Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America

Describes the roll played by the transcontinental railroads in the making of modern America during the Gilded Age, discussing the economic panics caused by their debt and how their dependence on donations from the wealthy initiated new forms of corruption. 20,000 first printing.

Introduction — Genesis. First principles ; Patriotism and profit ; The acts of the founders ; Building with other people's money ; Golden spike — A railroad life: H.K. Thomas — Annus horribilis: 1873. Springtime in Mexico ; Springtime in Canada ; The Indians' perpetual winter ; Political storms brewing ; Information and trust ; The long winter ; Stories of the fall — A railroad life: William Hyde — Friends. The lobby ; Antimonopoly and party politics ; The Southern Transcontinental ; Reform in the Gilded Age ; A railroad life: Elias C. Boudinot — Spatial politics. Absolute space ; Relational space ; The things they carried ; How railroad rates construct space ; The rise of the octopus ; Regulating space — A railroad life: Alfred A. Cohen — Kilkenny cats. Creative destruction ; The Colton trial ; Territory ; Rationalizing irrationality ; Superheroes of bad management ; A system that did not bury its dead — Mise en scene: labor in nature — Men in octopus suits. The visible hand ; Men and boys: manhood and management ; A political animal ; Going off the tracks — A railroad life: William Mahl — Workingmen. Control of work ; The knights of labor ; Contract labor and the Chinese ; Rock springs ; Workers' marginalism — A railroad life: William Pinkerton — Looking backward. Benevolent trusts ; Waiting for natural monopoly ; Labor's defeats ; Bears ; The Interstate Commerce Commission ; The Interstate-Commerce Railway Association — Mise en scene: the death of Johanna Grogan — Collapse. An Alcoholics Anonymous for railroads ; Bankers ; Villard and Adams ; The second fall of Henry Villard ; The panic of 1893 ; The struggles of the octopus — Mise en scene: reading the newspapers — Strike. The courts ; Union Pacific and Great Northern ; Pullman ; The decline of the octopus — Mise en scene: following the detectives — Creative destruction. Dumb growth ; Cattle ; The diverging Dakotas ; Rain follows the plow — Mise en scene: Wovoka — Epilogue — Conclusion.