BOOKS:
Ambrose, Stephen E. Nothing Like it in the World: the Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869 . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
Director emeritus of the Eisenhower Center and founder of The National D-Day Museum in New Orleans.
“ Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad-- the investors who risked their businesses and money; the enlightened politicians who understood its importance; the engineers and surveyors who risked, and lost, their lives; and the Irish and Chinese immigrants, the defeated Confederate soldiers, and the other laborers who did the backbreaking and dangerous work on the tracks. The U.S. government pitted two companies -- the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific Railroads -- against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. Locomotives, rails, and spikes were shipped from the East through Panama or around South America to the West or lugged across the country to the Plains. This was the last great building project to be done mostly by hand: excavating dirt, cutting through ridges, filling gorges, blasting tunnels through mountains. At its peak, the workforce -- primarily Chinese on the Central Pacific, Irish on the Union Pacific -- approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as fifteen thousand workers on each line.” (Abstract from book cover)
Arnesen, Eric. Brotherhoods of Color: Black Railroad Workers and the Struggle for Equality . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Professor of History at the University of Illinois Chicago
“From the time the first tracks were laid in the early nineteenth century, the railroad has occupied a crucial place in America's historical imagination. Now, for the first time, Eric Arnesen gives us an untold piece of that vital American institution--the story of African Americans on the railroad. African Americans have been a part of the railroad from its inception, but today they are largely remembered as Pullman porters and track layers. The real history is far richer, a tale of endless struggle, perseverance, and partial victory. In a sweeping narrative, Arnesen re-creates the heroic efforts by black locomotive firemen, brakemen, porters, dining car waiters, and redcaps to fight a pervasive system of racism and job discrimination fostered by their employers, white co-workers, and the unions that legally represented them even while barring them from membership. Decades before the rise of the modern civil rights movement in the mid-1950s, black railroaders forged their own brand of civil rights activism, organizing their own associations, challenging white trade unions, and pursuing legal redress through state and federal courts. In recapturing black railroaders voices, aspirations, and challenges, Arnesen helps to recast the history of black protest and American labor in the twentieth century.” (Abstract from book cover)
Bain, David Haward. Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad . New York: Viking, 1999.
Professor of English at Middlebury College
“It was the dawn of the Gilded Age; it welded the new western United States to the East with twin bands of iron; it opened a path for settlement and exploitation, utterly transforming the West as it sealed the doom of the Plains Indian culture; it was the culmination of the backbreaking work of more than twenty-five thousand laborers; it was, without a doubt, the century's second most transformative chain of events after the Civil War. Empire Express is the story of that gigantic enterprise to build a railroad from the Missouri to the Pacific, which culminated in the driving of the Golden Spike in the Utah desert in 1869 but ended in pervasive national scandals just four years later. It is also about the building of the enterprise known as the United States of America. Spanning three dramatic decades, during which America effectively doubled in size, dreamed of glories upon the world's stage, fought three wars, and began to discover itself, Empire Express …draws on original sources as no previous chronicle has done--thousands of pages of handwritten letters, diaries, telegrams, and an array of biographical and historical works. Empire Express is also the first book to treat the building of the railroad in context, intrinsically connected to larger or distant events, part of a much larger, national picture viewed through a clear, discerning wide-angle lens.” (Abstract from book cover)
Bauer, K. Jack. A Maritime History of the United States: the Role of America's Seas and Waterways . Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988.
Professor of History at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
“An alternative to the usual history of America told in terms of territorial imperative, Bauer shows how early American history was fueled by a marine-based economy…Bauer discusses the rise and fall of the American merchant marine, warning that its present state may prove dangerous for the United States.” (Abstract adapted from a review by Jay R. Kaufman, published in the Library Journal 112, no. 18 (Nov. 1987): 110.)
Bourne, Russell. Floating West: the Erie and Other American Canals . New York: Norton, 1992.
