Railroad Crossing: Californians and the Railroad, 1850-1910

In looking at the Southern Pacific railroad from the perspective of the various people who resisted or opposed it, Deverell tells an intriguing story. Rather than the triumphalist approach of so much railroad history (along with their mixture of both admiring and condemming the "robber barons"), Deverell lets us see and evaluate the changes the railroad brought to California-both physically and mentally. Along the way, he takes a fresh look at the Progressives' anti-railroad politics, and the confrontation at Mussel Slough-the violent incident around with Frank Norris wrote his masterful, sweeping "Novel of California," The Octopus. This is first-rate California history.