The Great American Railroad War

Drabelle (contributing editor, Washington Post Book World; Mile-High Fever) examines the role of literature in battling the Central Pacific Railroad monopoly. He recounts the financing of the transcontinental railroad with U.S. government bonds and how the railroad's owners such as Leland Stanford and Collis Huntington enriched themselves in various quasi-legal ways. Though the railroad worked to make itself untouchable by buying influence, Drabelle chronicles how writers Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris challenged that position and fostered reforms. First, he describes the newspaper campaign led by Bierce to stop a funding bill in Congress that would have given overly favorable treatment to the railroad's government debt. Then he delves into the negative railroad imagery painted by Norris in his novel The Octopus. Throughout, Drabelle remains objective and works to correct misconceptions such as blaming the railroad for the infamous 1880 Mussel Slough gunfight.