Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 - Softcover

Sarah H. Gordon, .

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566632188 ISBN 13: 9781566632188

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, 1998

Synopsis

How the railroads transformed American life between 1829 and 1929, and why the cost of their achievements was so damaging to the social and economic life of the nation. "A quite wonderful book. . .richly textured and intellectually stimulating". -Elizabeth Blackmar, Columbia University. Selected by Choice as an outstanding book for 1997.

About this title

Review:

A quite wonderful book...richly textured and intellectually stimulating.--Elizabeth Blackmur "Columbia University "

Continually intriguing and particularly rich...layered.--Michael Kennedy "Chicago Tribune "

One of the best accounts I have read of the railroad in America. It blends history, technology, business, and social concerns to achieve a total perspective.--James F. Goodwin, former president, Connecticut Central Railroad "Columbia University "

A compelling argument.--Journal of Southern History

Engaging and nicely written, with a definitive and sustained point of view.--Virginia Quarterly Review

From the Back Cover:

In Passage to Union, Sarah Gordon has written a richly informed narrative history of the growth of the railroads, an American icon. But her conclusions are surprising. Where the railroads and their entrepreneurs are ordinarily celebrated for their accomplishments, Ms. Gordon finds that the cost of their achievements was high. Conflicts of interest - at local, state, and regional levels - characterized railroad growth at every stage. Despite the stated aims of government and the railroad corporations to promote settlement and commerce, Ms. Gordon shows that the states lost control of these enterprises and lost the economic benefits of their traffic. Smaller towns withered as people and money flowed to larger cities. By 1900 the union that had emerged reflected the worst fears of railroad critics. The South and West had been settled, but wealth had flowed so heavily to the cities that rural life had lost its attraction. Passage to Union is compelling reading because Ms. Gordon has drawn from diaries, memoirs, literature, advertisements, newspapers and magazines, public records, and railroad history to construct her narrative. The impact of the railroads on people and their communities is powerfully illustrated in this absorbing story of apparent triumph and real loss.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1566632188
• ISBN 13: 9781566632188
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416