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Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth

Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America

Inbunden, Engelska, 2005

AvSean Patrick Adams,University of Florida) Adams, Sean Patrick (Associate Professor

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In 1796, famed engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe toured the coal fields outside Richmond, Virginia, declaring enthusiastically, "Such a mine of Wealth exists, I believe, nowhere else!" With its abundant and accessible deposits, growing industries, and network of rivers and ports, Virginia stood poised to serve as the center of the young nation's coal trade. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, Virginia's leadership in the American coal industry had completely unraveled while Pennsylvania, at first slow to exploit its vast reserves of anthracite and bituminous coal, had become the country's leading producer. Sean Patrick Adams compares the political economies of coal in Virginia and Pennsylvania from the late eighteenth century through the Civil War, examining the divergent paths these two states took in developing their ample coal reserves during a critical period of American industrialization. In both cases, Adams finds, state economic policies played a major role.Virginia's failure to exploit the rich coal fields in the western part of the state can be traced to the legislature's overriding concern to protect and promote the interests of the agrarian, slaveholding elite of eastern Virginia. Pennsylvania's more factious legislature enthusiastically embraced a policy of economic growth that resulted in the construction of an extensive transportation network, a statewide geological survey, and support for private investment in its coal fields. Using coal as a barometer of economic change, Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth addresses longstanding questions about North-South economic divergence and the role of state government in American industrial development, providing new insights for both political and economic historians of nineteenth-century America.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2005-02-07
Mått152 x 229 x 24 mm
Vikt590 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieStudies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of Philadelphia
Antal sidor324
FörlagJohns Hopkins University Press
ISBN9780801879685

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List of Figures, Maps, and TablesSeries Editor's ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Political Economy of Coal1. The Intersection of Politics and Geology: America's First Coal Trade2. The Commonwealth's Fuel: The Rise of Pennsylvania Anthracite3. Trunk and Branch: State Internal Improvement Networks and the Coal Trade4. "Hidden Treasures" and Nasty Politics: Antebellum Geological Surveys in Pennsylvania and Virginia5. Miners without Souls: Corporations and Coal in Pennsylvania and Virginia6. Three Separate Paths: The Impact of the Civil WarEpilogue: Capture and ConfusionNotesEssay on SourcesIndex

For anyone interested in state policies, paths of economic development, and antebellum political economy, this study is necessary reading. Choice 2005 Adams's innovative study has opened up a new arena for investigation and, judging from the richness of his analysis, one with great potential. -- Edward J. Davies, II Journal of American History 2005 Adams makes good use of the available primary and secondary sources in support of his thesis. -- Willard Carl Klunder Historian 2006 Historians of many fields will want to take note. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 2006 Explaining the troubled present is not Adam's objective, but his book provides a powerful tool for doing just that. -- Warren R. Hofstra Common-Place 2006 As with any successful study, this one answers some questions and provokes others... One hopes that rather than this being the last word on the subject, it serves as a call for further investigation. -- Andrew M. Schocket Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 2006 An engaging and persuasive work that addresses in a highly accessible manner the intricacies of state-level politics and economic decision-making. -- James Campbell Journal of American Studies 2006 Thoroughly researched, attractively written, and nicely produced, with clear maps and useful data graphs. -- Howell John Harris History 2006 An impressive exemplar of comparative history. Adams is a gifted writer with an excellent eye for detail. -- John Majewski Enterprise and Society 2006 Profoundly powerful insights into the importance of political and economic institutions. -- Robert E. Wright Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2007 This is economic history as it should be written... Adams has created an important and highly readable interpretation of Virginia and Pennsylvania's economic history in the early and mid-1800s, and I commend him. -- Paul Salstrom West Virginia History Rooted in impressive scholarship in the archives, and with a sound knowledge and understanding of the secondary sources, it merits a wide readership. -- Neville Kirk Economic History Review