I highly recommend this book. I was assigned Steamboats on the Western Rivers in a graduate level course at University of Missouri-St. Louis about ten years ago. I'm now re-reading it for the second time...it is just that good!

I was glad to see it reprinted in paperback. When I first read it I had to get it through inter-library loan from Rolla, Missouri...there were no copies in St. Louis or Chicago! This new printing is most welcome.

If you have an interest in Westward Expansion, the Civil War, or the growth of technology then this book should be on your "must read" list.

This book is? 1) Long 2) Thorough 3) Clearly Written 4) All of the above. Answer - 4 This book will teach you more than you ever wanted to know about stationary steam engines (i.e. not locomotive engines or steamboat engines) and their development in the 19th Century. It includes very clear descriptions about how high and low pressure engines work, about compounding, and about variable cut-offs. Although the book does not include locomotives, I wish I had read this before I started to read about railroad engines. The latter would have made a lot more sense. The only complaint I have with the book is that there are numerous redundancies from chapter to chapter. It reads as if the author wrote individual chapters independently, but the duplications weren't edited out at the end.