Railroads and the American People Railroads Past and Present (Audible Audio Edition) H Roger Grant Todd Barsness University Press Audiobooks Books
Download As PDF : Railroads and the American People Railroads Past and Present (Audible Audio Edition) H Roger Grant Todd Barsness University Press Audiobooks Books
In this social history of the impact of railroads on American life, H. Roger Grant concentrates on the railroad's "Golden Age," 1830-1930. To capture the essence of the nation's railroad experience, Grant explores four fundamental topics - trains and travel, train stations, railroads and community life, and the legacy of railroading in America. Grant recalls the lasting memories left by train travel, both of luxurious Pullman cars and the grit and grind of coal-powered locals.
He discusses the important role railroads played for towns and cities across America, not only for the access they provided to distant places and distant markets but also for the depots that were a focus of community life. Finally, Grant reviews the lasting heritage of the railroads as it has been preserved in word, stone, paint, and memory. Railroads and the American People is a sparkling paean to American railroading by one of its finest historians.
The book is published by Indiana University Press.
Railroads and the American People Railroads Past and Present (Audible Audio Edition) H Roger Grant Todd Barsness University Press Audiobooks Books
For those of us old enough to remember train travel or those having worked on or with railroads for part of their life as have I [working as a gandy-dancer or laborer repairing track while attending college in the 1960s] this brings back memories of railroading both good and bad. Fixing rails in 100 degree heat wasn't fun, but travel on trains was still a big adventure in the 1950s. For those not of such an age, this is a great book to learn all about railroading and how it changed the history of our country. The author divides the book into four main sections - trains and train travel, train stations, railroads and how they affected community life, and the legacy that railroading has left us today.The book is printed on a high quality glossy paper, which is important as there are well over 100 B/W plates to help visualize the prose. As for the prose itself, the author speaks in a friendly rather than pedagogical voice, making it easy and fun to read. The book is full of fact, but the history is told as by someone you know simply relating a story to you.
The primary years covered are 1830 to 1930, but the author does continue on with his history to the present.
An interesting fact that I found is that the maximum track mileage of 254,251 miles was achieved way back in 1916 and has progressively gotten smaller due to planes and primarily trucks able to use the interstate highway system to haul freight. The author also discusses Railroad Post Offices and the Railway Express Agency, both of which primarily disappeared by the end of the 1960s. He also gives a more detailed differentiation between Hobos, who used the rails to travel to distant places to find work; Tramps, who traveled to different places but weren't necessarily looking for employment, and Bums, who simply felt entitled to handouts without bothering to travel anywhere to look for employment.
I learned that before my time, trains had no or limited passenger travel on Sundays for religious reasons, and if you did travel on Sunday, you were supposed to be going to services in another city. Taking a wild guess here, I would surmise some people lied about that point. Another interesting point that also occurred before my time was that soldiers during WWII, other than officers, had to double bunk on troop transport trains with each sleeping head to toe of the other fellow.
Another neat section was on how railroads laid out entire towns focused on their main station or depot. The main street would dead end into it and most residential and small commercial establishments were on the same side of the tracks as the depot. Normally large industrial concerns as grain elevators, stockyards, and large industries would be located on the other side next to the tracks. If you lived on the same side as these large industrial concerns on land typically not laid out by the railroad engineers, it was said you lived on the wrong side of tracks.
There is simply too much to tell all that is explained and detailed in this book. Highly recommended for all railroad and history buffs concerned with this period of US history. The pictures were very good and added greatly to visualizing some of the events discussed including disasters, and how people dressed during various periods.
