Take a photo of a barcode or cover
beersntrumpets 's review for:
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
by Richard White
railroaded is magisterial—white is judicious in his interrogation of primary sources, audacious in his poking at assumptions, and inspiring in his historical-conceptual clarity. and he's a damn fine writer, too. these are tragic, funny, bizarre stories, and he gives them their due.
in addition to being an exceptional work of history, railroaded signals a possible path down which future historians can venture when considering how "corporate capitalism" developed in the nineteenth century. if, as white contends, this is not "the only way that modern corporate capitalism developed... [but] how it developed in this section of the world at this time," what are the implications for our understanding of nineteenth century imperialism and colonialism? more provocatively, what are the implications for our understanding of modern financial, globalized, "late" capitalism? white tells a story of financial fictions dreamed by greedy shepherds of corporate power and the merging of capital and the state apparatus—not dissimilar from the world in which we currently live (well, at least the world we've lived in for a half century now). i am fascinated by how this emergent strain of capitalism interacted with, say, hobsbawm's industrial capitalism of industry and empire, and whether mandel and jameson's late capitalism is a the result of such a dialectical process.
in the last paragraph of the book, white offers a counterfactual history in which the railroads developed differently, sparing american indians (and others) from "bloodshed and slaughter." i do wonder if such a history is possible in the manner white presents: how much of the development of the railroads was predicated on, for example, indian eradication being the goal, not the byproduct? if, as he rightly outlines, the antimonopolists were economic democrats concerned with the production of white, republican citizens, would more measured, less corrupt railroad development have lead to better outcomes for american indians? maybe it's impossible to say.
but, as railroaded makes clear, the disasters of the transcontinental are real. we're contending with them today. we can even point to the transcontinentals and their somewhat causal relationship to the "beef bonanza" as a cause of human-induced climate change!
so, white has provided us with something valuable many times over. best history i've read in ages.
in addition to being an exceptional work of history, railroaded signals a possible path down which future historians can venture when considering how "corporate capitalism" developed in the nineteenth century. if, as white contends, this is not "the only way that modern corporate capitalism developed... [but] how it developed in this section of the world at this time," what are the implications for our understanding of nineteenth century imperialism and colonialism? more provocatively, what are the implications for our understanding of modern financial, globalized, "late" capitalism? white tells a story of financial fictions dreamed by greedy shepherds of corporate power and the merging of capital and the state apparatus—not dissimilar from the world in which we currently live (well, at least the world we've lived in for a half century now). i am fascinated by how this emergent strain of capitalism interacted with, say, hobsbawm's industrial capitalism of industry and empire, and whether mandel and jameson's late capitalism is a the result of such a dialectical process.
in the last paragraph of the book, white offers a counterfactual history in which the railroads developed differently, sparing american indians (and others) from "bloodshed and slaughter." i do wonder if such a history is possible in the manner white presents: how much of the development of the railroads was predicated on, for example, indian eradication being the goal, not the byproduct? if, as he rightly outlines, the antimonopolists were economic democrats concerned with the production of white, republican citizens, would more measured, less corrupt railroad development have lead to better outcomes for american indians? maybe it's impossible to say.
but, as railroaded makes clear, the disasters of the transcontinental are real. we're contending with them today. we can even point to the transcontinentals and their somewhat causal relationship to the "beef bonanza" as a cause of human-induced climate change!
so, white has provided us with something valuable many times over. best history i've read in ages.