Train: Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World - From the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In his wide-ranging and entertaining new book, Tom Zoellner travels the globe to tell the story of the sociological and economic impact of the railway technology that transformed the world and could very well change it again. From the frigid trans-Siberian railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the Japanese-style bullet trains and the glorious landscape of the Chicago to LA-Southwest Chief route, Zoellner offers a stirring story of this most indispensable form of travel. A masterful narrative history, Train also explores the sleek elegance of railroads.

Reviews

Praise forTrain:

Tom Zoellner's writing is never less than engaging; inTrainhe has made himself a veritable Walt Whitman of rail travel. It's a great read.Richard Rhodes,Pulitzer prize-winning author ofThe Making of the Atomic BombTrainis such a pleasure to read, elegant, deeply informed and smart, full of knowledge-bearing sentences, and prose so companionable and rich in insight that it is as if its author were at your shoulder, taking you along with him. What an enjoyable journey. I will never hear the far off moan of a train in the night without thinking of it, and I know of no higher praise one can give a book. Tom Zoellner is quickly making himself a reputation as a man of wide and eclectic interests, and oh, my! Can he write!Richard Bausch, author ofPeace

Spirited and bighearted...Zoellner enlightens us about an industry thats hiding in plain sight.San Francisco Chronicle

Highly entertaining, lucid and perceptive....Its a train lovers celebration of the great epic story of rail travel itself.Los Angeles Times

This is one of those all-too-rare books that have so much to themThe Washington Times

[Train] is a gracefully written, densely detailed meditation of trainspast, present and future....[P]art travelogue, as he rides seven train that shaped the modern world; part personal memoir, as he describes the people he met along the way; and part history of trains, from their origin to their impact on societies around the world and their vital role in the fast-forward 21st century.LA Weekly

"An absorbing and lively reflection on an enduring marvel of modern industrial technology."Booklist

Train makes for fascinating reading.The authors easy, breezy style will keep readers chugging along.The St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Zoellner illustrates how the modern era was ushered in and strapped in place by railroads, and how trainsthe reality and the ideacontinue to shape the world as we understand it.Train is by turns lyrical, powerful, romantic, transporting, and rich.Phoenix New Times

"[Train], rich with history and local color, is a mesmerizing read for anyone interested in the impact of trains on the environment, politics, economics, and daily life around the world today."Library Journal

Enchanting and informative.New York Post

[Train] is an absorbing round-the-world journey.BookPage

Author Bio

Tom Zoellner is the author of five nonfiction books, including Uranium, winner of the 2011 American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award, and coauthor of An Ordinary Man. He teaches at Chapman University in southern California and lives in Los Angeles.