Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869 is a popular narrative history by Stephen E. Ambrose, published in 2000. The book chronicles the monumental effort to build the first transcontinental railroad across the United States, linking Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California. Ambrose focuses on the workers, engineers, financiers, and politicians—especially Abraham Lincoln—who made this feat possible amid political corruption, harsh landscapes, labor shortages, and Indigenous resistance. Though widely read and filled with maps and historical photographs, the book has been criticized for factual inaccuracies and poor scholarship. Nonetheless, it offers an accessible and enthusiastic account of a defining American achievement.
0