A Most Magnificent Machineby Craig Miner ’66

The railroad not only transformed America’s economic landscape, but it also profoundly changed its citizens. But while there have been many histories of railroads, few have examined the subject as a social and cultural phenomenon. Miner, who was a professor at Wichita State University, traces the growth of railroads from their origins in the 1820s to the onset of the Civil War. He died a month before the book’s publication.

ISBN-13: 978-0700617555. Published by University Press of Kansas, 2010.