<DIV><p>America was made by the railroads. The opening of the first American railroad line in the 1830s sparked a revolution in mode, speed, and convenience that united far-flung parts of the country and enabled America's rise to world power status. By the end of the nineteenth century, the U.S. was enmeshed in a latticework of railroad lines, smalltown stations, and magisterial termini. The expansion of trade, industry, and freedom of communication that the railroads engendered came to be an integral part of the American dream. But by the middle of the twentieth century, the automobile and the airplane became the dominant mode of long-distance travel and wrote the historical importance of the railroads out of the nation's consciousness.</p><p>In <i>The Great Railroad Revolution</i>, renowned railroad expert Christian Wolmar tells the extraordinary one-hundred-and-eighty-year story of the rise and fall of the greatest of all American endeavors.</p></DIV>