Customer Reviews

Historical Atlas Of North American Railroads

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Now, I am not an expert at railroads or anything, but the obvious errors in this book are disturbing. If I can find so many so easily on stuff I know about, goodness, how many are there are things I DONT know about? Now, I studied geography as an udergraduate, and for my masters degree. I studied at Brigham Young University under Dr. Alan Grey - an expert on US historical geography, specifically on rail history (his dissertation was on the analysis of the route the Union Pacific took on the transcontinental route). So I did learn a thing or two both about railroads and maps. But, again, I am not an expert.

What is distributing about this THIRD edition are the number of errors the maps/charts have. Allow me to list a half dozen, and you can decide for yourself...

1) Early on, on page 11, there is a map describing the colonial frontiers. the authors switched the dark green and light green color indicating that Spain 'controlled' much of Oklahoma, but only had 'influence' down in Mexico proper (for 1700-1760). Clearly these were switched.

2) On page 17, it discusses the National Road, and how by 1839 it had extended 620 miles and linked Baltimore, Maryland with Vandalia, Missouri. Now, perhaps there is such a place, but I think they meant Ohio, as the very next sentence states that 'it had been intended to all the way through to the Missouri and Mississippi but funds ran out.'

3) On page 19, there are color runs off the state of Maine and the swamp area of southern Florida has now moved north to the Jacksonville area!

4) On page 45, the map that shows the railroads of the 1830's indicate the lines on the map would be dashed color and white. They are solid color. Again, an error that a third-edition should have picked up.

5) Jumping ahead, as my interest was to the Civil War, we find on the map on page 107 that Buell's campaign south is actually Confederate red - indicating it was a rebel army that marched from Cincinnati south into Kentucky, NOT a union one. (being a Virginian, that would have been nice...as we could have turned that one around!!!)

6) Jumping further ahead (as by this time I was pretty disgusted with the book), I note on page 284 the map covering civil aviation has the 'flights started to Havana, Haiti and Venezuela in 1839)' - I think they meant in 1939.

Why am I harping on this? Because, the quality of the editing on the maps is so poor, and the text I read riddled with errors that I cant believe anything the book is telling me. If I can pick up obvious errors on the portion of the book I know something about, how on earth would I trust it for something I DON'T know anything about? In the end, avoid this book. Perhaps someone will edit it before they release a fourth edition...because they sure didn't for the third one!

First, a word of warning ... This is not really an atlas. It's really just a history of American railroading, with lots of maps throw in.

Like the other reviewers, I was struck by the number of errors. In fact, I found this one of the sloppiest books I've ever read. My particular favorite was the authors' putting Edmonton in Alabama. There are plenty more, though - typos and errors, in maps and in the text. I'm going to be a bit wary of any more books I buy from this publisher (Chartwell).

There were other problems too, with some passages that were too technical, some passages (i.e., US history) that were too elementary, an oddly British twist to things, and some very uninspired writing at points (e.g., some of the early chapters seem to be mostly lists of when different railroads started; some of the later were merely lists of locomotives introduced). Finally, the photos are atrocious - lifted off the Internet, blown up, with plenty of pixels showing.

Nonetheless, I did learn quite a bit. I do have to point out, though, that I am very much an amateur when it comes to railroads. There are probably better books out there, but this book wasn't a total disaster for me.

I, also, am not an expert on railroads ... but I can read. I was excited to receive this book as it looked like exactly what I was wanting. Nice large book with plenty of illustrations, pictures and easily readable captions and text. I sat down and began quickly reading the captions and looking at the pictures and maps. I only made it 100 pages (out of 400) before I stopped because of the four errors I had found. These were blatant proofreading errors not obscure fact errors. I was going to read the book to gain more information on what, to me, is an interesting subject. But if the author/editor/publisher can't even get basic information correct, then how much of the "facts" are incorrect. By the way, none of the four errors I found in the first 100 pages were the errors that the "carthagophile" had found. My advice is wait for the next edition and then borrow it from the library.