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All Aboard! The Railroad in American Life
Traces the history of railroads in the United States, from the 1830s to the present, and examines their impact on the social and cultural life of the country
462 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 31, 2012
_All Aboard!: The Railroad in American Life_ by George H. Douglas is a history of the development and use of the railroad and its impact on American culture, society, politics, war, and the economy. It is a richly illustrated book with endnotes and an extensive bibliography (yet easily read by the average, non-specialist reader).
The central them of this book is that the railroad made the country what it is today. Prior to railroads, travel between cities and states was costly, long, uncomfortable, difficult, and sometimes dangerous. Roads in many areas were virtually nonexistent or almost totally unusable, sometimes no better than game trails. There was virtually no interstate (or even intercity) commerce, as each region had to be virtually autonomous, as only the wealthy could import goods and even then rarely in great quantity. As late as the 1830s, the U.S. was a "disjointed nation composed of lonely and self-sufficient farmers."
The railroads changed all of this forever. Cities that once took days to travel between suddenly took only hours. Many once isolated communities became forged into one national community. In addition to linking towns, cities, and regions, the railroads gave rise to whole new communities, literally "something from nothing." New towns sprung up where the railroads went, either arising on their own thanks to the advantages offered by rail transport, or created by the railroads themselves, first in the Midwest, later in the Far West. Confounding European visitors, these "railroads to nowhere" opened up vast sections of the country, provided land for many thousands of Irish, German, Scandinavian, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants (many railroad had agents in Eastern port cities or even Europe itself to encourage and aid immigrants), and by opening such tremendously fertile land, providing rail transport and such innovations as refrigerated cars for milk and meat, enabled American agricultural output to dwarf that of the rest of the world.
Douglas wrote that the railroad was what "brought the United States into being," creating the nation with which we are familiar with today. In addition to creating a national identity of being an American, making long distance travel safe (and later quite comfortable) and long distance trade economically feasible, settling the Midwest and the Far West, and making America the breadbasket of the world, the railroads brought into existence the suburbs (well before cars and paved roads became commonplace, a myriad of commuter lines served small towns, allowing people to live in one place and work somewhere else; the very word commuter arose from the concept of "commuted" fares in the 1840s, when railroads offered lower ticket prices as a reward to regular patrons). Railroads also gave us the shopping mall (most of the great 19th century and early 20th century urban train stations had a multitude of shops, restaurants, and other services), the modern vacation (railroads were the first to publicize such places as our national parks, Niagara Falls, and the beaches of Florida as well as provide cheap transportation to them), and even country music (Jimmy Rodgers, the "Father of Country Music," was for a time a rail worker, writing many songs about life on the train and was heavily influenced by music he heard while working on the railroad, particularly from cowboys, work songs, and the music of black railroad workers).
Douglas covered many aspects of the technical development of railroads, though he tended to be light on technical details and focus more on the economic, cultural, and societal impact. He covered such things as the evolution of passenger accommodations, from the early days of hard wooden seats in coaches without springs (often a rough ride) to the development of luxurious Pullman sleeper cars and even more palatial private railway cars, the advent of the vertical end frame for passenger cars (which reduced the violent movement of cars, particularly from starting and stopping), vestibules that covered the platforms of railcars (which allowed people to safely travel from car to car, a vital invention that enable the dining car to come into being), the automatic coupler (patented in 1868 by Eli Hamilton Janney, this device saved the lives of thousands of brakemen), and the air brake (introduced by George Westinghouse in 1868, it allowed trains to run faster and heavier and was safer than risky hand brakes).
The types and jobs of people on the railroad was discussed at length, including the importance of the station agent (for decades a very important man in small towns, sometimes serving also as a barber, postmaster, druggist, and even dentist), the conductor (for many years the principal public relations contact with the general public and often becoming locally very well known as they often rode the same trains for decades), and the news agent (or news butcher, young men who supplied newspapers, books, candy, drinks, and other niceties to passengers).
Throughout the book, the author provided interesting comparisons with European railroads. European railroads grasped the idea of grand urban stations and fences and other protections along tracks and crossings much earlier, but shied away from trains entering the hearts of cities (unlike the Americans, who once had plans for a depot on the Mall in Washington D.C.) and disliked the Pullman sleeping cars (much preferring separate and closed sleeping compartments).
Trains in art, literature, and popular culture are covered, Douglas discussing everything from Frank Norris's _The Octopus_, the novels of Theodore Dreiser, and the railroad prints of Currier and Ives to the legend of Casey Jones, the movie _The Great Train Robbery_ , the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and Lionel model trains.
The decline and later partial rebirth of the railroads was also covered. Not only did airplanes, cars, and trucks provide competition, but even the bicycle and the interurban and city street car (which itself largely perished due to the automobile) provided problems for the railroads. Fortunately, railroads were able to tap new markets for freight shipment and cities belatedly realized the great importance of keeping commuter trains running in highly congested urban areas.
