Rating: 
Summary: Ambrose does it again
Review: What more can you say about Ambrose that hasen't been said already. Once again Ambrose provides a vivid and riveting account of the building of this big railroad. His omniscant and omnipresent mode of storytelling is beyond reproach. My boyfriend has just finished it and he liked it too. The only complaint I have is that it is really long.
Rating: 
Summary: Could have been so much better
Review: While the material in the book was interesting, it had some serious problems in presentation. While the project was no doubt a success, there is surprisingly little detail supporting this in the book. It needs a lot more maps, and with more detail, such as topography. It's tough to appreciate in one's head what it is like to cut a tunnel without knowing the steepness of the mountain. He repeats himself incredibly frequently, which wears on the reader after 100 or so pages. The story is no doubt historically significant, and having some prior knowledge of the subject, I was fascinated at this look at one of the biggest projects to combine free market forces with government funds. But to a reader new to the subject, the poor presentation is liable to leave too many important questions unanswered, and too many headaches rom the repetitions.
Rating: 
Summary: Historical Reference by glance
Review: How could (on page 292), the author state that Lee discovered McClellen's order of battle prior to Antietem. The opposite was true; wrapped in three cigars found by a union seargent. It was disregarded by Pinkerton and McClennan.If this obvious "brush over" of facts cast questions on other facts withing this book. I used to think the Ambrose was too careful for that.
Rating:
Summary: Ambrose out of his element
Review: Stephen Ambrose has a great talent in getting to the "crux" of matters relating to history - providing an overall view of the strategy behind goals while providing a realistic and gritty view of the actions of average people making the strategy into reality. I have read most of his books on WWII and "Undaunted Courage". In this (Railroad) book, he doesn't seem to feel the same affinity for the average people that he has shown in his previous works. It's as if he read the Cliff Notes and wrote a book based on the notes. No true feeling for the work and iniative of the nameless folk (read the actual workers - Irish and Chinamen) comes through. He does a fair job on describing the few men with the true vision, but overall the work lacks heart.
Rating: 
Summary: The Heroism of Ordinary People
Review: Throughout all that he has written, Ambrose locks in on what could be called "ordinary people" who, for example, went off to fight in World War Two. In this brilliantly written account, he again focuses on such people who -- often under the worst imaginable conditions -- achieved truly extraordinary results. It is probably impossible to measue with any degree of accuracy what the Transcontinental Railroad meant -- and continues to mean -- to the evolution of our nation. However, thanks to Ambrose, we have at least some sense of what it required of everyone involved. Perhaps the greatest compliment a general reader can pay to the author of a history book is that it reads like a novel. In this instance, there is the value-added-benefit of being helped to understand the complexities (especially the perils) of a human enterprise of epic proportion. Albeit a highly respected hitorian and deservedly so, Ambrose is also his reader's companion throughout all manner of human adventures.
Rating:
Summary: After hundreds of pages, they did finish it
Review: The author assembled innumerable sources and countless minutiae, helped by his whole family and probably many, many more. Then he repeats the mistake he made in previous books: He doesn't want to throw anything away, so he crams it into the book. But with too much material, and no selection, things get disorganized and repetitive. It is an interesting book, but not a good one. The maps are a disaster, as in his previous books. They are not detailed enough, and many important places are not shown. I am now waiting for the sequel, using up material he did not bring in this book - as this seems to be Mr. Ambrose's want.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing Like This
Review: The effort is readable and entertaining, but in trying to tell the stories of both the financing and the construction of the road Ambrose muddles the logic of his analysis. While the construction was a technological masterpiece, the financing thereof was the sort often described by NBC News as "The Fleecing of America." The dismissal of prior analysis as "post Depression Era political correctness" in academia, is not substantiated by the evidence Ambrose himself provides. Also, the insert that it was McClellan's orders that were lost and read by Lee is exactly backwards, and appears to be one of those errors that should have been caught in the editing process.
Rating: 
Summary: above avarage
Review: This is the best account of how the Union Pacific Rail Road came to be.It is the first time I have read about how Brigham Young and his people helped out. It is also the first time anyone mentioned the Oregon Shortline Rail Road through the Columbia Gorge as being the best route. I live near the U P mainline in Pendleton Oregon and I am a hopeless train watcher. I liked this book a bunch.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Race of the 19th Century
Review: I stumbled onto this book almost by accident while I was looking for something to read over Thanksgiving. Before reading Ambrose's new book on the transcontinental railroad I had had very little interest in railroad history or the Gilded Age. However, Ambrose's narrative sucked me into this gripping story of the men who fearlessly tamed the western frontier of North America. The story of the railroad, like most of the best stories in history, is that of a race. In this case, the Central Pacific (which built the western end of the line) was pitted against the Union Pacific (which built the eastern end of the line). The race is one for the highest stakes, with the victor receiving a mountainload of government money and -- even more important -- the bragging rights to having won. Along the way, Ambrose introduces us to the wonderfully colorful characters who built the railroad: the dreamer and UP chief engineer Grenville Dodge; the ambitious and driven "Big Four" of the CP; and the devious and cunning "Doc" Durant. Ambrose does an excellent job of describing the overwhelming obstacles that had to be beaten to build the railroad. Both companies bled money at a furious pace in the 1860s; the surveyors, graders, and track layers braved the elements and harsh terrain of the far West; and there was the ever-present threat of Indian attacks. Despite these trials, the men who built the Pacific Railroad succeeded in uniting the nation together after a Civil War that nearly sundered the nation in two and were instrumental in the ultimate settlement of the West. Ambrose does a fine job in detailing all of these elements, especially for those of you like me who are general readers in this subject. As the ultimate compliment I can give to Mr. Ambrose for this thrilling book, he has stimulated me to read more on railroad history and I have just picked up David Bain's book on the same subject.
Rating:
Summary: tragic
Review: A mind is a terrible thing to waste. As a young man, Ambrose gave us beautifully written books of intellectual substance. Now he gives us bestsellers, but they are shallow, facile, poorly researched work that panders to the public taste for simple stories simply told. He could have been a great historian and left a mark on his era.
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