Rapid population growth in the Great Plains and the American West after the Civil War was the result not only of railroad expansion but of a collaboration among competing railroads to adopt a uniform width for track. The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890 shows how the consolidation of smaller railroads and the growth of capitalism worked to unify the fragmented railroad industry through standardization. George Rogers Taylor and Irene D. Neu cover the emergence of railroads before and during the Civil War, their expansions westward, the gradual adoption of a national rail gauge, and the development of standardized equipment and car interchange rules that set examples for American industry in general. A pioneering work first published in 1956, The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890 provides a framework for understanding how advancements in technology are both impeded and fostered by political processes and commercial pressures. This paperback edition features three full-color fold-out maps and a new introduction by Railroad History editor Mark Reutter.

Creator and first president of the New York Central Railroad, Erastus Corning was one of the outstanding American businessmen of the midnineteenth century. Merchant and manufacturer, railroad promoter, land speculator, financier, and politician, he built a fortune from nothing to eight million dollars. In her skillfully written biographical study, Professor Neu tells the story of this man's varied and highly successful career and, in the telling, traces the pattern of domestic mercantile activity in the early and middle years of the past century. Corning is best remembered as the "architect" of the New York Central Railroad, and the author has been particularly successful in explaining the process by which he lost control of it to Cornelius Vanderbilt. Here also is a unique account of the activities of a state bank in the 1830's, both interesting and important because it was one in "the wave of state bank incorporations" that attended Jackson's attack on the Bank of the United States. Professor Neu has done a thorough job of research in the sources and treated her material with historical detachment. Lucid in organization and style, her able work answers the need for a full-scale treatment of a man whose reputation was nationwide.