them and what they mean are as difficultfor thevictims as for the instigators. These and other essays in the book are well researched, thoroughly documented, and provide readers new knowledge and insights on issuesmany know only superficially.Each author covers the subject of his or her area of expertisewith greaterdetail than readerswould find in a more general treatment of history of theperiod. The essays arewell written and make interestingreading for thepublic. They are also a good resource forstudents searching for information. JuneArima Schumann OregonNikkei Legacy Center,Portland SUNSETLIMITED:THE SOUTHERN PACIFICRAILROAD AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN WEST, 1850-1930 byRichard J. Orsi University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005. Photographs, maps, notes, index. 637 pages. $29.95 cloth. This is an important, revisionist look at one of the West's most significant railroads. Tak inghis titlefrom theSouthern Pacific's luxury passenger liner, the Sunset Limited, Richard Orsi views the railroad as a pivotally creative influence on the economic development of the West, from itsfrontierera to the onset of theGreat Depression. Rather than hindering development and undermining thehonest op erations of thepolitical process,Orsi contends, the Southern Pacific (SP) lefta balanced and positive legacy to the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century West. Orsi's viewpoint iscontroversial.Although he does not attempt towhitewash the SP's behavior, Orsi consciously eschews the view of thepowerful railroad popularized by Frank Norris's 1901 novel, The Octopus: A Story of California. Taking on that almost-sacred cow of literary and historical interpretation, Orsi at tempts"to go beyond thedichotomous mode" thatpits "amalevolent monopoly representing selfish,greedy,corporate interests [versus] the 'people,' representing the inherently demo cratic, 'public' interest"(p.xvii). In the end,his massive studyfinds the Southern Pacific tobe better than selfishprivate interest and many interestsspeaking forthepeople tobe less than purely altruistic. Orsi focuses his attention on a broad array of subjects central towestern economic devel opment. After a brief surveyof the company's leadersand itsphysical and corporate structure, beginning with Central Pacific construction days in the 1860s,he turns to the SP's always controversialpolicies regarding its land grants, settlement, water, agriculture, wilderness preser vation, and management of natural resources. Inan importantsense, Orsi accomplishes his revisionist ends by piercing the corporate veil, going beyond themuch discussed roles of the Big Four (Collis P.Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford,andMark Hopkins) and Ed ward H. Harriman. Although thesepeople are important in the SP story, Orsi does not limit his account to them. Instead, he devotes con siderable attention to the lower-levelexecutives who helped shape and execute the railroad's policies throughout its sprawling domain. Among themwas a bevy of officials ? includ ing SP Land Department executives Benjamin B. Redding (1865-1882) andWilliam H. Mills (1883-1907) ? who guided thecompany's land, agriculture, water, and resourcepolicies intothe twentiethcentury.Surprisingly,at leastto mod ern-day readers, the efforts of these executives resulted in theSP's promotion of familyfarms, scientific agriculture, resource conservation, and wilderness and park landmeasures Their's proved particularly importantvoices against new policies initiated by the shotgun marriage of the SP and theEdward H. Harri man system. Despite theirgoals tohelp develop the West forsmall farmers,they were unable to thwart Harriman's temporary termination of Reviews 313 most of the line's land-development programs. Consequently, Orsi insists,"from 1901until at least 1909 or 1910,theSouthern Pacific became in factwhat some uninformed critics had al ways accused itof being ? a landmonopolist and speculator" (p. 125). Prior to and following that interlude, the SP? demonstrating enlightened self-interest ?spoke emphatically against environmentally devastating practices, such as hydraulicmining and unrestrained timberharvesting, and other practices thatundermined responsiblewestern economic development. At the same time, it encouraged settlement through national promotional campaigns for thevast region its lines traversed. OHQ readerswill be particularly interested inOrsi's inclusive, albeit brief, discussion of the SP's activities inOregon. There, as inCali fornia, its small-scale farm promotions were quite visible. Through itsongoing educational efforts,the company supported scientific ag riculture, including demonstration trains that promoted itsuse in isolated areas.At the same time, the SP supported the establishment of agricultural research stations through the Oregon Agricultural College (Oregon State University at Corvallis) and generally proved a "natural ally of agricultural researchers...