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Jonathan Bean, Zachary Callen. Railroads and American Political Development: Infrastructure, Federalism, and State Building., The American Historical Review, Volume 123, Issue 1, February 2018, Pages 224–225, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/123.1.224
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Railroads are inextricably linked to the history of government in the nineteenth century. By most accounts, the federal government promoted the development of a national railway network and, in turn, augmented its power within the U.S. federalist system. Zachary Callen’s book Railroads and American Political Development challenges this simplistic tale of a federal leviathan bestriding the U.S. railway system. Starting with local and state efforts to develop a railway network, Callen highlights their failure but also notes that later federal achievements were the direct result of states seeking (and shaping) federal subsidies for railroads. Exhaustively researched, this is an illuminating study of railway development and state-federal politics in the antebellum era.
Callen’s monograph is based on in-depth quantitative research analyzing voting records, varying state support for railroads, the comparative quality of the rail network when compared to those of other nations (Britain and France), and numerous other issues. Doggedly asking questions of the evidence, Callen probes into nearly every aspect of antebellum railway policy. Thankfully for the nonspecialist, the author leaves the statistical apparatus to chapter appendixes. The resulting in-text narrative is dense but closely reasoned. For those seeking to understand the early development of railroads, Railroads and American Political Development is worth the effort. It will likely prove tough going for lower-level college courses but may find its place in advanced coursework in political science or history.