Senior Editor of Smithsonian Books
“The building of canals and their effects on America in the early 1800s is the main focus of this readable piece of history by the author of The Red King's Rebellion. The first canal, the Middlesex Canal in Massachusetts, proved that the United States, while limited in capital and engineering tradition, could perform large-scale projects. Most of the book focuses on the Erie Canal and its effects on both the area through which it passes and on the nation as a whole. In New York, its building and operation developed a new subculture, ``canallers,'' while nationally it spurred economic growth by making the products of America's wheat belt, central New York, accessible to markets at much lower prices. The Erie also helped to foster a degree of national pride.” (Abstract adapted from a review by D. Schaub, published in the Library Journal 117, no. 8 (May 1992): 96.)
Cronon, William. Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the West. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.
Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison
William Cronon argues that the growth of cities and urban areas, such as Chicago, is dependent upon the ecology of the area. Landscape and environmental conditions either inhibit or allow the economic development of a region. The author also examines how cities can effect other distant environments. Cronon looks at the rise of several industries in Chicago, including railroads, meatpacking, grain and lumber.
Dary, David. The Oregon Trail: an American Saga . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Professor of Journalism at the University of Oklahoma
“Starting with an overview of Oregon Country in the early 1800s, a vast area then the object of international rivalry among Spain, Britain, Russia, and the United States, David Dary gives us the whole sweeping story of those who came to explore, to exploit, and, finally, to settle there. Using diaries, journals, company and expedition reports, and newspaper accounts, David Dary takes us inside the experience of the continuing waves of people who traveled the Oregon Trail or took its cutoffs to Utah, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and California. Throughout, Dary keeps us informed of developments in the East and their influence on events in the West, among them the building of the transcontinental railroad and the efforts of the far western settlements to become U.S. territories and eventually states. Above all, The Oregon Trail offers a panoramic look at the romance, colorful stories, hardships, and joys of the pioneers who made up this tremendous and historic migration.” (Abstract from book cover)
Douglas, George H. All Aboard!: the Railroad in American Life . New York: Paragon House, 1992.
Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Douglas emphasizes the social and cultural impact of railroading, arguing convincingly that it was the railroads more than any other force that transformed America from an agrarian society dominated by local concerns to an urban culture with a genuine sense of national identity. His analysis of the influence of railroads on fine and popular arts is especially illuminating.” (From a review by Paul B. Cors, published in the Library Journal 117 (Feb. 1992): 180.)
Fradkin, Philip L. Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West . New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Assistant Secretary of the California Resources Agency and western editor of Audubon Magazine
“The fascinating story of the rise of Wells Fargo & Co., told against the wildest and most colorful backdrop in American history, the Old West. The trail of Wells Fargo runs through nearly every imaginable landscape and icon of Old West folklore: the California gold rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad, the Civil and Indian Wars. From the Great Plains to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, the company's operations embraced almost all social, cultural, and economic activities west of the Mississippi, following one of the greatest migrations in American history. Fortune-seekers arriving in California after the discovery of gold in 1849 couldn't bring the necessities of home with them. So Wells Fargo express offices began providing basic services such as the exchange of gold dust for coin, short-term deposits and loans, and reliable delivery and receipt of letters, money, and goods to distant places. As its reputation for speed and dependability grew, the sight of a red and yellow Wells Fargo stagecoach racing across the prairie came to symbolize not only safe passage, but faith in a nation's progress.” (Abstract from book cover)
Grant, Roger H. Getting Around: Exploring Transportation History . Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Co., 2003
Professor of History at Clemson University
“Getting Around explores how students of local transportation history might learn about this vital aspect of their community's past. The scope covers all major types of public transportation, including waterways, canals, railroads, electric interurbans, roads and aviation. This work also provides readers with a sense of the importance and interrelationship between transport forms in both a national and local context. Many period photographs are included.” (Abstract from book cover)
Larson, John Lauritz. Internal Improvement: National Public Works and the Promise of Popular Government in the Early United States . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
Professor of History at Purdue University
“Getting Around explores how students of local transportation history might learn about this vital aspect of their community's past. The scope covers all major types of public transportation, including waterways, canals, railroads, electric interurbans, roads and aviation. This work also provides readers with a sense of the importance and interrelationship between transport forms in both a national and local context.” (From a review by James A. Ward, published in the American Historical Review 107, no. 1 (Feb. 2002): 192-3.)
Raitz, Karl B., ed. The National Road . Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.
