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The modern world began with the arrival
of the railway. The change was both sudden and universal:
between 1825 when the first passenger service came into
operation in England and the outbreak of World War I, railways
redefined, transformed, and expanded the limits of the industrialized
world. With railways came the development of modern capitalism,
new political and economic concepts of national unity and
international connections. Railways opened up new regions
from the American West to Siberia, from Lake Victoria to
the pampas of Argentina, changing not only the way the world
looked but the way it saw itself.
The World The Railways Made recounts
how railways intensified almost every experience: robbery,
romance, sex, speed, warfare. Railways spawned the desire
and measurement of the new. For some the "Iron Road'
represented the horrors of industrial development; for others
it symbolized the way toward a brighter future; for nearly
all it meant deep and lasting change. From the different
breed of capitalists who provided unprecedented amounts
of capital, to the floating communities of Irish and the
Chinese who built them; from the paintings of Turner to
the enriched and broadened diet that railways brought to
all -- Nicholas Faith's fascinating social; history explores
this mechanical revolution which ushered in a new world.
Nicholas Faith writes for The Independent
on Sunday (London) and many other newspapers and magazines.
He has published five previous books, including The
Winemasters and Sold (on Southeby's).
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