Regulating Railroad Innovation

Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840-1920

Inbunden, Engelska, 2002

AvSteven W. Usselman

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Efforts to create and mould new technologies have been a central, recurrent feature of the American experience since at least the time of the Revolution. In Regulating Railroad Innovation, historian Steven Usselman brings this neglected aspect of American history to light. For nearly a century, railroad technology persistently posed novel challenges for Americans, prompting them to re-examine their most cherished institutions and beliefs. Business managers, inventors, consumers, and politicians all strained to contain the forces of innovation and to channel technical change toward the ends they desired. Moving through time from the first experimental lines through the polished but troubled railroad machines of the early twentieth century, Usselman examines diverse forums ranging from legislatures, and evolving corporate bureaucracies to laboratories, engineering societies, and world's fairs. In the process, his book situates technology within the dynamic history of an emergent industrial nation and elucidates its enduring place in American society.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2002-03-11
Mått159 x 236 x 30 mm
Vikt780 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor416
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9780521806367

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Part I. Assembling the Machine, 1840–76: 1. Engines of expansion and extraction: the politics of development; 2. Acquiring technology: insider innovation; 3. Patent problems: inventors and the market for technology; Part II. Running the Machine, 1876–1904: 4. Patent remedies: politics, jurisprudence, and procedure; 5. Mastering technology, channeling change; 6. Standardizing steel rails: engineered innovation; 7. Engineering enshrined; Part III. Friction in the Machine, 1904–20: 8. Reluctant innovators: the annoying allure of automatic train control; 9. The limits of engineering: rate regulation and the course of innovation; Epilogue: the enduring challenge of innovation.

'The authors's interdisciplinary stance has enabled him to demonstrate the nature of the interelations and interactions which have taken place between the various elements of the railroad system and to present us with an holist view of the railroad industry. Such an exceptionally detailed and well researched study is uncommon. Its high order of scholarship, and combination of breadth and assiduity, enables the author to make an original, stimulating and valuable contribution to the field of contemporary business history.' Economic History Review