Summary:

For most of the 19th and much of the 20th centuries, railroads
dominated American transportation. They transformed life and captured
the imagination. Yet by 1907 railroads had also become the largest
cause of violent death in the country, that year claiming the lives
of nearly twelve thousand passengers, workers, and others. In Death
Rode the Rails Mark Aldrich explores the evolution of railroad safety
in the United States by examining a variety of incidents: spectacular
train wrecks, smaller accidents in shops and yards that devastated
the lives of workers and their families, and the deaths of thousands
of women and children killed while walking on or crossing the
street-grade tracks. The evolution of railroad safety, Aldrich
argues, involved the interplay of market forces, science and
technology, and legal and public pressures. He considers the railroad
as a system in its entirety: operational realities, technical
constraints, economic history, internal politics, and labor
management. Aldrich shows that economics initially encouraged
American carriers to build and operate cheap and dangerous lines.
Only over time did the trade-off between safety and output -- shaped
by labor markets and public policy -- motivate carriers to develop
technological improvements that enhanced both productivity and
safety.A fascinating account of one of America's most important
industries and its dangers, Death Rode the Rails will appeal to
scholars of economics and the history of transportation, technology,
labor, regulation, safety, and business, as well as to railroad
enthusiasts.

Classification:

(click to see other 'Books on the Same Shelf')

Dewey Class: 509 -- Historical, areas, persons treatment

Book Details:

Physical Description: 6.8"x9.8"x1.1"; 1.9 lb; 480 pages
Edition Info: Paperback; 2009-10-06

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Subjects:

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•	Business & Investing -- Economics -- Labor & Industrial Relations (1843)
•	Business & Investing -- Industries & Professions -- Transportation (1216)
•	Business & Investing -- Popular Economics -- Labor Policy (919)
•	History -- Americas -- United States -- General (11612)
•	History -- World -- Transportation -- Railroads (331)
•	Science -- History & Philosophy -- History of Science (1703)

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