Regulating Railroad Innovation
Business, Technology, and Politics in America, 1840–1920

A study of America's efforts to regulate expanding railroad technology.

Steven W. Usselman (Author)

9780521806367, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 March 2002

416 pages, 28 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.9 x 3 cm, 0.78 kg

'This superb book should be required reading for anyone with the slightest interest in understanding the transformation of the United States from its predominantly rural condition in the mid-nineteenth century to the urbanized and industrial society found in the immediate aftermath of the First World War … Usselman's magisterial command of the sweep of American political debate on technology over the best part of a century brilliantly contextualizes his myriad detailed insights into the evolution of the railroad machine. This book deserves to become a classic text on American history in the modern period.' Journal of Urban History

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], 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]