Regulating Railroad Innovation

ISBN-13: 9780521806367 / Angielski / Twarda / 2002 / 416 str.

Steven W. Usselman

Opis

Efforts to create and mold new technologies have been a central, recurrent feature of the American experience since at least the time of the Revolution. Many of the most tumultuous events in the nation's history have involved disputes over the appropriateness and desirability of particular technologies. For nearly a century, railroad technology persistently posed novel challenges for Americans, prompting them to reexamine their most cherished institutions and beliefs. Covering a now neglected aspect of American history, Usselman traces their myriad struggles in rich detail.

Recenzje

'This superb book should be required reading for anyone with the slightest interest in understanding the transformation of the United States from its predominantly rural condition in the mid-nineteenth century to the urbanized and industrial society found in the immediate aftermath of the First World War … Usselman's magisterial command of the sweep of American political debate on technology over the best part of a century brilliantly contextualizes his myriad detailed insights into the evolution of the railroad machine. This book deserves to become a classic text on American history in the modern period.' Journal of Urban History

Spis treści

Part I. Assembling the Machine, 1840–76: 1. Engines of expansion and extraction: the politics of development; 2. Acquiring technology: insider innovation; 3. Patent problems: inventors and the market for technology; Part II. Running the Machine, 1876–1904: 4. Patent remedies: politics, jurisprudence, and procedure; 5. Mastering technology, channeling change; 6. Standardizing steel rails: engineered innovation; 7. Engineering enshrined; Part III. Friction in the Machine, 1904–20: 8. Reluctant innovators: the annoying allure of automatic train control; 9. The limits of engineering: rate regulation and the course of innovation; Epilogue: the enduring challenge of innovation.