The Texas Railroad Commission: Understanding Regulation in America to the Mid-twentieth Century (Volume 17) (Kenneth E. Montague Series in Oil and Business History) - Hardcover

Childs, William R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1585444529 ISBN 13: 9781585444526

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press, 2005

Synopsis

Before OPEC took center stage, one state agency in Texas was widely believed to set oil prices for the world. The Texas Railroad Commission (TRC) evolved from its founding in 1891 to a multi-divisional regulatory commission that oversaw not only railroads but also a number of other industries central to the modern American economy: petroleum production, natural gas utilities, and motor carriers (buses and trucks).

William R. Childs’s unprecedented study of the TRC from its founding until the mid-twentieth century extends our knowledge of commission-style regulation. It focuses on the interplay between business and regulators, between state and national regulatory commissions, and among the three branches of government through a process of “pragmatic federalism.”

Drawing on extensive primary research, Childs demonstrates that the alleged power of regulatory commissions has been more constrained than most observers have recognized. As he shows, the myth of power was devised by the agency itself as part of building a civil religion of Texas oil. Together, the myth and the civil religion enabled the TRC to convince Texas oil operators to follow production controls and thus stabilized the American oil industry by the 1940s.

The result of this fascinating study is a more nuanced understanding of federalism and of regulation, the forces shaping it, and its outcomes.

About this title

About the Author:

WILLIAM R. CHILDS is an associate professor of history at the Ohio State University. His earlier book Trucking and the Public Interest: The Emergence of Federal Regulation, 1914–1940 was listed by Choice magazine as an “Outstanding Academic Book.” He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Review:

“. . . the most in-depth study of Texas’ well-known regulatory commission through the 1930s. Professor Childs has done an impressive amount of research for this book [and] it will be an important contribution to the literature on Texas, regulation, and the TRC in particular.”--Christopher Castaneda, California State University–Sacramento (Christopher Castaneda, California State University–Sacramento)

About this edition

• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1585444529
• ISBN 13: 9781585444526
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336