The Iron Road in the Prairie State: The Story of Illinois Railroading (Railroads Past and Present) - Hardcover

Cordery, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253019060 ISBN 13: 9780253019066

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2016

Synopsis

In 1836, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas agreed on one thing: Illinois needed railroads. Over the next fifty years, the state became the nation’s railroad hub, with Chicago at its center. Speculators, greed, growth, and regulation followed as the railroad industry consumed unprecedented amounts of capital and labor. A nationwide market resulted, and the Windy City became the site of opportunities and challenges that remain to this day. In this first-of-its-kind history, full of entertaining anecdotes and colorful characters, Simon Cordery describes the explosive growth of Illinois railroads and its impact on America. Cordery shows how railroading in Illinois influenced railroad financing, the creation of a national economy, and government regulation of business. Cordery's masterful chronicle of rail development in Illinois from 1837 to 2010 reveals how the state’s expanding railroads became the foundation of the nation’s rail network.

About this title

About the Author:

Simon Cordery researches, writes, and rides on railroads on both sides of the Atlantic. He is Chair of the History Department at Iowa StateUniversity andheads the Inductions Committee of the National Railroad Hall of Fame. Amember of the Lexington Group in Transportation History,he has published twootherbooks and numerous articles.

Review:

The Iron Road in the Prairie State is an informative and beautifully written overview of railroading in Illinois, the hub of the national transportation network. Through the birth, growth, decline, and resurgence of the railroads, Simon Cordery has admirably set local developments in the broader context of national changes in business, labor, and regulatory patterns. (Albert J. Churella author of The Pennsylvania Railroad: Building an Empire)

This remarkable and insightful book offers for the first time a rich narrative about Illinois history through the lens of emerging railroads from their muddy beginnings to the present day. Simon Cordery has succeeded in capturing a unique national understanding of the industry's history by focusing on how railroads and the state of Illinois evolved simultaneously in separate yet interdependent ways. (William E. Greenwood COO Burlington Northern Railroad, retired)

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0253019060
• ISBN 13: 9780253019066
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240