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Type of bind: Paperback
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: November 06, 2001
Publishing house: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: November 06, 2001
Sale Popularity Level: 76179
Studio: Simon & Schuster
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In this account of an unprecedented feat of engineering, vision, and courage, Stephen E. Ambrose offers a historical successor to his universally acclaimed Undaunted Courage, which recounted the explorations of the West by Lewis and Clark.
Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad -- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks.
Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men -- the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary -- who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation.
Amazon.com:
Abraham Lincoln, who had worked as a riverboat pilot before turning to politics, knew a thing or two about the problems of transporting goods and people from place to place. He was also convinced that the United States would flourish only if its far-flung regions were linked, replacing sectional loyalties with an overarching sense of national destiny.
Building a transcontinental railroad, writes the prolific historian Stephen Ambrose, was second only to the abolition of slavery on Lincoln's presidential agenda. Through an ambitious program of land grants and low-interest government loans, he encouraged entrepreneurs such as California's 'Big Four'--Charles Crocker, Collis Huntington, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford--to take on the task of stringing steel rails from ocean to ocean. The real work of doing so, of course, was on the shoulders of immigrant men and women, mostly Chinese and Irish. These often-overlooked actors and what a contemporary called their 'dreadful vitality' figure prominently in Ambrose's narrative, alongside the great financiers and surveyors who populate the standard textbooks.
In the end, Ambrose writes, Lincoln's dream transformed the nation, marking 'the very first great triumph over time and space' and inaugurating what has come to be known as the American Century. David Haward Bain's Empire Express, which covers the same ground, is more substantial, but Ambrose provides an eminently readable study of a complex episode in American history. --Gregory McNamee
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I listened to the abridged audio version on four cassettes. It held my interest like a novel while expanding my knowledge of the history of the railroad and its huge role in westward expansion.
I got this book because I enjoyed "Undaunted Courage." However, the largest part of my historical reading has been on the American Civil War, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Nothing Like it In the World" interweaves the story of the transcontinental railroad with the outline of the Civil War and frequently mentions familiar characters including Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman.
While I highly recommend the audio version, I missed the illustrations that one finds in a book. Small maps are included so that you can see the routes and many of the towns that are mentioned, but I felt unsatisfied so I borrowed a hard-cover edition from a local library and poured over the pictures and maps.
This book covers a significant period of history that is often given only slight attention in American History courses. The industrialization of the United States, westward expansion, the decimation of tribal people in the American West, the making and concentration of personal wealth by a few people, and the role of immigrants are all brought up in ways that may whet your appetite for more railroad history.
Rated by buyers 
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this is the very first book i read by ambrose, and after 200 pages, i knew i wouldn't pick up another one. the research was shoddy and the prose was worse. often, ambrose will write two paragraphs in a row that say the same thing, and that sort of thing gets old fast. i recommend david bain's "empire express". it's much longer and more daunting, but it's an artful work of history that is much, much more rewarding.
Rated by buyers 
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'Nothing Like it In the World' by Stephen Ambrose
As usual, Mr. Ambrose delivers his straight forward, from the gut narrative of the construction and story behind the story of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad - a feat that inarguably changed America in profound ways. Meet the colorful characters who forced this project through, by sheer force of will and gain better perspective of the magnitude of labor and sometime exploitation of workers, particularly the Chinese. The financiers & government officials come through in this work in all their glory and shame - some deserved, others less so.
The power of the undertaking and dangers the workers faced, who truly are the main characters of this story, are exhibited in a voice as gravelly as that of Ambrose's own. The sheer enormity of this amazing feat is laid bare for the reader to digest and one is left feeling the passion of the original thought leaders of the RR down through the graders, spike drivers and general laborers who in an amazingly brief period of time changed the course of of American history in ways completely unseen.
If there is anything lacking, it would be the story of the Indians who are described as often terrorizing the railway workers to the point where men had to arm themselves for personal safety. The context of the Indians' story is lacking in this book, however, the argument could be made that it is an entirely different story. For that important component I would suggest, perhaps Dee Brown's 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee'.
All in all, the reader is taken back to pre-Lincoln presidency and carried through all the subsequent sweat and toil until the last spike was driven ....and American commerce and transportation and direction changed forever. It's well worth your time and no matter your thoughts on Stephen Ambrose, he'll always deliver an easily readable, passionate account of his subject matter. 'Nothing Like it in The World' is no exception. I highly recommend this book to anyone even remotely interested in American history or the old West.
Rated by buyers -
An Interesting book to read, a wonderful arrangement of facts. Once read you feel like you were alive during the building of the Transcontinental railroad, and had been following its progress in the local paper.
Rated by buyers -
A good book about the rail road, Ambrose doesn't write with the same passion as he does Lewis and Clark. New insight (for me) into the Big 5 in California.
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