Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930
by Richard J. Orsi
Category: History

"An extraordinary book by a master historian! Orsi demonstrates that the Southern Pacific was not simply a predatory corporation obsessed with maximizing its profits and political power; it had a strong sense of the public good and a devotion to building stable, prosperous communities. This superb book should be required reading for all historians of the West, business, and the environment."—Donald J. Pisani, author of Water and American Government “This deep and extensive examination of the Southern Pacific's development activities in California will encourage readers to look beyond the overblown rhetoric of the railroad's many political enemies and see afresh its many positive economic accomplishments as it worked to build the Twentieth-Century West. Orsi’s presentation is as luminous as it is impressive”—Carlos Schwantes, author of Going Places: Transportation Redefines the Twentieth Century West “This brilliantly researched and beautifully written study of one of America's greatest railroads offers wonderful insights into both transportation and Western history. Orsi places the early history of the Southern Pacific Railroad in proper focus by skillfully untangling the long-standing Octopus myth. This work deserves to be called a landmark in the field.”—H. Roger Grant, author of Follow the Flag: A History of the Wabash Railroad Company "Sunset Limited illuminates not only the workings and ambitions of the Southern Pacific railroad but teaches us a great deal about the late nineteenth and early twentieth century American West as well. This is a wonderful scholarly study: remarkably thorough, ambitious, and gracefully rendered."—William Deverell, author of Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910