Hear that lonesome whistle blow: Railroads in the West

by Dee Brown

The heroes in this extraordinary epic are the Irish labourers and Chinese coolies; the villains, the avaricious bankers and the corrupt politicians. Before the undertaking was complete, more than 155 million acres of land had been given away to railway magnates, the Indian tribes had been massacred and the buffalo driven from the Great Plains, millions of settlers had been lured from Europe and a colossal industrial nation had been forged.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Trains, American, The United States Of America, Railways

309 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1977

About the author

AKA: Dee Alexander Brown

Dorris Alexander “Dee” Brown (1908–2002) was a celebrated author of both fiction and nonfiction, whose classic study Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is widely credited with exposing the systematic destruction of American Indian tribes to a world audience.

Brown was born in Louisiana and grew up in Arkansas. He worked as a reporter and a printer before enrolling at Arkansas State Teachers College, where he met his future wife, Sally Stroud. He later earned two degrees in library science, and worked as a librarian while beginning his career as a writer. He went on to research and write more than thirty books, often centered on frontier history or overlooked moments of the Civil War. Brown continued writing until his death in 2002.