Railroads - History - United States - General & Miscellaneous, Railroads - History, Economic Conditions in the United States, 20th Century American History - Social Aspects - General & Miscellaneous, 19th Century American History - Social Aspects

Passage To Union

Name: Passage To Union
Author: Sarah H. Gordon
ISBN: 9781566632188

by Sarah H. Gordon

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Overview

Exploring the social, economic, and legal impact of the growth of the railroads, Sarah Gordon has written a richly informed narrative history of an American icon—with surprising conclusions. Where the railroads and their entrepreneurs are ordinarily celebrated for drawing together the vast geographical reaches of the union, Ms. Gordon finds that this accomplishment was achieved at high cost. 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 explains, the states lost control and lost the economic benefits of the roads that ran through them. 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 become so concentrated in cities that rural life had lost its attraction. Drawing from a wide variety of sources, including literature, diaries, and memoirs, Sarah Gordon has constructed an absorbing story of apparent triumph and real loss.

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.

Chicago Tribune -

Continually intriguing and particularly rich...layered

About the Author, Sarah H. Gordon

Sarah Gordon teaches American history at the Tikvah High School for Girls and Quinnipiac College, both in Connecticut.

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Editorials

Chicago Tribune

Continually intriguing and particularly rich...layered.
— Michael Kennedy

Columbia University

A quite wonderful book...richly textured and intellectually stimulating.
— Elizabeth Blackmur

Virginia Quarterly Review

Engaging and nicely written, with a definitive and sustained point of view.

Journal Of Southern History

A compelling argument.

The Journal of Southern History

A compelling argument.

From The Critics

Continually intriguing and particularly rich...layered
—Chicago Tribune

Publishers Weekly

The principal argument of this highly readable social, economic and political history of the first 100 years of American railroads is that after the Civil War the nationwide web of train tracks unified the country, increased national communication, facilitated transcontinental expansion and then went on to destroy small-town America. By funneling money and labor power to cities, especially those in the North, the railroads undermined the rural economy and weakened the economic and political power of local as well as national government. Gordon, who teaches American history on both the high school and college levels in Connecticut, presents her case in solid academic fashion, but she also has an eye for telling social detail and makes apt references to the popular culture. She underlines the irony that once railroads had stretched across the country, a new emphasis on cost-cutting, efficiency and higher profits began reducing services to the small communities that were the original building blocks of the system. She even examines lawsuits involving property damages and personal injury to show that decline of services. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Jan.)

Library Journal

Gordon, a Connecticut teacher and writer, undertakes an integrated account of the railroad's effect on American law, sociology, and politics. Her capacious subtitle indicates that she intends to cover a very large subject, and she does, but unsuccessfully. She has divided her work into three chronological sections within which she explores various themes topically. She assembles a great deal of interesting information; almost every page yields a surprising fact. Unfortunately, the pieces do not always equal an interesting book, and this narrative never develops any flow as it lurches, trainlike, from topic to topic. Gordon has simply tried to synthesize too many topics; for example, a chapter on the Civil War and railroads can only be superficial, and it is hard to see any nonmilitary ramifications, which are necessary to Gordon's theme. These flaws do not detract from the book's considerable research usefulness, and it is interesting to dip into, but its appeal to a general audience is probably fairly limited. An optional purchase for academic libraries.-Fritz Buckallew, Univ. of Central Oklahoma Lib., Edmond