In 1875, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington, and Leland Stanford of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company began taking steps to construct a southern transcontinental railroad line east from California. The implementation problems encountered over the next six years, the company's internal disagreements along with those it had with its rivals, and the anticipated regional economic benefits the tracks would bring comprise the concluding chapters of Slavery, Scandal, and Steel Rails. crossed was purchased from Mexico in 1854. cross-country railroad in 1846 to improve his hometown's economy and to export slavery west of Texas. At the conclusion of the Mexican American War two years later, the United States obtained 600,000 square miles of new territory, but not enough to accommodate the southern route. That is why, at the urging of Jefferson Davis, Gadsden was appointed Minister to Mexico. several factors, including dubious instructions from a secret messenger. He was able, however, to finalize a treaty, which was later substantially altered by the United States Senate, that resulted in the Gadsden Purchase.

Tracing the remarkable history of Tucson, Arizona since 1854, this book reveals multiple aspects of the community--its numerous ceremonies and customs, its multitude of problems, its long list of accomplishments, and its racial divides. It examines why the Tucson of today is the way it is--a diverse metropolitan region of almost one million people that sprawls across the Sonoran Desert. Each of the chapters in the book reviews a specific time period in Tucson's past. They include the highs and lows of the community, from its once being the ""Metropolis of Arizona"" and its early bitter battle about securing the University of Arizona to its recent noteworthy scientific achievements and its descent into greater poverty. Along the way, many of the people who have helped make Tucson such a memorable place, from its political leaders to its celebrities to its everyday residents, are spotlighted. Their lives, and their memories, are featured, and indicate the varied viewpoints that have helped to influence the Tucson of today. They are also what make Tucson, despite all its faults, a Southwestern community that so many people feel is special.