
Railroads and the American People
Railroads Past and Present
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Narrated by:
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Todd Barsness
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By:
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H. Roger Grant
About this listen
In this social history of the impact of railroads on American life, H. Roger Grant concentrates on the railroad's "Golden Age," 1830-1930. To capture the essence of the nation's railroad experience, Grant explores four fundamental topics - trains and travel, train stations, railroads and community life, and the legacy of railroading in America. Grant recalls the lasting memories left by train travel, both of luxurious Pullman cars and the grit and grind of coal-powered locals.
He discusses the important role railroads played for towns and cities across America, not only for the access they provided to distant places and distant markets but also for the depots that were a focus of community life. Finally, Grant reviews the lasting heritage of the railroads as it has been preserved in word, stone, paint, and memory. Railroads and the American People is a sparkling paean to American railroading by one of its finest historians.
The book is published by Indiana University Press.
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Critic reviews
What listeners say about Railroads and the American People
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gene Bowker
- 07-08-14
great history of railroad life in America
If you could sum up Railroads and the American People in three words, what would they be?
History, Railroads, Culture
What was one of the most memorable moments of Railroads and the American People?
I enjoyed the history of depots and the agents who lived there
Which character – as performed by Todd Barsness – was your favorite?
Not really in characters in this one
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
How railroads created America
Any additional comments?
Great history of railroads and life in America.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Honest Reviewer
- 07-15-22
Grand Overview
A wonderful revie
w for anyone with an interest in the subject of America's railway history.
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- tdcdrums
- 08-26-24
American railroad history
Excellent study of our American railroad history, and the associated history of railroad photography.
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- William C. Earle
- 03-02-24
Enjoyed the listen
Overall not too bad but I thought there would be more detail on some of the major companies, technologies and highlights of the railroad era. Some of the chapters dragged and weren’t interesting to me, but overall, I enjoyed the book.
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- alexyakkavoo
- 11-09-13
Fascinating Story, Poor Editing, Strange Narration
What would have made Railroads and the American People better?
Terrible Editing
While I am not a extreme railroad fan, I am very interested in its history especially in the United States, but the writing and editing was amateurish. The writer seemed to have a thesaurus at one side and a list of cliches on the other. He used a number of unnecessary words such as "opined." He uses "opined a modern day hobo" or "opined a writer" or "opined a youthful railroad fan." He uses "reported" 28 times. He uses "said one" five times which doesn't mean anything. "Said one engineer" or "said one resident" as if he took a survey and determined that only person had that thought or he was in a group and only one spoke up. Referring to WWI as "the Great War" five times added nothing to the book as well "lad" nine times or "residents" 66 times.
Narration
If this If it had been any other subject, I would not have gotten past the first few minutes of this book. The narrator seemed to think that he was reading for a commercial with way too much emphasis on the end of sentences or short passages. And, then when he pronounced "te-LEG-grapher" "te-LOG-grapher" repeatedly I was ready to scream.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Railroads and the American People?
The Subject
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Todd Barsness?
Just about anybody
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Railroads and the American People?
None, but I would have edited the book to get rid of the cliches and verboseness.
Any additional comments?
The space for the review of the book is hugely too long. I thought there was nothing below it.
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-09-17
interesting to a point
But really no need to give 25 examples when 3 are adequate. Tghten it up.
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- Chuck
- 08-21-24
Just a staccato presentation of information
No real flow to this book. Just presented, in a rather mundane manner, a collection of facts or tidbits.
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- GoGoSunny
- 01-09-22
Outline/Organization. Narrator. Editing
The sequencing of content was disorganized and unstructured. Was there a detailed outline?
I agree with another reviewer. Just about anyone else could have done a better job of narrating. I might have maintained interest even if for only 10minutes at a time if the narrator had varied the pacing and emphasized certain words. And then there’s the Pronunciation
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