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This book complements Don HOFSOMMER'S three recent landmark titles covering the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (THE TOOTIN' LOUIE), the Iowa Central (THE HOOK & EYE), and Iowa's railroads in the aggregate (STEEL TRAILS OF THE HAWKEYELAND). Its release caps an extraordinary twelve months of publications from this prolific researcher and author. This latest title comes as something of a bonus, benefitting not only from the author's foundational work on the trials and tribulations of the M&St.L, but also from his extensive research, writing and photography of the West and its railroads.
This book admirably meets its titled purpose. Hofsommer disclaims the work as either a history of Minneapolis or a record of all its railroads. "Rather it is a study, on the one hand, of the relationship between Minneapolis and its railroads, and, on the other, of the symbiosis that developed between the city and its railroads with a huge hinterland stretching from the Canadian border to northern Iowa and west as far as central Montana - all of it reflecting the steamcar civilization, the age of railways." This is carried out through sixteen profusely illustrated and thematically titled chapters that chronologically cover periods of unequal lengths. The central questions of who, where, why and when people of means, motives and talents brought railroads to Minnesota and particularly to the limits of navigation at St. Anthony Falls are interestingly and efficiently discussed. The question of how, in the operational and technical sense, railroads advanced geographically and through invention receives relatively little attention. However, crucial relationships among tools (such as the telegraph), natural resources (specifically water power, timber, and the fruits of agriculture), and organizational and economic developments undergird the exposition. The leading personalities, such as the Washburn brothers, James J. Hill, Jay Cooke, Henry Villard, Ransom Cable, Edwin Hawley, and many others, and the fortunes of their associated companies are woven into the story of successes, failures, and portents of both. The author's talent for conveying the essential issues and outcomes with eloquent characterizations is as robust as ever. (It is refreshing to see the word "balderdash" in a history book in this post-modern age.) As one who has taught college courses on the roles of railroads in American history, I particularly appreciated the author's placing the entire work in the national economic and political context. The reader is reminded of the significant and familiar issues, such as expansion in advance of demand, anti-competitive practices, regulation, panics, crop failures, Populism, Progressivism, the McAdoo period, Esch-Cummins Act, consolidation, receivership, and competition from other modes.
The railroad companies that made Minnesota and the Twin Cities their territory are described with sufficient depth for the reader who has some background to see how contemporary properties and practices could have resulted. Photographs and maps are integral to these descriptions, and effectively convey the purposes for which railroads exist. The milling district is particularly well represented. Photo captions generally extend the text, but appear in a delicate font that some of us older readers may find challenging. The author makes good and frequent use of quantitative measures and comparisons, especially through the very first fifteen chapters. Tables are infrequent, but helpful. For example, the summary of Minneapolis passenger service in 1916 on pp. 224-25 gives a good picture at the approximate peak of the route structure. Curiously, the later summary on pp. 232-33 omits the CB&Q from the Chicago players. The revolutionary advances in daytime passenger service begun in 1935 by the Milwaukee Road's "Hiawathas" and Burlington's "Zephyrs" are highlighted. However, the equally fast C&NW/CMSt.P&O "400", a steam and heavyweight contemporary that became a diesel streamliner in 1939, is cited only as a postwar competitor (page 289.)
The last chapter "An Uncertain Future" is the longest in the book (35 pages), and has the task of bringing down the curtain on the Age of Railways, both regionally and nationally. It is a tall order to describe and analyze with insight the Roarin' Twenties, the Great Depression, World War II, the Post-War rebuilding, the declines of the 1960's and 1970's, the Staggers Era, and the state of play in the past decade. The photo selection is again strong, including several from the author's camera taken shortly before the accession of Amtrak. The analysis and reporting of the period 1920-1945 are concise and convincing. However, the style and depth that served the bulk of the book so well thins out noticeably in the few pages devoted to the last fifty years. Since the Age was over, one can concede that this is appropriate, and consistent with a 300-page book with its ambitious goals. The reflective and cogent Epilogue provides the climax to the study itself. This book should be on the short list of all students of the history of railroads in the Midwest.
Gustavus Adolphus College Dennis C. Henry
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Very well done, good art, maps and photos. Worth the money.
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The metropolitan city of Minneapolis, Minnesota is changing, and Don Hofsommer is there to provide an overview of these changes from the 1860s into the 1950s, when railroads linked city and countryside, in Minneapolis And The Age Of Railways. Over 200 period photos and maps cover the city's rail lines, providing a history of railroad property, political and government acts, consolidations, and passenger trends alike. The lively story of Minneapolis and its growth is charted in terms of trends and rail history in a survey which will delight both rail buffs and Minneapolis natives alike.
Rated by buyers 
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This is in many ways a fascinating book with great photos and thorough text. What is disappointing is the number of errors in place names and locations and the vast amount of duplication of content from the same author's Tootin Louie. It does not strike me as a well-balanced picture of the railroads, leaning heavily on information from the Minneapolis and St. Louis railroad, which while important, was admittedly not a major player in the long run. Nor was it apparent from Amazon's description that the age of railroads in this author's definition was over long long ago, not at the dawn of Amtrak as I would have presumed. He also seems to share the railroading enthusiast's obsessive focus on engines and freight to the detriment of passenger experience. These flaws lay on the editor's shoulders, I feel, as they did not guide the author better, and they should have published these books as either one volume, or two volumes of the same text. I would have to recommend buying one or the other, not both. Tootin Louie is an exhaustively detailed examination of the history of the line as a business and culture, with many insightful details and lots of human interest. It is quite a remarkable achievement. These books are excellent gifts for the nostalgic Minneapolitan like my father or railroad enthusiast like my brother-in-law. If I liked them better I would keep them. They also both need many more maps to delineate all the geographical features and changes discussed. It was difficult to read and switch to atlas and old map for confirmation.
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