Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 [Paperback]

Sarah H. Gordon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The progress represented by the railroad is often taken as an entirely positive trend in American history, but in Passage to Union, historian Sarah H. Gordon shows how the railroad's transformation of American life also exacted some great costs. She pays equal attention to technology and law, noting how the land to be crossed by the railroads all belonged to someone else; the brilliant engineering feats of early tracklaying were thus made possible in part by skillful railroad lawyers such as Abraham Lincoln. Passage to Union follows the story of American railroading from the time when the American West was untouched by tracks and the Southern states stubbornly tried to resist their entry to the decades when Pullman travel tied the nation together for good.

Besides detailing the great legal and economic themes of the railroad revolution, Gordon also pays attention to how train travel affected ordinary people, succeeding in making the great national saga of railroads a very human story. Later chapters of the book relate the details of rail travel in the latter half of the 19th century; the design of rail cars, new systems of ticketing, and even the institution of modern luggage all made rail travel a commonplace component of American life. --Robert McNamara

From 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.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566632188
• ISBN-13: 978-1566632188
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique and Refreshing Perspective on Railroads, November 18, 2004

By 

Train Chaser "sleuthraptorman" (Thornton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passage to Union: How the Railroads Transformed American Life, 1829-1929 (Hardcover)

The author uses a unique view point to combine the various aspects of social impacts that the railroads had on American culture. A great many topics are covered from sweeping social behavioral norms, to the logistics of ticketing, to luggage design. The social and cultural viewpoint dominates the normal railroad book themes of business, economy, technology, and governmental regulation. All of these topics are covered but only as they influenced, dictated, or were demanded by the social trends. A major point made is that much of American urban culture today is an unintended consequence of how the railroad industry evolved. Railroads originally seen as the instrument for growing a community's wealth, end up being the instrument of draining both the wealth and population to the major cities. A second major theme is how the railroads enabled and even forced a transient society for people at all income levels. The local communities on which the country's original culture was founded are lost forever.

The writing style is straight forward and interspersed with a good deal of backup information and supporting stories. Not exactly enjoyment reading, but certainly not boring. There was a great deal of duplication of information from chapter to chapter often using the same phrasing. Once, the same quote is used twice on one page. A better editor could have helped the author present the same information in 2/3 the space.

From a railroad perspective there are a few minor oversights, such as giving credit to the Northern Pacific as the pioneer of promoting rail travel for vacations. I believe more research would show they were only attempting to duplicate the Great Northern's success with the "See America First - Glacier National Park" campaign. Such minor oversights in the examples do not invalidate or even lessen the points being made by the author.

As a reference work its organization is not ideal for finding information, but this is a consequence of the social viewpoint. It does have a fairly complete index. As a reference the strong point is the chapter notes (footnotes) and the notes on the sources. I will be using these frequently. However, it does not include a traditional bibliography listing all the references together sorted by title or author.

In summary, I recommend this book for both the casual and serious student of history and railroads. It could even be used as a basis for a class. I am pretty certain hard core "train" fanatics will not like it. This book will be an eye opener for many, and probably should be a required read for anyone trying to get a complete understanding of the cultural transformation that occurred around the turn of the 20th century. I intend to add a copy of this book to my personal library.