I thought the American Heritage book by Jensen was an excellent broad and general history, excellent for the beginner or novice. From this book one can seek and direct oneself to specific areas of interest. By that I mean specific railorads, specific geography, specific technology, specific business or other aspect of railroads histories. Also I suggest books by those who know railroads and histories and not a hack who wants to rip railroads, managements and politics apart nor those authors/editors/compilers or photographers or publishers who put together books just to make a quick buck. Again, each person's tastes and interests are going to be the guage by which a list would be made.
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The only histories of specific railways I think are worthy of a top 10 list are:
Books on my bottom 10 list are anything by Albro Martin.
RWM
If the list could be narrowed to that size...what would they be? After browsing several threads over the last week my interest has been piqued. If I were to be only able to get 10 books on RR history (general-why some lines thrived/died, mergers, etc) what would my best bets be?
Dan
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