Railroads in the Old South

Erscheinungsjahr 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9130-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 544 g

Aaron W. Marrs challenges the accepted understanding of economic and industrial growth in antebellum America with this original study of the history of the railroad in the Old South.

Drawing from both familiar and overlooked sources, such as the personal diaries of Southern travelers, papers and letters from civil engineers, corporate records, and contemporary newspaper accounts, Marrs skillfully expands on the conventional business histories that have characterized scholarship in this field. He situates railroads in the fullness of antebellum life, examining how slavery, technology, labor, social convention, and the environment shaped their evolution.

Far from seeing the Old South as backward and premodern, Marrs finds evidence of urban life, industry, and entrepreneurship throughout the region. But these signs of progress existed alongside efforts to preserve traditional ways of life. Railroads exemplified Southerners' pursuit of progress on their own terms: developing modern transportation while retaining a conservative social order.

Railroads in the Old South demonstrates that a simple approach to the Old South fails to do justice to its complexity and contradictions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Marrs, Aaron W

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziale Ungleichheit, Armut, Rassismus
• Technische Wissenschaften Verkehrstechnik | Transportgewerbe Schienenfahrzeugtechnik und -gewerbe

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Maps
Introduction
1. Dreams
2. Knowledge
3. Sweat
4. Structure
5. Motion
6. Passages
7. Communities
Epilogue: Memory
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Marrs, Aaron W
Aaron W. Marrs (WASHINGTON, DC) is a historian at the US Department of State. He is the author of Railroads in the Old South: Pursuing Progress in a Slave Society.

Aaron W. Marrs received his Ph.D. in history from the University of South Carolina and was associate managing editor of South Carolina Encyclopedia. He now serves in the Office of the Historian, United States Department of State.