Recasting American Liberty
Gender, Race, Law, and the Railroad Revolution, 1865–1920

This 2001 book considers the role railroads and streetcars played in transforming the conditions of individual liberty in America.

Barbara Young Welke (Author)

9780521640206, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 August 2001

426 pages, 17 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm, 0.79 kg

"Welke's study...is a welcome addition to the growing literature on how railroading shaped legal culture. Based upon meticulous research in legal records, it will stimulate debate and deserves a large audience." H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online

Through courtroom dramas from 1865 to 1920 - of men forced to jump from moving cars when trainmen refused to stop, of women emotionally wrecked from the trauma of nearly missing a platform or street, and women barred from first class ladies' cars because of the color of their skin - Barbara Welke offers a dramatic reconsideration of the critical role railroads, and streetcars, played in transforming the conditions of individual liberty at the dawn of the twentieth century. The three-part narrative, focusing on the law of accidental injury, nervous shock, and racial segregation in public transit, captures Americans' journey from a cultural and legal ethos celebrating manly independence and autonomy to one that recognized and sought to protect the individual against the dangers of modern life. Gender and race become central to the transformation charted here, as much as the forces of corporate power, modern technology and urban space.

Part I. The Body: Accidental Injury: 1. The railway journey (i): the technological transformation
2. Gendered journeys (i): physical vulnerability
3. The law of accidental injury
Junction: pain and suffering
Part II. Mind and Body: Nervous Shock: 4. The railway journey (ii): the psychological transformation
5. Gendered journeys (ii): psychological vulnerability
6. The law of nervous shock
Junction: truth, legal storytelling, and the performance of injury
Part III. Person: Racial Segregation: 7. The Railway journey (iii): the spatial transformation
8. Gendered journeys (iii): status vulnerability
9. The law of racial segregation.

Subject Areas: Law [L], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]