Railroaded
by White, Richard · first published 2011
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This work is a history of the transcontinental railroads and how they transformed America in the decades after the Civil War. The transcontinental railroads of the late nineteenth century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the U.S. economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of l
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on “Ask HN: Good Books on the History of Technology?” ↗…(backed in no small part by London investors), and the building of the railroads was perhaps the most crazy, frenzied, back-room corrupt development of the 19th century. An interesting (but long) read: “Railroaded”, by Richard White.
on “Chicago’s Railroad Problem” ↗Railroaded: The Transcontinentals And The Making Of Modern America - Richard White. Focuses a bit more on the wheelings and dealings than some histories of the same thing. Has thesis the transcontinentals caused…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…offload bonds in a scheme selling the latest technology—railroads—to the next generation of individual investors. “It was like selling to crypto investors today,” says historian Richard White, author of Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. “These investors were basically living off of the promises of famous people they had trusted before.”
on “In 1873, speculation and overinvestment in railroads sparked a financial crisis” ↗