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Engines of redemption : railroads and the reconstruction of capitalism in the New South / R. Scott Huffard Jr.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, (c)2019.Description: 1 online resourceContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • computer
Carrier type:
  • online resource
ISBN:
  • 9781469652832
Subject(s): Genre/Form: LOC classification:
  • HE2761 .E545 2019
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
Contents:
Subject: "After the upheavals of the Civil War and Reconstruction shattered the plantation economy of the Old South, white southerners turned to the railroad to reconstruct capitalism in the region. Engines of redemption examines the rapid growth, systemization, and consolidation of the southern railroad network in the decades after the Civil War. White elites and boosters used the symbolic power of the railroad to proclaim that a New South had risen and the Civil War was in the past. The railroad was more than just the economic engine of growth; it served as a powerful symbol of capitalism's advance. However, the railroad also introduced new dangers and anxieties into southern life, and white southerners came to fear an upending of the racial order, epidemics of yellow fever, train wrecks, violent train robbers, and domination by monopolistic corporations. To complete the reconstruction of capitalism, railroad corporations and their booster allies had to sever the negative aspects of railroading from capitalism's powers and deny the railroad's transformative powers to black southerners. The New South's experience with the growing railroad network provides valuable insights into the history of capitalism, and into how capitalism evolves, expands, and overcomes resistance"--
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Includes bibliographies and index.

"After the upheavals of the Civil War and Reconstruction shattered the plantation economy of the Old South, white southerners turned to the railroad to reconstruct capitalism in the region. Engines of redemption examines the rapid growth, systemization, and consolidation of the southern railroad network in the decades after the Civil War. White elites and boosters used the symbolic power of the railroad to proclaim that a New South had risen and the Civil War was in the past. The railroad was more than just the economic engine of growth; it served as a powerful symbol of capitalism's advance. However, the railroad also introduced new dangers and anxieties into southern life, and white southerners came to fear an upending of the racial order, epidemics of yellow fever, train wrecks, violent train robbers, and domination by monopolistic corporations. To complete the reconstruction of capitalism, railroad corporations and their booster allies had to sever the negative aspects of railroading from capitalism's powers and deny the railroad's transformative powers to black southerners. The New South's experience with the growing railroad network provides valuable insights into the history of capitalism, and into how capitalism evolves, expands, and overcomes resistance"--

Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction: A System Grand and Harmonious; Part I. Casting the Spell; Chapter One. Reunited with Bands of Iron; Chapter Two. The Phantasmagoria of the Rail; Chapter Three. Conjure the Railroad; Part II. To the Netherworld; Chapter Four. Flight of the Yellow-Winged Monster; Chapter Five. Damnable Conspiracies; Chapter Six. Ubiquitous, Promiscuous, Frequent, and Numerous; Chapter Seven. Fighting the Octopus; Conclusion: A Procession of Spectres; Notes; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y

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