This informational text thoroughly details the historical context and events surrounding the building of the nation’s great railroad. Photographs, maps, and sidebars help tell this amazing story. Epilogue, Timeline, Bibliography. (

It is a shame that I read this after Martin Sandler's "The Whydah." Maybe if I had not read that, this would not feel quite so disappointing.
I do not understand what happened here. The history, characters, and culture that led to the creation of the transcontinental railroad is no less crazy, intriguing, or historically important than the story of the shipwrecked Whydah (one could argue that it is more important). Martin Sandler is still an incredibly gifted writer and researcher. He pulls in plenty of well researched details and uses his asides to expand on important characters, concepts, and realities of the time period. His photo, map, and chart choices also help you conceptualize what happens just like in "The Whydah." So, if I like this book's author and I have all of this nice stuff to say about it, why does it feel so underwhelming?
Structurally, the book is the same as "The Whydah." It is a specialized, narrative-driven, thematically structured discussion of the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad and the people that made it possible. In addition to progressing forward in time, the book shifts perspectives to the various engineers, railroad executives, and workers who were instrumental in making this project a success.
Firstly, the book is awkward to read. The book uses longer pages along its horizontal axis to make it a different shape from your standard reading fare. In my experience, if you are going to do this, then you have to have a hardcover for the book. The soft paperback binding combined with the wider than normal pages meant that the book kept slipping and sliding as I was trying to read it.
In terms of the book's interior, it also feels a lot like "The Whydah." There are asides to explain the various characters in the story and the processes by which various things were done in the 19th century (like taking photos or clearing debris from railroad track paths). There are photos, charts, and various other things that help engross you in the time. The various pages even have railroad tracks along the bottom. The book's end notes, bibliography, and acknowledgments sections are once again very informative and useful for those who want further information.
Somehow, despite all of this seeming very similar to "The Whydah," the results are far more underwhelming here. The book lacks the signature style and presentation that one of Sandler's collaborators brought to "The Whydah." The characters are interesting and engaging, but there are too many of them and constantly shifting the book's focus (even though this is a third person omniscient perspective) made it difficult to care much about what was happening. The final chapter of the book is devoted to explaining what happened to all of the people involved afterwards and even then I occasionally had trouble keeping them straight.
Maybe it was my own lack of engagement with the material, but this book was not nearly as engaging to me as Sandler's other book: "The Whydah." I still do want to read some of his other books though. ( )

