uc11 has been written about the first
100 or so years of railroading in
America, when the industry roared forward in tandem with the U.S. economy. Sel- dom discussed, like some embarrassing relative who went to pot, are the years since 1940.
For the most part, railroad literature consists of individual histories of the dozens of railways that sprouted during the industry's heyday. Many of these books-and there are literally hundreds of them-are more anecdotal than lus- torical, and, as often a...