I was surprised how I got bogged down in this book. I had read "Undaunted Courage" and "Citizen Soldiers" and enjoyed them well enough, but this one was just a long dull slog. Well researched, I suppose, but poorly written. The descriptions of the Chinese workers tunneling through the Sierra Nevadas were interesting, but the rest... well, the author really seems to have phoned this one in. And the repetition! An example: "Mail that once cost dollars per ounce and took forever now cost pennies and got from Chicago to California in a few days." Then, just TWO PARAGRAPHS later: "Mail and popular magazines and books that used to cost dollars per ounce and had taken forever to get from the East to the West Coast, now cost pennies and got there in a few days." Did anyone proof-read this book? It's so repetitive! It just keeps repeating itself. It says the same thing over and over. It's... repetitive!

Two words: Skip it.