In this volume, Michael P. Malone provides a succinct interpretive biography of James J. Hill, the ""Empire Builder""-so called for his work in developing the region of the United States between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest.Malone explores Hill's complex life and personality, his activities and interests, and recreates both the story of the railroad race to the Pacific and the complex interactions involved in the development of the region.

""Michael Malone has written a model. . . .interpretative biography of James J. Hill. He has drawn on the research of others, published and unpublished, as he says, but also on his own knowledge of American economic development in Hill's time as a leading historian of mining and of a state in whose development Hill's railroads were major factors."" -Earl Pomeroy, Professor of History, Retired, University of Oregon and University of California, San Diego