Railroaded

White (American history, Stanford Univ.; The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650–1815) takes on the task of explaining the achievements and failings of the few transcontinental railroads that spanned North America in the latter half of the 19th century. He concentrates on their financial, political, and social impact. In clear and often critical terms, he describes the corruption that made the railroad's founders wealthy but hamstrung the companies, the bribes to politicians, the antipathy between management and workers exacerbated by imported Chinese laborers, the antimonopoly movements against railroad practices, and the end of the buffalo and the way of life of Native Americans. By the 19th century's end, White explains, the transcontinentals—built poorly, heavily in debt, and fiercely competitive for sparse business—collapsed financially and brought about the nation's worst financial crisis yet with the Panic of 1893. White does credit the transcontinentals with tying together North America from east to west.