IRON EMPIRESRobber Barons, Railroads, and the Making of Modern AmericaBy Michael Hiltzik“Type of the modern — emblem of motion and power — pulse of the continent,” Walt Whitman wrote of a steam locomotive in 1876. The railroad companies, the first large national corporations, produced and destroyed wealth on an unprecedented scale. The men who financed and controlled them became household names, hailed and reviled for their power and riches. As competing entrepreneurs built parallel lines with capacity exceeding demand, hyped-up stock prices and falling freight rates repeatedly drove railroad companies into financial crisis. An able narrator, with an eye for telling detail, Hiltzik makes what otherwise might seem arcane financial details engrossing.

Source: New York Times August 11, 2020 16:52 UTC