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Hear that Train whistle Blow: How the railroad changed the world
Milton Meltzer
Non-Fiction
Ages 12 and up
Random House, 2004, 0-375-81563-5
  It is hard to imagine, in this day of high speed travel, that there was ever a time when people could not travel faster than the speed of the fastest horse. And yet this is how life was until the 1800’s, when the first trains began to chug their way across the countryside. Until then long distance travel was uncomfortable, often dangerous, and it took a long time to get from place to place. Trains changed all this, making it possible for example, for people to cross the United States in relative comfort when before the journey took months bumping along in a saddle or on a wagon seat.
  Not only did trains open up the world for people, but, for many, the noisy great machines came to represent “progress” and a movement towards the “improvement” of life for everyone. Many saw trains as just the beginning of a new age when machines would make all kinds of unheard of things possible. And, in a way, this was true for great inventions and discoveries did follow. But, of course, trains also brought many people great unhappiness. In the United States, dozens of laborers died during the construction of the transcontinental railroad. In addition, railways made it possible for settlers to move into lands which had hitherto ‘belonged’ to Native Americans. For these people the trains brought only misery.
  This fascinating book provides the reader with an exceptional picture of how the world, specifically America, was changed by the arrival of the railroad. Readers will meet the big players in the railroad world including Roebling (who designed the Brooklyn
Bridge), the Vanderbilts, Leland Stanford, George Pullman, and others. Generally speaking the author tells his readers about the history of the railroads in America touching on such subjects as racism and the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Depression, traveling by train abroad and more.
  Excellent photographs and illustrations can be found throughout the book and readers will find the account punctuated by numerous quotations and side bars of pertinent background information.

 

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