Just for the record, I would recommend Mark Hemphill’s Union Pacific Book about the Salt Lake Route. It is well writtten, has great photos and is substantial enough to drop it on a spider when a husband’s work travel means there are no boots in the house available to accomplish said task.
I also liked the recommendation earlier in this post about chosing books based on your own area. Many small town libraries have books, though not always well-written ones, that chronical life in the town eons ago. And since so many small towns lived and breathed because of the railroad, there is often mention of that life in those books. They may not even be full size books but booklets, written by the local “historian” for the 50th anniversary of the town or the local church.
Thank you for the kind words in your post of 4/17.
In the second paragraph you said words to the effect of history is what did happen, not what might have happened. I would suggest that is a too narrow view. I would suggest it overlooks the fact that while history is what it is, fixed and cast in stone, that is true only because of what people did or did not do in their present. Had they done different things, different results whould have followed.
For a good example of a book written with this concept clearly in mind see “April 1865 - The Month that Saved America” by Jay Winik. If you don’t want to buy it, you should be able to get in on inter library loan.
Two books come to mind: for anyone interested in Katy history the 1953 work by VV Materson titled 'Katy & Last Fontier". This described the formation of the company and the trk construction during the 1870’s across IT and into TX long before OK became a state. This is just me but I try to gain as much knowlege of a region on a rr from a history viewpoint. You would be surprised on how many of the younger generation have no understanding of rr history & tradition. That is sad. Another work is the 1980 "Rails, Rivalry & Romance by Don Banwart. This large coffee table book was mainly photo copies of rr newspaper articles covering the rrs @ Ft.Scott,KS from 1870-1980.
I agree, except for maybe the spider-smasher part. I view that book as being the letter U in the Railroads of North America series. I’m still awaiting the other 25 volumes. Admittedly, volume X will be a little thin. Volume C should more than make up for it.[:)]
Let me back up a little, if I may. I’m sorry if I sounded a little harsh. I understand what you’re saying. I’ve seen it refered to as counter-factual history. That phrase pretty much covers the what-ifs and if-onlys of history.
I’ll have to check out “April 1865 - The Month that Saved America”, as I’ve found that a lot of counter-factual history makes good, thought provoking reading, at the very least. I’m waiting for someone to write a counter-factual history about a certain period in history that I find interesting. It would be called June, 1914- They shot the wrong guy! If you’re familiar with WW I history, you’ll know what that means.
“Twilight of the Great Trains” by Fred W. Frailey. Explains the “Passenger Problem” and how the railroads dealt with it.
“Organization and Traffic of the Illinois Central System” by the Illinois Central in 1938. Explains what each department does and how each category of traffic is handled. Defines what moves and how it needs to move. Still relavent today.
“The Electric Interurban Railways in America” by Hilton and Due with “American Narrow Gauge Railroads” by Hilton. Explains why these concepts were thought by some to be promising, why these railroads were built, how they were built (where did the money come from), and why they failed. If you want to understand railroading’s “Place” in the transportation world these two books will give you a good start. If you want to understand why the RoadRailer concept languishes, Hilton’s explination of the “Incompatibility Problem” regarding narrow gauge railroads provides insight.
“Piggyback and Containers” by David J. DeBoer. Written by an intermodal “Pioneer” this book explains how and why the intermodal system developed as it did. Interesting chapter on strange but true intermodal technologies that never caught on.
If you’ve noticed, I like books that try to explain “why” something happened as opposed to books that only explain what happened. You can agree or disagree with the “why” part. But trying to figure it out is interesting.
I also read a lot of Civil War history. Every author has a different take on things. There was a Union general named Thomas who either saved the United States or was a barely functional subordinate depending on which book you read. I’ve concluded that he was a competent, inovative general who knew what he needed and what he was&nbs
Just a quick reply on the question of regularion. Without referring to the particular books and teachers that influenced me, I would suggest that:
Regulation was long overdue when it arrived. Cartels, discriminatory practices, stock watering, financial manipulation for a few at the expense of stockholders at large and emplohess, all were characteristics of the industry before regularion.
Much if not all of the above regularion outlived its usefulness. General laws had been put in place that could have controlled the worst of the abuses without any specific railroad regulation, and once trucking became competitive, this competition made much of the exsting regularion harmful to railroads who (1) no longer held a monopoly anywhere, (2) had to work together to avoid nearly all traffic going to trucks, and (3) prevented railroads from earning sufficient profits to attract capital for improvement to better serve customers.
I believe that the need or desirability of regulation was way overstated, and that even if some control was needed, the oppressive regulation that was in fact imposed was guaranteed to wreck the most dynamic industry of the time. This is precisely what Martin was discussing at length in his book.
The interpretation of history is a constantly changing one. Thus the plethora of “revisionist history” books being written. Both Martin and Klein fall into this category – see also Klein’s “The Life and Legend of Jay Gould” which should be on the top 10 list also.