No enterprise is so seductive as a railroad for the influence it
exerts, the power it gives, and the hope of gain it
offers.--"Poor's Manual of Railroads" (1900)
At its peak, the railroad was the Internet of its day in its
transformative impact on American life and law. A harbinger and
promoter of economic empire, it was also the icon of a
technological revolution that accelerated national expansion and in
the process transformed our legal system. James W. Ely Jr., in the
first comprehensive legal history of the rail industry, shows that
the two institutions-the railroad and American law-had a profound
influence on each other.
Ely chronicles how "America's first big business" impelled the
creation of a vast array of new laws in a country where
long-distance internal transport had previously been limited to
canals and turnpikes. Railroads, the first major industry to
experience extensive regulation, brought about significant legal
innovations governing interstate commerce, eminent domain, private
property, labor relations, and much more. Much of this development
was originally designed to serve the interests of the railroads
themselves but gradually came to contest and control the industry's
power and exploitative tendencies.
As Ely reveals, despite its great promise and potential as an
engine of prosperity and uniter of far-flung regions, the railroad
was not universally admired. Railroads uprooted people, threatened
local autonomy, and posed dangers to employees and the public
alike--situations with unprecedented legal ramifications. Ely
explores the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which
those ramifications played out, as railroads crossed state lines
and knitted together a diverse nation with thousands of miles of
iron rail.
Epic in its scope, "Railroads and American Law" makes a complex
subject accessible to a wide range of readers, from legal
historians to railroad buffs, and shows the many ways in which a
powerful industry brought change and innovation to America.
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