I read Iron Rails, Iron Men, and the Race to Link the Nation: The Story of the Transcontinental Railroad, by Martin W. Sandler, as part of an early reviewer’s program. My edition is a large format (10 ½”w x 9”h) softcover Advance Reading Copy with low resolution period photographs that are nevertheless breathtaking. The hardcover official edition (released September 2015) makes it a tempting buy if only for the higher-res versions of these photos. This volume is directed towards a young adult audience, grades seven and up, yet the engaging, generally well-written narrative is hardly dumbed down.
There have been many books chronicling the dramatic story of the building of the transcontinental railroad in the 1860’s, during the Civil War and its immediate aftermath. Most Americans have some familiarity with the race from the West Coast by the Central Pacific with its predominantly immigrant Chinese labor force, in fierce competition with the race from the Midwest by the Union Pacific and its predominantly immigrant Irish labor force, that culminates in the driving of the “golden spike” that represented a connection between the Atlantic and Pacific and an America – now reunited after a long bloody rebellion – that had in some respects conquered the continent. Most treatments focus upon the “heroic” aspects of the tale, and there certainly is much heroism and grit in evidence, but of course there are dark sides too that are often overlooked, especially in history books designed for a younger audience.
To Sandler’s credit, without sacrificing the heroic drama of the narrative, the author manages to apply a completely modern historical approach that takes into account the negative consequences of the railroad for Native Americans, the unjust and ungrateful treatment of Chinese workers, the criminality of top executives in both competing companies, and the horrific violence that was endemic to the colorful “Hell on Wheels” towns that materialized suddenly as track-layers came along and then evaporated once they had moved on. Sandler’s style – much like the quality Time-Life series volumes found in many homes when I was growing up – is such that it is often difficult to detect that he is writing for younger readers rather than adults, and the difference is extremely subtle. For instance, conspicuous in its absence in passages describing the gamblers and murderers that populated the “Hell on Wheels” towns is any reference to the prostitutes who were fellow travelers. Naturally, in America it is always forbidden to discuss sex with children, but murder remains fully acceptable!
Still, it is the wealth of superlative outsize black-and-white photographs of the era that dominate this book and enhance the narrative. Sandler tells us that photographers accompanied the engineers and made great efforts to chronicle what they knew was an initiative of epic proportions, and an impressive sample of such photos are included: of the rails, of the trains, of the people, of the spectacular scenery, of the immense obstacles. The text is also enhanced by cut-outs that profile prominent individuals, groups and events of significance, as well as maps, a timeline and an epilogue that follows key figures in the years beyond.
One significant blemish to an otherwise creditworthy effort is a historical error of some consequence that occurs early in the work as the author narrates the backstory to the birth of the transcontinental railroad. “Despite the many different compromises that had been attempted,” Sandler relates, “the northern and southern regions of the nation had grown further apart over the fact that the slaveholders in the South refused to give up their slaves.” [p11] Now that sentence is not simply an over-simplification, it is absolutely wrong. The south may indeed have felt that its “peculiar institution” was threatened, but notwithstanding the rhetoric of the tiny abolitionist contingent in the north there was never any federal attempt to compel “slaveholders in the South … to give up their slaves.” Rather, the southern states that seceded to form the Confederacy did so because of their desire to expand slavery into the vast western territories, something that was resisted by “free-soilers” such as Lincoln’s Republican Party. This may seem like a quibble to some, but it decidedly is not. Such an error is not tolerable to a historian and makes me want to fact-check the rest of the narrative.
That error aside, which I can only hope will be corrected in future editions, I very much enjoyed reading this book and especially admiring the accompanying photographs. As such, I would recommend Iron Rails, Iron Men, and the Race to Link the Nation to readers young and old.

My review of: "Iron Rails, Iron Men, and the Race to Link the Nation" is live on my book blog http://wp.me/p5Hb6f-4T ( )

Prolific author for school aged audiences, Martin W. Sandler has written a concise yet engaging overview of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad between 1863 and 1869, when two bands of steel breached the transportation gap between the east and west of the United States.

The Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads, using the brawn of a vast army of immigrant Chinese and Irish labourers as well as demobilized Civil War veterans and Mormon settlers, overcame immense physical obstacles and environmental conditions through sheer force of will and immense feats of engineering to link the young nation from coast to coast.

The author profiles the visionaries and common working people who accomplished this remarkable achievement in national building. Sandler also exposes the darker sides of this endeavor, the human toll, the crime and violence plagued “Hell on Wheels” settlements which arose and then disappeared along the length of the newly laid rail line, as well as the final intrusion by “civilization” into the homelands of Native Americans.

Thematic sidebars, biographical profiles, maps and numerous historic images are supplemented with timelines, source notes, a bibliography and photo credits to make this volume an informative and inspiring read for students of history, regardless of their age. ( )

IRON RAILS, IRON MEN AND THE RACE TO LINK THE NATION by Martin W. Sandler tells the story of the transcontinental railroad.

Aimed children 10-14, the easy-to-read narrative combined with compelling historical photographs brings this amazing story to life. By weaving in quotes by individuals who observed and participated in construction of the railroad, Sandler highlights the determination and personal sacrifice necessary to create this marvel of engineering.

Historical photos, posters, maps, timeline, source notes, and a bibliography add to the appeal of this well-written work of nonfiction for youth. Of particular note is the epilogue that shares what happened to each of the individuals featured in the narrative.

Librarians will particularly enjoy the extensive use of primary source documents. Create a display that includes this book along with other books about trains and railroads from the past to the present.

Published by Candlewick Press on September 8, 2015. ( )