New from the University Press of Kansas:
Railroads and American Political Development: Infrastructure, Federalism, and State Building (Sept. 2016), by
Zachary Callen (Allegheny College). A description from the Press:
America’s founders envisioned a federal government of
limited and enumerated powers. What they could not envision, of course,
was the vast and complex infrastructure that the growing nation would
demand—a demand that became ever clearer as the power and importance of
railroads emerged. The requirements of a nationwide rail network, it
also became clear, far exceeded the resources of state and local
government and private industry. The consequences, as seen in this book,
amounted to state building from the ground up. In Railroads and American Political Development
Zachary Callen tells the story of the federal government’s role in
developing a national rail system—and the rail system’s role in
expanding the power of the federal government. The book reveals how
state building, so often attributed to an aggressive national
government, can also result from local governments making demands on the
national state—a dynamic that can still be seen at work every time the
US Congress takes up a transportation bill.
Though many states
invested in their local railroads, and many quite successfully, others
were less willing or less capable—so rail development necessarily became
a federal concern. Railroads and American Political Development
shows how this led to the Land Grant Act of 1850, a crucial piece of
legislation in the building of both the nation’s infrastructure and the
American state. Chronicling how this previously local issue migrated to
the federal state, and how federal action then altered American rail
planning, the book offers a new perspective on the exact nature of
federalism. In the case of rail development, we see how state
governments factor into the American state building process, and how, in
turn, the separation of powers at the federal level shaped that
process. The result is a fresh view of the development of the American
rail system, as well as a clearer picture of the pressures and political
logic that have altered and expanded the reach of American federalism.
A few blurbs:
“Zachary Callen deftly probes the interface between federalism and
the emergence of the railroad system in the antebellum era. He carefully
traces the gradual shift away from state-centered railroad policy,
pointing out that difficulties in promoting and coordinating railroads
were common and induced western states to take the lead in calling for
federal assistance. This volume casts welcome light on the nascent
movement for federal control of the rail network and raises far-reaching
questions about the nature of federalism in the American constitutional
order.” —James W. Ely Jr.
“In this thoughtful new book, Zachary Callen reveals the politics of
space at the center of America's antebellum railroad saga. The political
energy of railroads played out in state legislatures, in Congress, and
the tensions within and between them. An innovative reading of early
American federalism, its limits and its long-run reverberations in
American industrialization and political development.” —Daniel Carpenter
More information is available
here.
