A non-fiction book is not, generally speaking a story, even though historians may imitate the sense of engagement which third person narration can convey. But a history book is really a collection of ideas, memories and events recalled through sources from the particular time in question.
In this book, Rails of Gold, we are clearly invited to look at some of these things in Victoria, Australia from 1852 to 1864.
You will notice that the book is organised in a number of different but complementary ways.
CHRONOLOGICALLY – that is, as events occur in a sequence of years from 1852 to 1864.
It is also organised into three parts: CONTEXT – which describes how ideas such as the role of government, the eight hour day and the contractual system changed in Victoria.
The second part is called AS THE PAPERS TELL IT, which follows events as they are described in newspaper reports and articles during the years in question. Extracts from papers such as ‘The Age’, ‘The Argus’ and ‘The Mount Alexander Mail’ were very important for accurately recording the public events and decisions that took place as well as advertising goods for sale.
The third part of the book is called EPILOGUE – which is basically a summing up of ideas, events and decisions taken by people in power; for example, we learn how the eight hour day gradually became accepted as the legal right and practice in Victorian society. The ways in which railways developed after their initial construction are also briefly outlined. For example, the confusion of different gauges in colonies and the routes taken by the railways that connected the colonies.
There are a number of choices you could make in your reading: to follow events from one year to the next; to follow the careers of engineers or politicians; to follow the development of trades unions as they sought to improve working conditions; to follow the changing policies of government towards railways, or to follow more technical changes to railways such as signalling systems or braking systems.