Mark Aldrich: Death Rode the Rails, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Klappentext

For most of the nineteenth and much of the twentieth 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.
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.
"A masterful study of the complex evolution of railroad safety."--American Historical Review
"Students of rail safety, and today's Class I railroad managers, need to read this volume."--Trains
"Aldrich has created a masterpiece. His research is extensive, drawing on a rich variety of obscure yet relevant sources."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society
"One of the first large-scale scholarly studies of railroad safety in America . . . I recommend this book without qualifications."--Railroad History
"A thought-provoking and well-grounded contribution to the history of American economic development."--Journal of American History
"Pioneering . . . A central message of Aldrich's book is that 'little accidents' played a crucial though until now largely hidden role in the gradual evolution of a risk society."--Technology and Culture
"A work of merit . . . essential reading for historians of transport safety, business, and technology."--Journal of Transport History
"Impressive and thoroughly researched . . . Demonstrates how railroad safety evolved from the intersection of market pressures, technology, and public sentiment."--Journal of Southern History