Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad - Hardcover
-- A Main Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club-- A finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards-- Appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle and Wordstock bestseller lists
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Review:
"Rich with scandal, tragedy, and visionary characters".
From the Back Cover:
-- SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with twin bands of iron, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. From self-made entrepreneurs such as the Union Pacific's Thomas Durant and the Central Pacific's Collis Huntington, to era-defining figures such as President Lincoln, Generals Grant and Sherman, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman, to the thousands of nameless laborers -- especially the Irish and Chines -- whose backbreaking work made the railroad possible, this extraordinary narrative summons an astonishing array of voices to give new dimension, not only to this monumental endeavor, but also to the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of an unforgettable period in American history.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherViking
- Publication date1999
- ISBN 10 067080889X
- ISBN 13 9780670808892
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages816
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Hardcover
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Press, Penguin Group (USA), Inc., New York
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. Illustrated w/ 62 choice b-w period photos & 1 contemporaneous cartoon handsomely-reproduced in an illustration-insert of 32 gloss-laminated pp (between pp 334 & 335) (illustrator). 1st Edition. MASTERFUL: GROUNDBREAKING: METICULOUS: GARANTUAN: TOWERING: VIVID: EXTRAORDINARY: ASTONISHING: UNFORGETTABLE: MONUMENTAL: EPIC: NEW First Edition hardcover (Orig. November 1999) w/ full no. line at "1" showing First Printing: NEW handsomely-designed-illus mylar-protected jacket showing Orig. $34.95 pub price at top-right inside-front flyleaf, NEW cover w/ library-durable black woven-laid paper wrapping spine & extending 1.46" onto front & back panels covered in ocher-gold paper & w/ titles & line rules ELEGANTLY gilt-stamped on spine, IMMACULATE smooth-cut text-block exterior, IMPECCABLE cream-white card-stock end-papers, NEW perfect binding w/ tight sheets & w/ lavender-gold-checked cloth bands at spine-caps, PRISTINE interior printed w/ handsome clarity on EXCELLENT unblemished archival paper * 6.36" x 9.50" x 2.04", 1.34 kg, xviii+798+32 pp illus. (848) pp * Illustrated w/ 62 choice b-w period photos & 1 contemporaneous cartoon handsomely-reproduced in an illustration-insert of 32 gloss-laminated pp (between pp 334 & 335) * ABOUT THE BOOK: MASTERFUL storytelling & 14 yrs of GROUNDBREAKING & METICULOUS research are brought to bear in this MONUMENTAL account of a pivotal era. "Empire Express" draws on orig. sources as no previous chronicle has done--1000s of pages of handwritten letters, diaries & telegrams, & an array of biographical & historical works. This EXTRAORDINARY narrative summons an ASTONISHING gallery of historical voices to give new dimension not only to this EPIC endeavor but also to the culture, political struggles, & social conflicts of an UNFORGETTABLE period in American history. * HIGHEST PRAISE: "One of the greatest of all American stories has finally found a chronicler up t the task of telling it. David Haward Bain has managed to encompass it all--genuine heroism & brutal dispossession, Utopian vision & rampant corruption, technological wonders & war w/ the elements--in a VIVID narrative that no one interested in the American character will want to miss." -Geoffrey C. Ward, author of "The West, an Illustrated History" & coauthor of "The Civil War", & many other distinguished works of history. "'Empire Express' is one of those books that anyone w/ an interest in railroad history or the American West must acquire & keep close at hand. It is GARGANTUAN, truly TOWERING, and thanks to David Haward Bain's lengthy & painstaking research it is as complete as this subject can ever be. Bain uses the voices of the transcontinental railroad's builders to tell much of this epic tale. Furthermore, to enliven his narrative he brings in contemporary events relative to this great American endeavor." -Dee Brown, author of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" & "Hear that Lonesome Whistle Blow" * ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DAVID HAWARD BAIN is the author of several well-received & prize-winning works of non-fiction. His articles have been widely published in Smithsonian, American Heritage, Kenyon Review & elsewhere, & his reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The LA Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, & regularly for the NYTBR. Bain teaches at Middlebury College & works w/ the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He & his family live in Vermont. * SHIPPING: MNEMOSYNE carefully wraps, labels & custom-packages this fine book for FREE domestic shipment via USPS MEDIA MAIL or USPS PRIORITY MAIL for a below-cost additional fee & via USPS FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL to international destinations at our posted below-cost rates. Seller Inventory # 009959
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
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(1999)
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Hardcover
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Hardcover
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EMPIRE EXPRESS : Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
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Viking, New York, NY
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: COLLECTIBLE - NEW. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition, First Pinting. BRAND NEW & Collectible. Masterful biography of the he First Transcontinental Railroad built 1863 - 1869. Narrative starts 1842 with bankcrupt merchant Asa Whitney's decision to devote his regained fortune towards realizing a Pacific Railroad and begins to haunt the halls of Congress, and ends 30 years later. In between are dramas involving an extraordinary parade of characters such as exploring engineer Theodore Judah (responsible for the laying tracks across the Sierra, virtually in the footsteps of the Donner Party), entrepreneur Thomas Durant of the Union Pacific Railroad, frontier surveyors who lost their lives, forbearing womenfolk guarding the hearth, beleaguered Native American tribes, the bluecoats, the onrush soliders of fortune, farmers, ranchers, prospectors, and, not the least, the supernumeraries providing labor. Throughout this story there are also familiar Civil War-era faces of Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, and literary figures like Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. All of whose lives were inextricably intertwined with the story of the Empire Express. Seller Inventory # 019246
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Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad
Published by
Viking Adult
(1999)
ISBN 10: 067080889X
ISBN 13: 9780670808892
New
Hardcover
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # Abebooks590709
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