The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War and the Making of Modern America May 18, 2012

William G. Thomas, professor of history and the John and Catherine Angle Chair in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will discuss his new book, The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War and the Making of Modern America. Beginning with Frederick Douglass's escape from slavery in 1838 on the railroad, and ending with the driving of the golden spike to link the transcontinental railroad in 1869, his book charts a critical period of American expansion and national formation, one largely dominated by the dynamic growth of railroads and telegraphs.