-
Fire & Steam
- A New History of the Railways in Britain
- Narrated by: Christian Wolmar
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
![Prime logo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $33.38
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Great first listens
![The Housemaid Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51+UxIo+YNL._SL240_.jpg)
![Listen for the Lie Audiobook By Amy Tintera cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51zllGBPiuL._SL240_.jpg)
![Project Hail Mary Audiobook By Andy Weir cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51b6fvQr1-L._SL240_.jpg)
![The Housemaid's Secret Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51WR3i5EfIL._SL240_.jpg)
![Kingdom of Ash Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51r5TOoIdRL._SL240_.jpg)
![Tower of Dawn Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51JhJaNpMWL._SL240_.jpg)
![A Court of Thorns and Roses (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Sarah J. Maas cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51vJxchNsxL._SL240_.jpg)
![Verity Audiobook By Colleen Hoover cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/511i1nvprYL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Duke and I Audiobook By Julia Quinn cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51XnZ3udYnL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Nightingale Audiobook By Kristin Hannah cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51lJVAGTuNL._SL240_.jpg)
![Words of Radiance Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51yEEt2q0vL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Way of Kings Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51hAwcG3oNL._SL240_.jpg)
![An Offer from a Gentleman Audiobook By Julia Quinn cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51qhFc8LJqL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Final Empire Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61rYqiz8yJL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Inmate Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51ORE1dbOaL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Idea of You Audiobook By Robinne Lee cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41-CB3k8DrL._SL240_.jpg)
![Fourth Wing (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) Audiobook By Rebecca Yarros cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61i95pK0DoL._SL240_.jpg)
![James Audiobook By Percival Everett cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31FeDPikCWL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Serpent and the Wings of Night Audiobook By Carissa Broadbent cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61VDeWSV8iL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Perfect Son Audiobook By Freida McFadden cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/510Bt0n2r-L._SL240_.jpg)
![The Viscount Who Loved Me Audiobook By Julia Quinn cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/515SoOHheML._SL240_.jpg)
![Break Me Audiobook By K. A. Tucker cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/512TJtt1MlL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Well of Ascension Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61jTUT0xfCL._SL240_.jpg)
![We Are Legion (We Are Bob) Audiobook By Dennis E. Taylor cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51rt2pFIW7L._SL240_.jpg)
![Oathbringer Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fKpuTPMdL._SL240_.jpg)
![Surrender to Me Audiobook By K. A. Tucker cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41evKhKhGuL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Great Alone Audiobook By Kristin Hannah cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NeDaxcJwL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Hero of Ages Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/611IBQxExyL._SL240_.jpg)
![The Mountain Is You Audiobook By Brianna Wiest cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41jiySKmibL._SL240_.jpg)
![Dawnshard Audiobook By Brandon Sanderson cover art](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51oUwcEc9UL._SL240_.jpg)
Publisher's summary
Fire & Steam celebrates the vision of the ambitious Victorian pioneers who developed this revolutionary transport system and the navvies who cut through the land to enable a country-wide railway 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 & Steam examines the importance of the railway and how it helped to form the Britain of today.
Critic reviews
"An excellent book." ( Independent)
"It is written in a brisk, down-to-earth style (a favourite adjective is "daft"), and is enjoyably replete with bizarre details" ( Guardian)
Related to this topic
-
The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
-
-
Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
-
Full Steam Ahead
- How the Railways Made Britain
- By: Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life - from trade and transportation to health and recreation. Full Steam Ahead reveals how the world we live in today was entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life in their trademark style, which engages and captivates.
By: Peter Ginn, and others
-
Behemoth
- A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Joshua B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a factory-made world: modern life is built on three centuries of advances in factory production, efficiency, and technology. But giant factories have also fueled our fears about the future since their beginnings, when William Blake called them "dark Satanic mills". Many factories that operated over the last two centuries - such as Homestead, River Rouge, and Foxconn - were known for the labor exploitation and class warfare they engendered, not to mention the environmental devastation caused by factory production.
-
-
Get rid of the fake accents
- By J. R. Valery on 03-13-18
-
How the Post Office Created America
- A History
- By: Winifred Gallagher
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The founders established the Post Office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time it was the US government's largest and most important endeavor - indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind 13 quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen - a radical idea that appalled Europe's great powers.
-
-
Super interesting. I'm so disappointed.
- By william kearns on 07-21-16
-
Americana
- A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
- By: Bhu Srinivasan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Bhu Srinivasan
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a 400-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition through a series of Next Big Things - the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking, to flight, suburbia, and sneakers, culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the turn of the 21st century.
-
-
Excellent history!