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Railroads and the American People Railroads Past and Present (Audible Audio Edition) H Roger Grant Todd Barsness University Press Audiobooks Books Reviews
H. Roger Grant is the Head of the History Department at Clemson University in South Carolina and has written or co-authored at least histories of the Wabash "Follow the Flag" A History of the Wabash Railroad Company (Railroads in America), the Erie-Lackawanna Erie Lackawanna The Death of an American Railroad, 1938-1992 and the Chicago and North Western railroads and a total of 28 rail history books. Professor Grant is the President of the Lexington Transportation History Group, a society mainly of transportation historians and leaders, and along with Lexington Group Treasurer and Nwsletter Editor Professor Don Hofshommer of St. Cloud State University in St.Cloud, MN, (whom he often collaborates with) is one of the foremost railroad historians in the United States. This book, which takes a largely sociological approach is not dull economic and financial history, but a very readable description of the role railroads played and play in American society. It describes locomotives, munincipal rivalries, industries, passenger travel, stations, heroes, villains and the narrative of American transportation in an enjoyable and informative broad brush approach.
Having been trained as a historian my only gripe with Professor Grant's scholarship is when he deviates from railroading and describes the shameful internment of Japanese-Americans as "America's Gulag" in describing the role US railroads played in World War II. As Head of a History Department he should know that there is no way to compare the US internment of Japanese US citizens with Stalin's Gulag in size nor nature.
Other than that nit-pick (my main area of history study was Russia and Germany) there is nothing to find fault with. OK, perhaps a bit more on the Civil War would do, but as this is not a chronological narrative history one can understand that. Railroad enthusiasts from coast to coast might bemoan that their favorite "fallen flag" or flags were not included to their satisfaction. However, there is a lot of historical geography in this tome and descriptions on such thigs as what was the origin of the phrase "other side of the tracks" and even how railroads influenced place names in the United States. In its discussion of passenger travel it brings a lot of history to the discussion of the future of intercity railroad passenger service in the US in a non-polemic and informative manner. This book needs to be in the library of every serious student and teacher of US History and every serious observer or professional involved in American railroading's past or future. Easy four if not five stars!
For those of us old enough to remember train travel or those having worked on or with railroads for part of their life as have I [working as a gandy-dancer or laborer repairing track while attending college in the 1960s] this brings back memories of railroading both good and bad. Fixing rails in 100 degree heat wasn't fun, but travel on trains was still a big adventure in the 1950s. For those not of such an age, this is a great book to learn all about railroading and how it changed the history of our country. The author divides the book into four main sections - trains and train travel, train stations, railroads and how they affected community life, and the legacy that railroading has left us today.
The book is printed on a high quality glossy paper, which is important as there are well over 100 B/W plates to help visualize the prose. As for the prose itself, the author speaks in a friendly rather than pedagogical voice, making it easy and fun to read. The book is full of fact, but the history is told as by someone you know simply relating a story to you.
The primary years covered are 1830 to 1930, but the author does continue on with his history to the present.
An interesting fact that I found is that the maximum track mileage of 254,251 miles was achieved way back in 1916 and has progressively gotten smaller due to planes and primarily trucks able to use the interstate highway system to haul freight. The author also discusses Railroad Post Offices and the Railway Express Agency, both of which primarily disappeared by the end of the 1960s. He also gives a more detailed differentiation between Hobos, who used the rails to travel to distant places to find work; Tramps, who traveled to different places but weren't necessarily looking for employment, and Bums, who simply felt entitled to handouts without bothering to travel anywhere to look for employment.
I learned that before my time, trains had no or limited passenger travel on Sundays for religious reasons, and if you did travel on Sunday, you were supposed to be going to services in another city. Taking a wild guess here, I would surmise some people lied about that point. Another interesting point that also occurred before my time was that soldiers during WWII, other than officers, had to double bunk on troop transport trains with each sleeping head to toe of the other fellow.
Another neat section was on how railroads laid out entire towns focused on their main station or depot. The main street would dead end into it and most residential and small commercial establishments were on the same side of the tracks as the depot. Normally large industrial concerns as grain elevators, stockyards, and large industries would be located on the other side next to the tracks. If you lived on the same side as these large industrial concerns on land typically not laid out by the railroad engineers, it was said you lived on the wrong side of tracks.
There is simply too much to tell all that is explained and detailed in this book. Highly recommended for all railroad and history buffs concerned with this period of US history. The pictures were very good and added greatly to visualizing some of the events discussed including disasters, and how people dressed during various periods.
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