Distant Dreams (Ribbons of Steel)
YA.  Andrew Jackson's presidency and accompanying intrigue form the historical setting for this novel. An almost consuming curiosity about things mechanical, and especially the new railroad, creates frequent conflicts for 15-year-old Carolina Adams. The inquisitive teen faces daily challenges from her family and peers in an age when it is feared that too much education may "cause insanity in women." Fascination for the sight, sound, and even the smell of locomotives isolates the young woman from her convention-bound mother and brings ridicule from her older, socially conscious sister. Only her father and her sister's fiance share her enthusiasm for this new iron monster and seem sympathetic to her appetite for information. Solvency of the national bank, westward expansion, and the wisdom of investing in railroad construction are at issue in this first volume of the series. Subplots include tension in gender roles, parental power, and sibling rivalry?all topics as viable in the 1990s as in the 1830s.?Janice DeLong, Liberty University, Lynchburg, VACopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.