- By L. Maranto on 10-14-17
By: Bhu Srinivasan
-
The Road Taken
- The History and Future of America's Infrastructure
- By: Henry Petroski
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling. The American Society of Civil Engineers has, in its latest report, given American roads and bridges a grade of D and C+, respectively, and has described roughly 65,000 bridges in the United States as 'structurally deficient'. This crisis - and one need look no further than the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota to see that it is indeed a crisis - shows little sign of abating short of a massive change in attitude amongst politicians and the American public.
-
-
Well put
- By Lawrence on 08-10-17
By: Henry Petroski
-
The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
-
-
Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
-
Full Steam Ahead
- How the Railways Made Britain
- By: Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman
- Narrated by: Peter Ginn, Ruth Goodman
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Railways was an era of extraordinary change which utterly transformed every aspect of British life - from trade and transportation to health and recreation. Full Steam Ahead reveals how the world we live in today was entirely shaped by the rail network, charting the glorious evolution of rail transportation and how it left its mark on every aspect of life, landscape and culture. Peter Ginn and Ruth Goodman brilliantly bring this revolution to life in their trademark style, which engages and captivates.
By: Peter Ginn, and others
-
Behemoth
- A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Joshua B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a factory-made world: modern life is built on three centuries of advances in factory production, efficiency, and technology. But giant factories have also fueled our fears about the future since their beginnings, when William Blake called them "dark Satanic mills". Many factories that operated over the last two centuries - such as Homestead, River Rouge, and Foxconn - were known for the labor exploitation and class warfare they engendered, not to mention the environmental devastation caused by factory production.
-
-
Get rid of the fake accents
- By J. R. Valery on 03-13-18
-
How the Post Office Created America
- A History
- By: Winifred Gallagher
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The founders established the Post Office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time it was the US government's largest and most important endeavor - indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind 13 quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen - a radical idea that appalled Europe's great powers.
-
-
Super interesting. I'm so disappointed.
- By william kearns on 07-21-16
-
Americana
- A 400-Year History of American Capitalism
- By: Bhu Srinivasan
- Narrated by: Scott Brick, Bhu Srinivasan
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the days of the Mayflower and the Virginia Company, America has been a place for people to dream, invent, build, tinker, and bet the farm in pursuit of a better life. Americana takes us on a 400-year journey of this spirit of innovation and ambition through a series of Next Big Things - the inventions, techniques, and industries that drove American history forward: from the telegraph, the railroad, guns, radio, and banking, to flight, suburbia, and sneakers, culminating with the Internet and mobile technology at the turn of the 21st century.
-
-
Excellent history!
- By L. Maranto on 10-14-17
By: Bhu Srinivasan
-
The Road Taken
- The History and Future of America's Infrastructure
- By: Henry Petroski
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Physical infrastructure in the United States is crumbling. The American Society of Civil Engineers has, in its latest report, given American roads and bridges a grade of D and C+, respectively, and has described roughly 65,000 bridges in the United States as 'structurally deficient'. This crisis - and one need look no further than the I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota to see that it is indeed a crisis - shows little sign of abating short of a massive change in attitude amongst politicians and the American public.
-
-
Well put
- By Lawrence on 08-10-17
By: Henry Petroski
-
The Dawn of Innovation
- The First American Industrial Revolution
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 30 years after the Civil War, the United States blew by Great Britain to become the greatest economic power in world history. That is a well-known period in history, when titans like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan walked the earth. But as Charles R. Morris shows us, the platform for that spectacular growth spurt was built in the first half of the century. By the 1820s, America was already the world's most productive manufacturer and the most intensely commercialized society in history.
-
-
How our industries started
- By Jean on 02-22-13
-
Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
-
-
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
-
Divided Highways
- Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
- By: Tom Lewis
- Narrated by: Jim D. Johnston
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Divided Highways, Tom Lewis offers an encompassing account of highway development in the United States. In the early twentieth century Congress created the Bureau of Public Roads to improve roads and the lives of rural Americans. The Bureau was the forerunner of the Interstate Highway System of 1956, which promoted a technocratic approach to modern road building sometimes at the expense of individual lives, regional characteristics, and the landscape.
-
-
Lots of interesting facts. Poor narration
- By Richard on 06-01-21
By: Tom Lewis
-
Breaking Rockefeller
- The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire
- By: Peter B. Doran
- Narrated by: Peter B. Doran
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marcus Samuel, Jr., is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889 John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the US government is wary of challenging the great "anaconda" of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses - that is, until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell.
-
-
Tale of business, cultures, dances as it teaches
- By Philo on 05-25-16
By: Peter B. Doran
-
Faster, Higher, Farther
- The Volkswagen Scandal
- By: Jack Ewing
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A shocking exposé of Volkswagen's fraud by the New York Times reporter who covered the scandal. In mid-2015 Volkswagen proudly reached its goal of surpassing Toyota as the world's largest automaker. A few months later, the EPA disclosed that Volkswagen had installed software in 11 million cars that deceived emissions-testing mechanisms. By early 2017 VW had settled with American regulators and car owners for $20 billion, with additional lawsuits still looming.
-
-
Excellent recap of VW, its structure and culture
- By Northern IN Mark on 05-27-17
By: Jack Ewing
-
Crabgrass Frontier
- The Suburbanization of the United States
- By: Kenneth T. Jackson
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This first full-scale history of the development of the American suburb examines how "the good life" in America came to be equated with the a home of one's own surrounded by a grassy yard and located far from the urban workplace. Integrating social history with economic and architectural analysis, and taking into account such factors as the availability of cheap land, inexpensive building methods, and rapid transportation, Kenneth Jackson chronicles the phenomenal growth of the American suburb from the middle of the 19th century to the present day.
-
-
There is so much to think about here.
- By Richard McKown on 06-25-23
-
The Big Roads
- The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
- By: Earl Swift
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From author Earl Swift comes the surprising history of the U.S. interstate system, a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads.
-
-
Lessons from The Big Roads
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Earl Swift
-
Nature's Metropolis
- Chicago and the Great West
- By: William Cronon
- Narrated by: Jonah Cummings
- Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking work, William Cronon gives us an environmental perspective on the history of nineteenth-century America. By exploring the ecological and economic changes that made Chicago America's most dynamic city and the Great West its hinterland, Mr. Cronon opens a new window onto our national past. This is the story of city and country becoming ever more tightly bound in a system so powerful that it reshaped the American landscape and transformed American culture. The world that emerged is our own.
-
-
Moving
- By JB on 02-09-18
By: William Cronon
-
Capitalism in America
- A History
- By: Alan Greenspan, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the legendary former Fed Chairman and the acclaimed Economist writer and historian, the full, epic story of America's evolution from a small patchwork of threadbare colonies to the most powerful engine of wealth and innovation the world has ever seen.
-
-
Explains a lot
- By Scott on 02-18-19
By: Alan Greenspan, and others
-
Drive!
- Henry Ford, George Selden, and the Race to Invent the Auto Age
- By: Lawrence Goldstone
- Narrated by: Christopher Price
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed author of Birdmen comes a revelatory new history of the birth of the automobile - an illuminating and entertaining true tale of invention, competition, and the visionaries, hustlers, and swindlers who came together to transform the world. With a narrative as propulsive as its subject, Drive! plunges us headlong into a time unlike any in history, when manic innovation and consumerist zeal coalesced to forever change the way people got from one place to another.
-
-
Ford Detractor.
- By Eric Johnston on 08-15-22
-
A Brief History of Motion
- From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next
- By: Tom Standage
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tom Standage's fleet-footed and surprising global histories have delighted fans and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Now, he returns with a provocative account of an overlooked form of technology - personal transportation - and explores how it has shaped societies and cultures over millennia. Beginning around 3,500 BCE with the wheel - a device that didn't catch on until a couple thousand years after its invention - Standage zips through the eras of horsepower, trains, and bicycles, revealing how each successive mode of transit embedded itself in the world we live in.
-
-
Great listen
- By CKerb on 11-09-21
By: Tom Standage
-
Glory Lost and Found
- How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era
- By: Seth Kaplan, Jay Shabat
- Narrated by: Joseph Durika
- Length: 25 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Glory Lost and Found: How Delta Climbed from Despair to Dominance in the Post-9/11 Era tells the story of Delta's dramatic tumble into bankruptcy and how it climbed its way back to pre-eminence despite hurricane-force headwinds: high fuel prices, a hostile takeover bid, relentless competition, economic meltdowns, and geopolitical shocks.
-
-
For Aviation Enthusiasts & the Business Industry
- By Striker on 03-24-17
By: Seth Kaplan, and others
What listeners say about Fire & Steam
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 03-16-20
Narrator makes it Hard to Follow
While the book is decent, it's hard to follow because of the author slurring his words and moving the story along too quickly. It's recommended to read this story at .90 speed or less, or to go back if you have missed some details.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Brian Cohen
- 09-05-08
A story of how technology impacts society.
A thoroughly absorbing story detailing the history of rail in Britain; how it affected and transformed the social fabric in the Industrial age and how it had to, ultimately, transform itself to deal with modern times, technological advancements (usually through necessity) and the whims of political interference.
A simple thing like the standardization of time from village to village is a consequence of being able to maintain a train schedule! This and other anecdotes show how things that are taken for granted today presented major problems in the mid 1800s. Fresh milk in the city, only if you had a cow in the back yard! What do you imagine life was like when the typical speed of transportation was only 2mph!
If you love technology or even just how it can impact life, there is no better read. This is the 19th century equivalent of the Internet revolution,
Non British readers may be confused by all the place names but they are so well interwoven into the compelling narrative that you will actually want to know where they all are, I would suggest having a small map of the UK handy to pinpoint the locations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
11 people found this helpful