IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014 - 27

BOOK REVIEW

PATRICK KIDD

Railroaded: The Transcontinentals
and the Making of Modern America
by Richard White. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2011, 660 pp.

n the broad sweep of American history, the transcontinental railroads have long been hailed for
their positive effects, chiefly the ability to reduce
what had been a journey of weeks or months
across the continent by foot, wagon, or waterborne vessel - or more likely some combination thereof - down
to a few days. Not only did the rails over the plains and
mountains allow for the movement of people and goods,
but they were also conduits for the exchange of ideas.
Popular perceptions of the Transcontinental Era, spanning the second half of the 19th century, are still colored
by stories of larger than life personalities and heroic
engineering feats.
Modern historians have expended time and effort
to provide us with a fuller understanding of the transcontinental railroads, an understanding that reveals the
political and financial machinations behind the railroads'
creation, while also acknowledging the contributions of
all those involved - including immigrant laborers. Continuing in this vein, Richard White also asks a straightforward question: Should the transcontinental railroads
have been built when and where they were?
In chapters detailing the financial, social, political,
and ecological trade-offs, the author lays out a compelling and well-reasoned case that the feverish rush to
build across the west caused great and needless upheaval
where a more measured, incremental approach would
have better served the nation in the long term. for all
the investment that the federal government made in the
transcontinental lines, the country received poorly maintained railroads and redundant trackage that represented
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2014.2352992
Date of publication: 17 September 2014

squandered resources. Economic markets were distorted,
leading to a series of financial depressions, and corruption seemingly infested everything that the railroads
touched.
Much of White's book focuses on the transcontinentals' financial and political back story. Regarding the
former, it helps to have a vast understanding of finance
and stocks since the author delves into the details of late
19th century banking and financial systems. Ultimately,
he shows that although early railroad promoters committed little of their own funds, they were able to reap huge
financial rewards by taking advantage of bonds and land
grants backed by the federal government and made available under the Pacific Railway Acts of the early 1860s.
Contemporary critics described the transcontinental
railroads as monopolistic enterprises that easily pulled
the strings of their puppets in local, state, and national
legislatures to get laws passed in their favor. White dispels this notion, noting that while railroad barons such as
Leland Stanford could, and did, buy their way into Congress, the broader record of political success is mixed.
In part this was due to competition by new railroads
with transcontinental ambitions. for example, in order
to secure a sphere of influence in the west, the Texas &
Pacific Railroad often lobbied against the dominant Central Pacific, which had built half of the first transcontinental rail. Attempts to control the press were similarly
varied in outcome.
As the rail network extended westward, few people
fully understood how the transcontinentals and railroad
technology would affect their lives or those of their
progeny. The technological limitations of steam locomotives would determine town sites; standard conceptions
of time would be challenged; the knowledge needed to

Patrick Kidd recently completed master's degrees in Urban Planning and Historic Preservation at the University of
Pennsylvania. Currently with Amtrak, he works with communities to revitalize their rail stations through historic preservation, rehabilitation, and new construction. He can be reached at arch182itect@aol.com.
IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2014

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