothers", Ambrose brings this massive civilian undertaking to light as engagingly as any of his military histories.

Particularly effective is his analysis of the myriad forces that caused the creation of the railroad- the surveyors, businessmen and politicians. The money-men in particular appear a cross between patriots and peculators, their participation in a nationally-important, unprecedented feat of construction quickly taking a back seat to the desire to build the road for personal gain. The account of the financial manipulations used to create profits for themselves makes it abundantly clear that junk bonds and insider trading were standbys of large business long before Michael Milken.

Equally engaging is Ambrose's drawing of the men working the road, from the overall heads of construction down to the Chinese, Mormon and Irish laborers. His description, and contemporary pictures, of their struggles to build rail across deserts and over (and through) mountains humanizes what could otherwise have been a dry account.

By the end of the book, it's clear that Ambrose believes the transcontinental railroad was a world-changing feat as important as any war; indeed, that the building of the road helped knit the country back together after the Civil War. American expansion into the West became easy and comfortable, and trade between both coasts and the center was changed utterly- both of which helped shape the country that the United States became, and the world it came to dominate. In that respect, there truly was "nothing like it in the world".

Rating:
Summary: An inspiring story....
Review: This book tells the story of the men who built the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860's. After reading this book, I still find it difficult to believe that this railroad was built during that time. It would be extremely hard to build this railroad using today's technology. Using 1860's technology, many people viewed the task as impossible, yet it was completed.

While this book is a quick, good read, it does differ somewhat from the first-person history typically associated with Stephen Ambrose. This is simply due to the fact that the people who built the railroad are no longer living. Regardless, Ambrose uses many contemporary accounts to build his story, and no railroad fan or history buff should be without this book.

Rating:
Summary: It is not easy being Ambrose
Review: It is not easy being Ambrose. He is held to a very high standard. His books on WWII are introducing whole new generations to the defining moment of our history. His skills go beyond WWII. His book on Lewis and Clark was amazing. If this book was by any other author everyone would love it, but compared to the rest of his collection this book is not the gold standard. Ambrose is famous for bringing life and emotion to history and this book falls a little short, almost as if his heart was not 100% into the subject. I enjoyed it, but was not blown away.

Rating:
Summary: Not as inspired as his WW2 books, but interesting
Review: I listened to this book on CD, and came away a lot more knowledgeable than I ever had been about the building of these railroads. Everyone has heard about (or should have back in 11th grade US History) Promontory Point, but when the real story of the financing, political maeuvering, and construction heartaches come into play, it becomes much more impressive. Names are sometimes hard to link from earlier stories, and sometimes the book can get a little minute with things, and not enough attention gets given to engineering marvels. Still, I have been spoiled by Ambrose's earlier works, and when compared to Undaunted Courage or his WW2 books, this does not come off as well. Ambrose here is a victim of his own success. Despite these concerns, a reader will come away with a lot more education than they probably had before.

Rating:
Summary: Solid History of the Transcontinental Railroad
Review: Stephen Amrose has a wonderful gift for finding interesting things to write about; this book is another example of this.

The book covers the period from the 1830s, when the idea of the transcontinental railroad is first broached, to the 1850s, when the idea is seized upon by railroad-savvy politicians like Abraham Lincoln, to the 1870s, when the idea becomes feasible for two reasons -- the ability of capital markets to generate enough capital for the project (even though it involved scandals like Credit Mobilier) and the creation of large scale industrial enterprises using quasi-military organization that became feasible after the experiences of the Civil War.

The book is full of good thumbnail sketches of visionaries like Theodore Judah, who conceives of the route that the Central Pacific must take to get through the Cascades, and the practical men who cut deals to make the reality happed, such as Durant of the Union Pacific and Brigham Young, who negotiates shrewdly in providing a labor force to cross the Utah desert.

Ambrose's prose style is somewhat flat, though never jarring, so the information is presented in a straighforward way. A good book for a railroad enthusiast who wants an introduction to the technologies used and the people involded in the project.

Rating:
Summary: The Decline Continues
Review: It's sad to see that Ambrose, the author of such wonderful early biographies and histories, continues to churn out flawed and increasingly wooden material. He appears much more concerned these days with being President of 'Stephen Ambrose Inc.', than he is with writing solid history. If you're truly interested in the history of the Transcontinental Railroad, read David Bain's book instead. It may give you a few more details than you care to know, but the his passion for the work comes through almost as loudly as the passion (both good and nefarious) of the speculators and tycoons who lurked and paraded on the Transcontinental stage. In addition to several unforgiveable factual errors, Ambrose's work captures very little of the historical immensity of the this magnificent feat. Ambrose and his publisher are trying to sell words on paper based on the author's name. Hopefully he'll go back soon to writing insightful, compelling history that teaches as much as it entertains.

Rating:
Summary: Rambling yet interesting
Review: I give Ambrose the benefit of the doubt by giving this book three stars...two-and-a-half would probably be more accurate.

While the story of the transcontinental railroad is interesting, and Ambrose does convey a sense of how limited transportation was in the early nineteenth century, this book does have flaws. Besides some actual errors, Ambrose's style gets rather grating. He has a tendency to get a bit florid in his writing. In addition, neither of his parallel narratives are told in a linear fashion, which I feel this sort of history requires; he moves back and forth in time, so often one chapter starts a year or more prior to where the previous related chapter left off.

I also have Ambrose's Eisenhower biography, which I have yet to read, but I must admit that reading this one as lowered my expectations for that biography. I hope that this book is an aberration in his writing.

Rating:
Summary: A narrative (but not a history)
Review: Ambrose states up front that he is only going to tell the story of how the Pacific railroad was built without any form of analysis and he does exactly that.
The storytelling technique is quite choppy. The author attempts to tell the stories of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific at the same time, in the same manner that the railroad was built, but this sometimes leaves the reader dizzy.
Better editing would have helped this book. There are some regrettable errors and typos. More of the sites mentioned in the text should have been included on the maps, which could have been presented in a more logical order.

Rating:
Summary: Workmanlike
Review: Solid, if unspectacular, history of the drive to link the railroad line from the east to the one from the pacific. Several parts are interesting, such as the dangerous and hazardous conditions the men had to work under, the engineering accomplishments, and the different nationalities that came together to complete this monumental task. Ambrose also does a good job of pointing out how the railroad transformed the country. At times though, the text gets dull for me, especially when the telegrams and posts that say how much materiel was needed, what materiel was on the way, etc was shown word-for-word. I also feel that some of the stories behind the scenes on how the railroad was financed could have been fleshed out a bit more. A good book, but the complete story wasn't told.