Лучшие книги Christian Wolmar

The opening of the world's first railroad in Britain and America in 1830 marked the dawn of a new age. Within the course of a decade, tracks were being laid as far afield as Australia and Cuba, and by the outbreak of World War I, the United States alone boasted over a quarter of a million miles. With unrelenting determination, architectural innovation, and under gruesome labor conditions, a global railroad network was built that forever changed the way people lived. From Panama to Punjab, from Tasmania to Turin, Christian Wolmar shows how cultures were enriched, and destroyed, by one of the greatest global transport revolutions of our time,…

The authoritative and fascinating history of the rise and fall of the state-owned British Rail
British Rail wasn't how we're asked to remember it . . .
From ancient rolling stock to patchy service, stale sandwiches to the wrong kind of snow, British Rail - our last great state-owned organisation to be privatised - has received a terrible press.
But after its controversial 1948 creation, British Rail was actually an innovative powerhouse that over five decades transformed the UK, creating one of the fastest regular rail services in the world.
Award-winning journalist Christian Wolmar takes us from promise to punchline, exploring British Rail's birth into post-war austerity, the many battles and struggles to evolve what many considered to be a dinosaur, and how, at the height of its success, the service was misunderstood and unfairly maligned, ruthlessly broken up and privatised.

You think you know British Rail. But you don't know the whole story.
From its creation after the Second World War, through its fifty-year lifetime, British Rail was an innovative powerhouse that transformed our transport system. Uniting disparate lines into a highly competent organisation - heralding 'The Age of the Train' - and, for a time, providing one of the fastest regular rail services in the world.
Born into post-war austerity, traumatised, impoverished and exploited by a hostile press, the state-owned railway was dismissed as a dinosaur unable to evolve, and swept away by a government hellbent on selling it off.
Now, award-winning writer Christian Wolmar provides a new perspective on national loss in a time of privatisation.
British Rail is ripe for a new history.

Trains are used across the world to transport goods and passengers. They can ride rails underground, move at high-speeds and travel between countries and can be powered by coal, diesel or electricity.
Trains takes readers on a journey through history and across the world as they discover the wonder of the railway. You can see how train travel has developed through history - from simple mining wagons to high-speed machines and beyond.

В Лондоне расположено двенадцать крупных железнодорожных вокзалов, больше, чем в любом другом городе мира. Они варьируются от величественных и дворцовых, таких как Кингс-Кросс и Паддингтон, до скромных и менее известных, таких как Фенчерч-стрит и Кэннон-стрит. Эти памятники эпохи поездов являются центром транспортной системы Лондона, и их развитие, упадок и недавнее обновление во многом определили историю столицы.
В увлекательном и драматичном повествовании "Паровые соборы. Как были построены Великие вокзалы Лондона – и как они преобразили город" Кристиан Вольмар прослеживает развитие этих великолепных паровых соборов, дает уникальное представление об их истории, приводит множество занимательных анекдотов и отмечает недавнее превращение нескольких из этих станций в замечательное сочетание старого и нового.
Книга на английском языке.
London hosts twelve major railway stations, more than any other city in the world. They range from the grand and palatial, such as King's Cross and Paddington, to the modest and lesser known, such as Fenchurch Street and Cannon Street. These monuments to the age of the train are the hub of London's transport system and their development, decline and recent renewal have determined the history of the capital in many ways.
Built between 1836 and 1899 by competing private train companies seeking to outdo one another, the construction of these terminuses caused tremendous upheaval and had a widespread impact on their local surroundings. What were once called 'slums' were demolished, green spaces and cemeteries were concreted over, and vast marshalling yards, engine sheds and carriage depots sprung up in their place.
In a compelling and dramatic narrative, Christian Wolmar traces the development of these magnificent cathedrals of steam, provides unique insights into their history, with many entertaining anecdotes, and celebrates the recent transformation of several of these stations into wonderful blends of the old and the new.

Since the Victorian era, London’s Underground has played a vital role in the daily life of generations of Londoners. In The Subterranean Railway, Christian Wolmar celebrates the vision and determination of the nineteenth-century pioneers who made the world’s first, and still the largest, underground passenger railway: one of the most impressive engineering achievements in history. From the early days of steam to electrification, via the Underground’s contribution to twentieth-century industrial design and its role during two world wars, the story comes right up to the present with a new chapter on the sleek and futuristic Crossrail line. The Subterranean Railway reveals London’s hidden wonder in all its glory and shows how the railway beneath the streets helped create the city we know today.

India joined the railway age late: the first line was not completed until 1853 but, by 1929, 41,000 miles of track served the country. However, the creation of this vast network was not intended to modernize India for the sake of its people but rather was a means for the colonial power to govern the huge country under its control, serving its British economic and military interests.
Despite the dubious intentions behind the construction of the network, the Indian people quickly took to the railways, as the trains allowed them to travel easily for the first time. The Indian Railways network remains one of the largest in the world, serving over 25 million passengers each day.
In this expertly told history, Christian Wolmar reveals the full story of India’s railways, from its very beginnings to the present day, and examines the chequered role they have played in Indian history and the creation of today’s modern state.

Christian Wolmar expertly tells the story of the Trans-Siberian railway from its conception and construction under Tsar Alexander III, to the northern extension ordered by Brezhnev and its current success as a vital artery. He also explores the crucial role the line played in both the Russian Civil War -Trotsky famously used an armoured carriage as his command post – and the Second World War, during which the railway saved the country from certain defeat. Like the author’s previous railway histories, it focuses on the personalities, as well as the political and economic events, that lay behind one of the most extraordinary engineering triumphs of the nineteenth century.

The opening of the pioneering Liverpool and Manchester Railway in 1830 marked the beginning of the railways’ vital role in changing the face of Britain. Fire and Steam celebrates the vision and determination of the ambitious Victorian pioneers who developed this revolutionary transport system and the navvies who cut through the land to enable a country-wide network to emerge.
From the early days of steam to electrification, via the railways’ magnificent contribution in two world wars, the chequered history of British Rail, and the buoyant future of the train, Fire and Steam examines the social and economical importance of the railway and how it helped to form the Britain of today.