My choices cover three very different topics, all superbly handled in well-written and interesting books. David Gwyn’s The Coming of the Railway: A New Global History, 1750–1850 (Yale University Press) is the best available book on early railway history, one that focuses on Britain but which also includes Germany and the United States. Gwyn is acute on the interaction of technology and possibilities, and the way in which entrepreneurs bridged the divide, creating profit. It would be useful to add comparisons with steamships but, even without those, this book is first rate.