Railroaded

The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

By: Richard White

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Paperback | 23 April 2012 | Edition Number 1

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720 Pages

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2.09 x 1.39 x 0.3

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The transcontinental railroads of the late nineteenth century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life. Their discriminatory rates sparked broad opposition and a new antimonopoly politics.

With characteristic originality, range, and authority, Richard White shows the transcontinentals to be pivotal actors in the making of modern America. But the triumphal myths of the golden spike, robber barons larger than life, and an innovative capitalism all die here. Instead we have a new vision of the Gilded Age, often darkly funny, that shows history to be rooted in failure as well as success.

Industry Reviews

"A model of narrative skill and [an] insightful reinterpretation of the Gilded Age. It is easily the best business history I have read." -- Donald Worster - Slate "Will entertain and outrage readers." -- Buzzy Jackson - Boston Globe "An exciting story and well told." -- John Steele Gordon - Wall Street Journal "Imaginative, iconoclastic, immensely informative and mordantly funny." -- Glenn C. Altschuler - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction History Regional & National History History of the Americas Biographies & True Stories Biographies Transportation Trains & Railways in General Specific Events & Topics in History Social & Cultural History Economics Economic History

List of Illustrations	p. xiii
List of Maps and Charts	p. xv
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
Introduction	p. xxi
Genesis	p. 1
First Principles	p. 3
Patriotism and Profit	p. 9
The Acts of the Founders	p. 17
Building with Other People's Money	p. 26
Golden Spike	p. 37
A Railroad Life	p. 39
Annus Horribilis: 1873	p. 47
Springtime in Mexico	p. 51
Springtime in Canada	p. 55
The Indians' Perpetual Winter	p. 59
Political Storms Brewing	p. 62
Information and Trust	p. 66
The Long Winter	p. 77
Stories of the Fall	p. 84
A Railroad Life: William Hyde	p. 88
Friends	p. 93
The Lobby	p. 102
Antimonopoly and Party Politics	p. 109
The Southern Transcontinental	p. 118
Reform in the Gilded Age	p. 130
A Railroad Life: Elias C. Boudinot	p. 134
Spatial Politics	p. 140
Absolute Space	p. 142
Relational Space	p. 146
The Things They Carried	p. 152
How Railroad Rates Construct Space	p. 162
The Rise of the Octopus	p. 169
Regulating Space	p. 174
A Railroad Life: Alfred A. Cohen	p. 179
Kilkenny Cats	p. 186
Creative Destruction	p. 188
The Colton Trial	p. 197
Territory	p. 203
Rationalizing Irrationality	p. 212
Superheroes of Bad Management	p. 216
A System That Did Not Bury Its Dead	p. 223
Mise en Scène: Labor in Nature	p. 225
Men in Octopus Suits	p. 230
The Visible Hand	p. 235
Men and Boys: Manhood and Management	p. 243
A Political Animal	p. 252
Going Off the Tracks	p. 264
A Railroad Life: William Mahl	p. 270
Workingmen	p. 278
Control of Work	p. 282
The Knights of Labor	p. 287
Contract Labor and the Chinese	p. 293
Rock Springs	p. 305
Workers' Marginalism	p. 314
A Railroad Life: William Pinkerton	p. 317
Looking Backward	p. 326
Benevolent Trusts	p. 332
Waiting for Natural Monopoly	p. 334
Labor's Defeats	p. 336
Bears	p. 347
The Interstate Commerce Commission	p. 355
The Interstate-Commerce Railway Association	p. 359
Mise en Scène: The Death of Johanna Grogan	p. 366
Collapse	p. 370
An Alcoholics Anonymous for Railroads	p. 372
Bankers	p. 378
Villard and Adams	p. 382
The Second Fall of Henry Villard	p. 391
The Panic of 1893	p. 393
The Struggles of the Octopus	p. 398
Mise en Scène: Reading the Newspapers	p. 410
Strike	p. 414
The Courts	p. 418
Union Pacific and Great Northern	p. 422
Pullman	p. 429
The Decline of the Octopus	p. 450
Mise en Scène: Following the Detectives	p. 453
Creative Destruction	p. 455
Dumb Growth	p. 460
Cattle	p. 466
The Diverging Dakotas	p. 482
Rain Follows the Plow	p. 486
Mise en Scène: Wovoka	p. 496
Epilogue	p. 499
Conclusion	p. 507
Appendix	p. 519
Notes	p. 535
Index	p. 643
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Railroaded

The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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