The Iron Way

How railroads both united and divided us: “Integrates military and social history…a must-read for students, scholars and enthusiasts alike.”— Civil War Monitor Beginning with Frederick Douglass’s escape from slavery in 1838 on the railroad, and ending with the driving of the golden spike to link the transcontinental railroad in 1869, this book charts a critical period of American expansion and national formation, one largely dominated by the dynamic growth of railroads and telegraphs. William G.