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"In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew larger, the streets became increasingly clogged with horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 brought New York City to a halt, a solution had to be found. Two brothers--Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York City--pursued the dream of his city being the first American metropolis to have a subway and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York was played out in an eranot unlike our own, one of economic upheaval, job losses, bitter political tensions, and the question of America's place in the world. The Race Underground is peopled with the famous, like Boss Tweed, and Thomas Edison, and the not-so-famous, like the countless "sandhogs" who dug and blasted into the earth's crust, sometimes losing their lives in the process of building the subway's tunnels. Doug Most chronicles the science of the subway, looks at fears people had about travelling underground and tells astory as exciting as any ever ripped from the pages of U.S. history. The Race Underground is a great American saga of two rival American cities, the powerful interests within, and an invention that changed the lives of millions"--
About the author
Doug Most is the deputy managing editor for features at
The Boston Globe. He is the author of
Always in Our Hearts: The Story of Amy Grossberg, Brian Peterson, the Pregnancy They Hid and the Child They Killed (St. Martin's True Crime, 2005). He has written for
Sports Illustrated,
Runner's World and
Parents and his stories have appeared in
Best American Crime Writing and
Best American Sports Writing. He lives in Needham, Massachusetts.
