The economics of hardrock mining evolved dramatically during the first decades of the twentieth century as demand for metals surged while mineral deposit grades decreased. The era contains many examples of how the adoption of new technology offset changes in the quality of available mineral resources and the growing number of restrictions placed by society on how the resources could be extracted. The mining industry put the predictions of increasing resource scarcity to rest by finding way...

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Revenant—the basis for the award-winning film starring Leonardo DiCaprio—tells the remarkable story of the worst hard-rock mining disaster in American history.A half-hour before midnight on June 8, 1917, a fire broke out in the North Butte Mining Company's Granite Mountain shaft. Sparked more than two thousand feet below ground, the fire spewed flames, smoke, and poisonous gas through a labyrint...

The seventy-fifth anniversary edition of Gunther's classic portrait of AmericaJohn Gunther's Inside series were among the most popular books of reportage of the 1930s and 1940s. For Inside U.S.A., his magnum opus, Gunther set out from California and visited every state in the country, offering frank, lucid, and humorous observations along the way in what legendary publisher Robert Gottlieb, writing in the New York Times, calls Gunther's "...

Since 1976, newcomers and natives alike have learned about the rich history of the magnificent place they call home from Colorado: A History of the Centennial State. In the fifth edition, coauthors Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and Thomas J. Noel incorporate recent events, scholarship, and insights about the state in an accessible volume that general readers and students will enjoy.The fifth edition tells of conflicts, shifting alliances, and changing ways of life as Hi...

From the first, U.S. railroads have carried coal from mines to docks, steel mills, and power plants across the country. In this authoritative book spanning the whole of that history, from the mid-nineteenth century to present, noted rail author Brian Solomon explores the railroads and hardware that have transported the fossil fuels that made America work. Brilliant period and contemporary photographs convey the drama of the enterprise: the very long—and very heavy—trains powering up mounta...

The Union Pacific is the largest and the most powerful railroad in the country. The railroad has been in service since 1862, some 151 years. The Union Pacific is older than any other American Class I railroad today with the Kansas City Southern coming in at second at 116 years. In that time the railroad has become not only one of the most highly respected institutions in the nation but also has seen nearly every major railroading event in our country's history, and accordingly has a very l...

An enlightening overview of America's misadventures in economic investment from the Revolutionary era to the Obama administration.From the days of George Washington through World War II to today, government subsidies have failed the American people time and again. Draining the Treasury of cash, this doomed attempt to "pick winners" only serves to impede economic growth—and hurt the very companies receiving aid. But why does federal aid seem to have a reverse Midas t...

In this volume, Michael P. Malone provides a succinct interpretive biography of James J. Hill, the "Empire Builder"-so called for his work in developing the region of the United States between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest.Malone explores Hill’s complex life and personality, his activities and interests, and recreates both the story of the railroad race to the Pacific and the complex interactions involved in the development of the region."Michael Malone has writ...

"Some of the most accomplished scholars of railroad history…tell the story of these enterprises which totally re-shaped the western landscape."— The Michigan RailfanAfter Promontory profiles the history and heritage behind the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States. Starting with the original Union Pacific—Central Pacific lines that met at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869, the book expands the narrative by considerin...

The seventy-fifth anniversary edition of Gunther’s classic portrait of AmericaJohn Gunther’s Inside series were among the most popular books of reportage of the 1930s and 1940s. For Inside U.S.A., his magnum opus, Gunther set out from California and visited every state in the country, offering frank, lucid, and humorous observations along the way in what legendary publisher Robert Gottlieb, writing in the New York Times, calls Gunther’s “...

"Grant has once again hit a home run . . . a detailed but readable history of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, a major Midwestern railroad." —Carlos A. Schwantes, St. Louis Mercantile Library Professor EmeritusThe Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad's history is one of big booms and bigger busts. When it became the first railroad to reach and then cross the Mississippi River in 1856, it emerged as a leading American railroad company. But after aggressive ex...

The Great Basin, a stark and beautiful desert filled with sagebrush deserts and mountain ranges, is the epicenter for public lands conflicts. Arising out of the multiple, often incompatible uses created throughout the twentieth century, these struggles reveal the tension inherent within the multiple use concept, a management philosophy that promises equitable access to the region’s resources and economic gain to those who live there.Multiple use was originally conceived as a way to...