Railroads Triumphant: The Growth, Rejection, and Rebirth of a Vital American Force

by Albro Martin

In 1789, when the First Congress met in New York City, the members traveled to the capital just as Roman senators two thousand years earlier had journeyed to Rome, by horse, at a pace of some five miles an hour. Indeed, if sea travel had improved dramatically since Caesar's time, overland travel was still so slow, painful, and expensive that most Americans lived all but rooted to the spot, with few people settling more than a hundred miles from the ocean (a mere two percent lived west of the Appalachians). America in effect was just a thin ribbon of land by the sea, and it wasn't until the coming of the steam railroad that our nation would unfurl across the vast inland territory.
In Railroads Triumphant , Albro Martin provides a fascinating history of rail transportation in America, moving well beyond the "Romance of the Rails" sort of narrative to give readers a real sense of the railroad's importance to our country. The railroad, Martin argues, was "the most fundamental innovation in American material life." It could go wherever rails could be laid--and so, for the first time, farms, industries, and towns could leave natural waterways behind and locate anywhere. (As Martin points out, the railroads created small-town America just as surely as the automobile created the suburbs.) The railroad was our first major industry, and it made possible or promoted the growth of all other industries, among them coal, steel, flour milling, and commercial farming. It established such major cities as Chicago, and had a lasting impact on urban design. And it worked hand in hand with the telegraph industry to transform communication. Indeed, the railroads were the NASA of
the 19th century, attracting the finest minds in finance, engineering, and law.
But Martin doesn't merely catalogue the past greatness of the railroad. In closing with the episodes that led first to destructive government regulation, and then to deregulation of the railroads and the ensuing triumphant rebirth of the nation's basic means of moving goods from one place to another, Railroads Triumphant offers an impassioned defense of their enduring importance to American economic life. And it is a book informed by a lifelong love of railroads, brimming with vivid descriptions of classic depots, lavish hotels in Chicago, the great railroad founders, and the famous lines. Thoughtful and colorful by turn, this insightful history illuminates the impact of the railroad on our lives.

Genres: History, American History, Business

448 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 1991

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

My heavens this book sucked like no other I've ever read. The author is a former Professor of Business History at Harvard who I trust is a better classroom lecturer than a writer. He follows no chronology in the history of railroads jumping across multiple decades in the same paragraph to pointless ends. He regularly adds useless commentary and witticisms that reveal his biases not only with regard to railroads, but also commerce, politics, and his view of "the American way".
So why stick with this book to the end? I suppose there's just enough interesting facts and historical perspective to keep slogging... although I don't think even in the midst of Moby Dick that I told myself so many times that "this is a waste of time".
The author does a good job of discussing colonial American transportation systems before the advent of railroads. He also covers all the facets of American business (skilled labor, middle management, operation of complex systems, law, banking) that were essentially birthed in the railroad industry. I was hoping for a more detailed explanation of the destructive power of government regulation which he constantly referenced but rarely addressed in specifics.
The single most important fact gleaned from this book is that capital intensive industry's in the US are virtually pre-destined to bankruptsy. Bankers provide start-up capital, sell stocks and bonds to investors, but saddle emerging enterprises with too much debt to succeed. Financiers then buy back into the enterprise after courts wipe out the debt and leave investors penniless. On top of this the government identified railroads as monopolies and over-regulated them to near-extinction. Railroad executives and stockholders were more than happy to pocket every ounce of revenue for themselves knowing the government would not allow any railway to be liquidated. Why invest in the physical plant when you can hand over a dilapidated business for the government to fix. That's the result of excessive regulation. [Of course, everyone knows that death and dismemberment were the penalties of under-regulation.:]
I'm hoping the most valuable nugget in this book is a reference to "No Way to Run a Railroad - the Untold Story of the Penn Central" by Stephen Salsbury found on page 415 in the source listings.
The Source Listing says the following: "There is no comprehensive history of American railroads and probably never will be. Such a work would run to several large volumes, lack forward narrative drive, ... and suffer from weaknesses inherent in joint authorship undertakings." Funny that the author accomplished no narrative drive in a single volume composed all by himself.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book started on a very interesting note, discussing the rise of railroads in the US and Canada to a lesser extent, but it became pretty clear about halfway through that Albro Martin is a staunch believer that "real" railroad men were the owners and ONLY the owners. If I had a dime for every time he mentioned James J Hill, I would be richer than Vanderbilt and J. P. Morgan combined. But what really irked me was his repeated statements that workers should never have the right of negotiation with their employers, especially when he said outright that in the GM sit-down in the 1930's, it was the governments responsibility to force the workers back into the factories at gunpoint. Literally force them to work at gunpoint.
As far as he is concerned, the only people that matter and the monied college graduates and those who are working class should be treated as property or kept in camps until they're needed. His stance about how truck drivers are "a disorganized horde of carters and draymen" that were dangerous to society due to their trafficking explosives and who were anarchists one and all was really what made me put the book down. I have never read anything so disgusting in my entire life. Honestly, if this is the kind of hate speech that they taught in colleges in the nineties, then it's not wonder that our economy is so bad off now with executives that have never had to pick up a tool getting away with so much while, in his opinion, line workers should count themselves lucky to even be allowed to work.

[Monte Lamb · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book 2 stars because I am sure someone might read it and get more out of it than I did. The author is a cheerleader for the railroad industry and always seem to be able to point out how the government was doing the rr's wrong and helping everyone else in the transportation business. It did cover some things reasonably well, but it was way too long in the tooth to be enjoyable. I love the railroads and its history, but this book didn't cut it with me.

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin brings a curmudgeonly angle to the history of railroads, especially during their heyday 1880s to 1920. He has a fairly dry, professorial style than can bog down at times, but when roused, there are delightfully ironic riffs at regular intervals. Martin is a thorough railroad partisan and grouses often about what he characterized as highhanded government regulation, foolish politics, and badly reasoned legislation. One wonders how our transportation infrastructure would have turned out in the 2010s had Martin-esque thought leaders overcome the Progressive crusaders who derailed the trains in favor of trucking interests.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought the book because of the title. I wanted to believe that American railroads had triumphed! The book concludes with freight being very successful after years of floundering, but I wouldn't use the word triumphant. So after three hundred or so pages I was disappointed.
A good history if you're really into railroading. The book is more topical than chronological. Being Chronological would have made it easier for me to follow.