One of the most colorful yet neglected eras in American transportation history is re-created in this definitive history of the electric interurbans. Built with the idea of attracting short-distance passenger traffic and light freight, the interurbans were largely constructed in the early 1900s. The rise of the automobile and motor transport caused the industry to decline after World War I, and the depression virtually annihilated the industry by the middle 1930s.
Part I describes interurban construction, technology, passenger and freight traffic, financial history, and final decline and abandonment. Part II presents individual histories (with route maps) of the more than 300 companies of the interurban industry.
"Reviews"
"A first-rate work of such detail and discernment that it might well serve as a model for all corporate biographies. . . . A wonderfully capable job of distillation."
--"Trains"
"Few economic, social, and business historians can afford to miss this definitive study."
--"Mississippi Valley Historical Review"
"All seekers after nostalgia will be interested in this encyclopedic volume on the days when the clang, clang of the trolley was the most exciting travel sound the suburbs knew."
--"Harper's Magazine"
"A fascinating and instructive chapter in the history of American transportation."
--"Journal of Economic History"
"The hint that behind the grand facade of scholarship lies an expanse of boyish enthusiasm is strengthened by a lovingly amassed and beautifully reproduced collection of 37 photographs."
--"The Nation"

This is the first comprehensive account of the capsizing in 1915 of the steamer Eastland, an accident that killed more than 800 men, women, and children--the worst disaster of any kind in the history of Chicago and the worst in the history of the Great Lakes.
Reviews
"Hilton has written a comprehensive and exhaustive study of the worst disaster in Chicago's history. . . . Alterations and the addition of more lifeboats and rafts after the Titanic sank made the Eastland so unstable that it rolled over in the Chicago River. . . . The vessel's entire career is examined, and . . . the disaster itself is meticulously described and analyzed. Hilton also critically evaluates the subsequent civil and criminal court proceedings, raising a number of issues relating to marine safety regulations and the compensation of the victims' families."
--Choice
"Irony and tragedy combine in this account of America's worst marine disaster. . . . Hilton constructs a careful account of the events leading up to the calamity. The disaster itself is recounted minute by minute. . . . The numerous illustrations and period photographs, as well as numerous appendixes, make this a definitive account."
--Library Journal
"This is the book on the Eastland."
--Inland Seas
"It contains vivid accounts of drownings and rescues, heroism and cowardice."
--Chicago Tribune

24 short stories, including the classic You Know Me Al

collection, appear together in this annotated and copiously illustrated edition. Most of the stories describe real teams, real players, and real situations, and the annotation identifies the many references to the real world of early major league baseball that Lardner covered as a reporter. Includes 111 illustrations of ball players, teams, ball parks, newspaper items, and other memorabilia of one of the most fascinating and eventful eras in baseball history.

24 short stories, including the classic You Know Me Al

collection, appear together in this annotated and copiously illustrated edition. Most of the stories describe real teams, real players, and real situations, and the annotation identifies the many references to the real world of early major league baseball that Lardner covered as a reporter. Includes 111 illustrations of ball players, teams, ball parks, newspaper items, and other memorabilia of one of the most fascinating and eventful eras in baseball history.

Enriched with almost 700 illustrations, this book has long been the definitive study of the American cable car, a widely touted form of urban transportation that operated in 29 cities across the United States. This once-promising technology proved inefficient, however, and cable cars were soon replaced by electric trolley cars. Today, they are only to be found as a tourist attraction traversing the steep hills of San Francisco.