Professor of Geography at the University of Kentucky
“In twelve lengthy chapters grouped into four sections, The National Road presents the highway in its many guises, though only after setting the broadest possible historical and geographical context. Peirce F. Lewis opens with an overview of successive waves of technological innovations in land transportation that have reorganized the human geography of the United States. Treating the deeply ingrained American habit of geographical mobility, and attitudes toward same, this historical-geographical synopsis of the nation's transportation development is as close to perfect as one could desire, even if tinged at times with hyperbole. Only the further transformation in American time--space relations wrought by air travel is missing. Lewis places the National Road in the grand flow of the American conquest of distance, painted with the broad brush strokes for which he is justly celebrated.” (Adapted from a review by Michael P. Conzen, published in the Geographical Review 88, no. 4 (Oct. 1998): 580-6.)
Sheriff, Carol. The Artificial River: the Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817-
1862 . New York: Hill & Wang, 1996.
Professor of History at the College of William and Mary
“The story of the Erie Canal is the story of industrial and economic progress between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. Carol Sheriff uses innovative archival research to document the varied responses of ordinary people to this major environmental, social and cultural transformation in the early life of our Republic.” (Abstract from book cover)
Vance, James E. The North American Railroad: Its Origin, Evolution and Geography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
Professor of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley
“Vance offers a detailed yet readable presentation of why American railroads are located where they are. He asserts that the American railroad experience, although originating in England, took a different tack. England's system was built to serve established cities and industries through solidly constructed lines, while the U.S. system created economic enterprises and cities through quickly built lines and more powerful locomotives. Vance's book is divided into five parts, treating railroads in different sections of the country and in Canada.” (Abstract adapted from a review by George M. Jenks, published in the Library Journal 120, no. 15 (Sept. 1995): 82-3.)
ARTICLES:
Clapp, Elizabeth J. “The Boundaries of Femininity: The Travels and Writings of Mrs. Anne Royall, 1823-31. American Nineteenth Century History 4, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 1-28.
Senior Lecturer of American History at the University of Leicester, U.K.
“Between 1817 and 1830 Anne Royall traversed the length and breadth of the United States writing a series of books on her travels, which she subsequently published and sold on her later tours. She traveled at a time when journeys could be dangerous and unpredictable, and there were occasions when she was insulted, mobbed, and physically assaulted. This article examines Royall's religious and political views, and her role as a partisan woman at a period when gender definitions were in the process of construction and concepts such as 'women's proper behavior' were contested. While Royall was generally able to manipulate gender conventions successfully, the attacks on her suggest that she occasionally overstepped the boundaries of what some groups regarded as female decorum.” (Abstract from author)
Access : This article is available online through Inspire: http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&an=14703418&loginpage=login.asp&site=ehost&scope=site
Cohen, Patricia Cline. “Women at Large: Travel in Antebellum America.” History Today 44, no. 12 (Dec. 1994): 44-51.
Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara
“Focuses on the progress and peril faced by traveling women in the pre-Civil War United States. Impact of the transportation revolution on women; Gender conventions in conversations in stagecoaches; Marked out sleeping and seating space for women in canal boats.” (Abstract from Inspire)
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Divall, Colin and George Revill. “Culture of Transport.” Journal of Transport History 16, no. 1 (Mar. 2005): 99-112.
Colin Divall is a professor of History at the University of York. George Revill is a professor of History at Open University.
“Discusses the cultural aspects of the transportation history. Ways by which the concept of cultural turn has helped create an innovative transport history; Practical limits and historical capabilities of transport technologies; Key areas of social and historical inquiry to which the cultural turn has propelled issues of travel and physical mobility; Ways by which automobilization can be considered as a cultural regime; Methods by which transportation technologies act as mediator between the imaginable and the material.” (Abstract from Inspire)
Access : This article is available online through Inspire:
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Gordon, John Steele. “The Steamboat Monopoly.” American Heritage 44, no. 7 (Nov. 1993): 20-2.
Historian of Business and Financial History and writer for American Heritage Magazine
“Looks at various monopolies and informs that, at the beginning of the industrial age, government-granted monopolies threatened to stifle the new technology of steamboats. Difficulties of overland transportation in the eighteenth century; Designers who applied to various states for monopolies of steam navigation.” (Abstract from Inspire)
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Kaueuper, Richard W. “The Forgotten Triumph of the Paw Paw.” American Heritage 46, no. 6 (Oct. 1995): 86-95.
