Unfinished Business: The Railroad in American Life

"Sooner or later every age finds a symbol which best expresses the essence of its character to later generations," writes Maury Klein, who has spent nearly three decades tracing the evolution and impact of the American railroad industry. "The coming of the railroad swept all rival forms of land transportation from its path . . . Within half a century, the rail system became the lifeline of an industrial society, a network of steel tentacles pushing into every corner of the Republic." Unfinished Business combines Klein's most influential articles with new essays to tell the story of America's developing railroad industry and the men who dominated it.