Christian Wolmar - Blood, Iron & Gold (2nd Hand Paperback)

The opening of the world's first railroad in Britain and America in 1830 marked the dawn of a new age. Within the course of a decade, tracks were being laid as far afield as Australia and Cuba, and by the outbreak of World War I, the United States alone boasted over a quarter of a million miles.

With unrelenting determination, architectural innovation, and under gruesome labour conditions, a global railroad network was built that forever changed the way people lived.

From Panama to Punjab, from Tasmania to Turin, Christian Wolmar shows how cultures were enriched, and destroyed, by one of the greatest global transport revolutions of our time, and celebrates the visionaries and labourers responsible for its creation.

Blood, Iron & Gold shows how the rise of the train stimulated daring feats of engineering, architectural innovation and the rapid movement of people and goods around the world and how cultures were enriched and destroyed by the unrelenting construction of the railways.