Synopsis
From the author of Letters of Transit and, more recently, Whistle-Stopping America comes this account of rail journeys across Russia, China, Eastern Europe, Malaysia, pre-war Syria, and the United States.
Acclaimed travel writer and essayist Matthew Mills Stevenson writes with wit and historical appreciation about what he sees, hears, and reads on his trans-continental train journeys along some of the most celebrated routes in the world but also on branch lines in Kosovo, Greece, Poland, and Transnistria ("Stalin's showroom").
In China, Stevenson goes in search of Port Arthur and the 1904 Russo-Japanese War ("On those tracks are the origins of many wars"). From Prague to Berlin, he writes about the origins of World War II ("The Sudetenland reminded me of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts"). On Amtrak across the United States, he despairs over the collapse of American passenger rail service ("Why hasn t the route map changed in forty years?").
Neither a travel book nor a conventional railroad history, Reading the Rails captures not just the romance of trains but also the politics, history, books, and tragedies that went along these great lines.The writing blends Stevenson's sense of irony and keen eye with his essayist s touch for events and historical passages.
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About the Author
Matthew Mills Stevenson was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island, attending Buckley Country Day School and Friends Academy. His university degrees are from Bucknell and Columbia universities, and he spent a year abroad with the Institute of European Studies. He moved to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1991. He is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and host of the syndicated radio program, The Travel Hour. He has worked professionally in finance, and his essays have been published in many magazines, including Harper's, American Scholar, Vanity Fair, The Progressive, and Counterpunch. He is the host of a weekly television program, The Investment Advisor. His books include Letters of Transit, Mentioned in Dispatches, An April Across America, Remembering the Twentieth Century Limited, and Whistle-Stopping America.
From the Back Cover
About Reading the Rails and Matthew Stevenson:
"...just the best companion on the best mode of travel imaginable."
--Simon Winchester, best-selling author
"To go anywhere on a printed page with Matthew Stevenson is to travel in splendid
company. The liveliness of his prose sustains the richness of his observation."
--Lewis H. Lapham, founder and editor, Lapham's Quarterly
"Matthew Stevenson goes to Syria, Transnistria and Pittsburg so that you don't
have to -- and he goes by train, not tank. One of our best travel writers, Stevenson
is just the ticket -- witty, discerning and alarming as he rides with Ozymandias on
the iron road to 'antique lands' that refuse to be forgotten."
--Jim Hougan, author, Secret Agenda, novelist of the "John Case" series
"Matthew Stevenson's new, enchanting book gives us the gift of long-distance
trains--across Russia, China, Kosovo, Poland, and many other places. The
anticipation of what's ahead spills gracefully across the pages in Matthew's care, and
his writing is an easy embrace of the yearning to hear and feel the rails beneath you."
--Jack Owens, author, Don't Shoot! We're Republicans!
and Watchman: JFK's Last Ride
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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