The central them of this book is that the railroad made the country what it is today. Prior to railroads, travel between cities and states was costly, long, uncomfortable, difficult, and sometimes dangerous. Roads in many areas were virtually nonexistent or almost totally unusable, sometimes no better than game trails. There was virtually no interstate (or even intercity) commerce, as each region had to be virtually autonomous, as only the wealthy could import goods and even then rarely in great quantity. As late as the 1830s, the U.S. was a "disjointed nation composed of lonely and self-sufficient farmers."
The railroads changed all of this forever. Cities that once took days to travel between suddenly took only hours. Many once isolated communities became forged into one national community. In addition to linking towns, cities, and regions, the railroads gave rise to whole new communities, literally "something from nothing." New towns sprung up where the railroads went, either arising on their own thanks to the advantages offered by rail transport, or created by the railroads themselves, first in the Midwest, later in the Far West. Confounding European visitors, these "railroads to nowhere" opened up vast sections of the country, provided land for many thousands of Irish, German, Scandinavian, Italian, and Eastern European immigrants (many railroad had agents in Eastern port cities or even Europe itself to encourage and aid immigrants), and by opening such tremendously fertile land, providing rail transport and such innovations as refrigerated cars for milk and meat, enabled American agricultural output to dwarf that of the rest of the world.
Douglas wrote that the railroad was what "brought the United States into being," creating the nation with which we are familiar with today. In addition to creating a national identity of being an American, making long distance travel safe (and later quite comfortable) and long distance trade economically feasible, settling the Midwest and the Far West, and making America the breadbasket of the world, the railroads brought into existence the suburbs (well before cars and paved roads became commonplace, a myriad of commuter lines served small towns, allowing people to live in one place and work somewhere else; the very word commuter arose from the concept of "commuted" fares in the 1840s, when railroads offered lower ticket prices as a reward to regular patrons). Railroads also gave us the shopping mall (most of the great 19th century and early 20th century urban train stations had a multitude of shops, restaurants, and other services), the modern vacation (railroads were the first to publicize such places as our national parks, Niagara Falls, and the beaches of Florida as well as provide cheap transportation to them), and even country music (Jimmy Rodgers, the "Father of Country Music," was for a time a rail worker, writing many songs about life on the train and was heavily influenced by music he heard while working on the railroad, particularly from cowboys, work songs, and the music of black railroad workers).
Douglas covered many aspects of the technical development of railroads, though he tended to be light on technical details and focus more on the economic, cultural, and societal impact. He covered such things as the evolution of passenger accommodations, from the early days of hard wooden seats in coaches without springs (often a rough ride) to the development of luxurious Pullman sleeper cars and even more palatial private railway cars, the advent of the vertical end frame for passenger cars (which reduced the violent movement of cars, particularly from starting and stopping), vestibules that covered the platforms of railcars (which allowed people to safely travel from car to car, a vital invention that enable the dining car to come into being), the automatic coupler (patented in 1868 by Eli Hamilton Janney, this device saved the lives of thousands of brakemen), and the air brake (introduced by George Westinghouse in 1868, it allowed trains to run faster and heavier and was safer than risky hand brakes).
The types and jobs of people on the railroad was discussed at length, including the importance of the station agent (for decades a very important man in small towns, sometimes serving also as a barber, postmaster, druggist, and even dentist), the conductor (for many years the principal public relations contact with the general public and often becoming locally very well known as they often rode the same trains for decades), and the news agent (or news butcher, young men who supplied newspapers, books, candy, drinks, and other niceties to passengers).
Throughout the book, the author provided interesting comparisons with European railroads. European railroads grasped the idea of grand urban stations and fences and other protections along tracks and crossings much earlier, but shied away from trains entering the hearts of cities (unlike the Americans, who once had plans for a depot on the Mall in Washington D.C.) and disliked the Pullman sleeping cars (much preferring separate and closed sleeping compartments).
Trains in art, literature, and popular culture are covered, Douglas discussing everything from Frank Norris's _The Octopus_, the novels of Theodore Dreiser, and the railroad prints of Currier and Ives to the legend of Casey Jones, the movie _The Great Train Robbery_ , the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and Lionel model trains.
The decline and later partial rebirth of the railroads was also covered. Not only did airplanes, cars, and trucks provide competition, but even the bicycle and the interurban and city street car (which itself largely perished due to the automobile) provided problems for the railroads. Fortunately, railroads were able to tap new markets for freight shipment and cities belatedly realized the great importance of keeping commuter trains running in highly congested urban areas.
September 26, 2017
Interesting look at how the railroad influenced America
November 5, 2014
Good overview of the development of the railroad industry. Not great prose but for people who like trains or want to understand the country's industrial and economic development, a good summary. Also covers the history of what rail terminals and service meant to small towns, how the industry affected the arts and the decline of the industry after world war II.
January 28, 2015
This is not a history of the RR in USA per se, but how it affected life in USA. Not bad, not great.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews