James J. Hill and the Opening of the Northwest

by Albro Martin

Book Overview

James J. Hill (1838-1916), the Empire Builder, created a vast railroad network across the northwestern United States. In this splendid biography, Martin, the first researcher to have access to Hill's voluminous correspondence, richly portrays a man of many parts: an entrepreneur, a family man, a collector of notable French paintings, a promoter of scientific agriculture, and a booster for the Northwest.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873512618
• ISBN13: 9780873512619
• Release Date: May 1991
• Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 2.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

James J Hill & Opening of Northwe

Very readable. I took it along on a recent trip on Amtrak's Empire Builder, while I didn't finish the book on this trip, too much to see, this is a perfect place to read it. I recommend it.

Very good!!!

This is a very good, highly readable history of James J. Hill, his family and his numerous successful business adventures, and the Great Northern Railway in particular.

The classic biography of the Empire Builder

Of the four major biographies of James J. Hill, this one is the best and most detailed. If it has a fault, it is that it is too detailed for many readers. But for those interested in the financial history of the Great Northern Railway and the personal history of its builder, this is the classic. Martin had full access to the James J. Hill papers, now open to the public. Pyle's 1917 biography was also based on those papers, but Pyle was an employee of Hill's and tried to whitewash the truth, which actually made Hill look worse than he was. Holbrook's brief bio was based mainly on Pyle and rumor. Malone's 1996 book on Hill is to Martin's what Holbrook's was to Pyle's--a good intro but not as detailed as Martin's.