The Reading Railroad: An Illustrated Timeline

Today, most people think of the board game Monopoly when the Reading1 Railroad is mentioned ("Take a Ride on the Reading"). But there is much more to the history of the Reading than the fact that it's mentioned in a game. The history of the Reading is also the history of the anthracite coal regions in Pennsylvania. Anthracite was the most important industrial and home heating fuel of the 19th and early 20th century. It was the fuel that the industrial revolution ran on. The history of the Reading Railroad is the history of the rise - and bloody suppression of - the Molly Maguires. It is the history of bloody (and seemingly endless) confrontation between organized labor and the coal operators in the anthracite regions. It is the history of a railroad that had its own 3,000-member police force, and that could call out the state's militia under its own authority. It is the history of the Reading Railroad Massacre. This book gives a brief history of the Reading Company, using the mechanism of an illustrated timeline. It contains 38 illustrations, 18 of which are in color. It is the second in a series of books, the first being on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Hopefully, the series will expand in the future.