Blood, Iron and Gold

Following his histories of the London Underground and Britain’s railways, Christian Wolmar looks at the way the railways changed the world. The railways were the key invention that turnedthe technology developed by the industrial revolution into an instrument of economic growth that spread wealth, unified countries and opened up continents. The opening of the world’s first major railway, the Liverpool & Manchester in 1830 was attended by potential imitators from across the globe. They saw that not only had the technology become sufficiently developed to be widely exploited, but also, as a result of the crowds that immediately started using the line, realised that this new invention could be commercially viable. Whereas the precursors of railways had been limited to transporting coal and other minerals, now passenger railways started emerging around the world. In France, a line between Paris and St Germain opened in 1837 while in Germany, the first railway was named after the King of Bavaria, the Ludswigbahn and ran from Nurnberg to Furth. British engineering, and later French and German, were to have a key role in spreading the railways, but it was in the United States where the railways spread fastest, from under 50kms in 1831 to 50,000kms in 1860. This book will trace the spread of railways around the world and outline the histories of the key railways such as the major European railways, the transcontinental railways in North America, the Transsiberian and the high speed line in Japan. While it will focus on the amazing projects, such as the railways in the high Andes and the Alps that were achieved against the odds, it will also look at failed dreams such as the Cape to Cairo railway. It will cover, too, the world’s most unusual railways such as the line on the Falklands or the recently completed route to Tibet.

Book Author

Christian-wolmar Christian Wolmar is a writer and broadcaster specialising in transport. He has spent nearly all of his working life as a journalist, and lately was at The Independent where he worked from 1989 to 1997, as transport correspondent and UK Political Correspondent. After graduating from Warwick university in 1971, Christian started his career at Marketing magazine and then the Hampstead and Highgate Express where he was a sports reporter. He later moved to the New Statesman and the London Daily News. He is currently a freelance, working regularly for a variety of publications including the Even...
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Book Reviews

  • Evening Standard
    "“this compelling history.”"
  • Literary Review
    "  Wolmar tells these stories well and brings out the drama of the situations...Among the more interesting sections are the discussions of the importance of railways in warfare...The book as a whole is very readable, and one can only admire anyone who undertakes such a huge task."
  • Gavin Stamp, Country Life
    "    ...a book both for the historian and the traveller, as it explains the political, social and economic background to many of the great railway journeys of the world, such as the Trans-Siberian. And it fills a gap for, although there are many individual studies of railways in different countries, there is none that examines the railway as a worldwide phenomenon...this rich, rewarding book...."
  • Telegraph
    "  Christian Wolmar has written the first general history of the world’s railways for more than 40 years, and, like those schoolboy books of old, it is a ripping read... full of wondrous curiosities... this authoritative and highly readable book will remain the definitive history for years to come."
  • Tristram Hunt Observer Books of the Year
    "For sheer historical enjoyment there was Christian Wolmar's Blood, Iron and Gold: How the Railways Transformed the World (Atlantic Books), which chronicles the railway's global growth with characteristic brio."
  • Sunday Times
    "…this epic account of the astonishing spread of the railways….Wolmar makes his case for the transformative effect of rail well, but the joy of his book is in the boyish, trainspotterish glee with which he charts the advance of rail networks….it covers an astonishing amount of territory; and it does so with that winning combination of conviction and brio.  "
  • Publishers Weekly
    "  This spirited, dramatic history of “the most important invention of the second millennium” celebrates railroads as the central innovation of the industrial revolution, releasing economic and social energies on a stupendous scale…. Wolmar explores this fertile subject with a blend of lucid exposition and engaging historical narrative. The result is a fascinating study not just of a transportation system, but of the Promethean spirit of the modern age."