Blood, Iron and Gold: How the Railways Transformed the World

The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of a transport revolution; by the end of the century railways spanned the United States, the vast expanses of Siberia and the length and breadth of Africa and India. This epic history charts their unstoppable progress, examines the far-reaching effects on war and peace, and recaptures both the vision of the pioneers who developed the early railways and the backbreaking labour of the navvies who built them.