Professor of History at the University of Rochester
“Recounts Norman and George Carr's entry into the United States Navy in 1864. Divergent paths for the brothers in the service; Norman's mission in the USS Paw Paw ship; Role of the USS Paw Paw in the Civil War of 1861-1865; Naval power during the war; Invention of the tinclad; Use of the tinclad during the war; Missions of the tinclads; Transportation during the war.” (Abstract from Inspire)
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McShane, Clay and Joel Tarr. “The Decline of the Urban Horse in American Cities.” Journal of Transport History 24, no. 2 (Sept. 2003): 177-199.
Clary McShane is a professor of History at Northeastern University, Boston. Joel Tarr is a professor of History at Carnegie-Mellon University.
“Explores the decline of the urban horse in cities in the U.S. Humans per horse in 1900; Stable management; Superiority of horse cars; Advantage of streetcars over the omnibus; Decline in horse and fuel costs; Increase in stabling costs; Change in the characteristics of ridership; Increase in urban freight movement.” (Abstract from Inspire)
Access : This article is available online through Inspire:
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Middleton, William D. “A Century of Cable Cars.” American Heritage 36, no. 3 (Apr/May 1985): 90-102.
Engineer/Historian/Journalist
“San Francisco, California's cable cars are fiercely protected as a crown jewel of Bay Area tourism, but in the 19th century, the cables were the first form of urban transportation to successfully displace animal-powered street railways. They were created in the 1830s as horse- and mule-powered street railways. Cities tried steam engines and other mechanical alternatives. Andrew Smith Hallidie was the first to try a wire-rope system. Hallidie and his associates had to raise a hundred thousand dollars to build their invention. A large crowd watched the first demonstration in San Francisco. The California Street line was the grandest and most long-lived of all the cable-car lines. Other cities emulated San Francisco, including Chicago, Illinois. Some people claimed cable railways led to spiritual uplifting. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania introduced the cars in 1883. Mechanical details of cable cars changed little during their existence. New York City was one of the earliest cities to get cable-car mail service. Cable cars had disadvantages, including that a disproportionate share of the energy delivered by the powerhouse was absorbed by the moving parts of the system. There were cable car accidents, including a fire in 1897 at the Washington and Georgetown Railroad at Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. Antique cable cars were overhauled in San Francisco.” (Abstract from Inspire)
Powles, James M. “New Orleans: First Steamboat Down the Mississippi.” American History 40, no. 2 (June 2005): 48-52.
Author
“Narrates the voyage of the first steamboat, New Orleans, from Pittsburgh down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to its namesake city, New Orleans, Louisiana, which ushered in a new age of river transportation, on October 20, 1811. Survey of the river by Nicholas Roosevelt and wife Lydia in 1809; Actual appearance of the steamboat; Challenges faced by the boat during its journey.” (Abstract from Inspire)
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Vetter, Jeremy. “Science Along the Railroad: Expanding Fieldwork in the US Central West.” Annals of Science 61, no. 2 (April 2004): 187-212.
Teaching Fellow of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania
“The building of the transcontinental railroad in the US Central West in the late 1860s greatly improved access to this region and led to the expansion of scientific field work. The relationships between science and the railroad spanned a diverse spectrum, ranging from its practical advantages to more complex interactions such as the transformation of nature along railway corridors and the reciprocal exchange of favours between scientists and railway companies. The dominance of science along the railroad in the second half of the nineteenth century continued into the early twentieth century, with a gradual shift to automobile travel beginning in the 1910s. By stimulating and shaping field research both on and off the railway corridor, the laying of iron tracks across the continent helped guide US science, just as it influenced so many other aspects of US life.” (Abstract from author)
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RECOMMENDED SOURCES:
“America on the Move,” an online exhibition from the Smithsonian:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/index.html
National Road Heritage Corridor:
http://www.nationalroadpa.org/
National Railroad Museum:
http://www.nationalrrmuseum.org
The National Canal Museum- Midwest Resources:
http://www.canals.org/links/midwest.html
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago - online exhibits:
http://www.msichicago.org/exhibit/exhome.html
