The Railroad and the State

Reviewed by: The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America Maury Klein (bio) The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America. By Robert G. Angevine. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004. Pp. xvii+351. $65. Historians have long pointed to the close relationship between the military and railroad companies during the nineteenth century, but few have explored this in any depth. Business historians have noted that the military provided the railroads not only with executives and engineers, but also with a paradigm for operating a large, far-flung enterprise that had no clear model other than the military hierarchy. However, little attention has been paid to the role of the army in that relationship. Now, Robert Angevine fills this gap in admirable fashion. Angevine argues that "in the years preceding the Civil War, political and commercial considerations rather than military ones guided the army's aid to railroads, important factions within the army resisted a closer relationship to railroads, and the army's assistance efforts did not increase its appreciation of railroads' military value or its ability to incorporate them into practice" (p. xv). In the process, he also "highlights the forces that determine a military establishment's attitude toward technological change" (p. xv). He concludes that "the military was central to technological change and industrial development in nineteenth-century America" (p. 227). Prior to the 1840s, the army supplied engineers and technical aid to early railroads, justifying the policy on the basis of national defense. In the process, it lost a significant number of its engineers, who quit the military to work full time for railroad companies. As the military grew more professional, the Corps of Engineers came to dominate the army and turned increasingly to coastal defense as its top priority. Gradually, West Point– graduate engineers lost their expertise in technical railroad matters. At the same time, railroads dropped their emphasis on defense as a justification and found other ways to raise capital for their rapidly expanding projects, most notably land grants and state subsidies. The onset of the Civil War found the army engineers clinging to outmoded views on the primacy of coastal defense, uninterested in the potential military value of railroads, and untutored in the current state of railroad technology. As a result, the army was obliged to let private companies operate the railroads it utilized during the war, threatening seizure only as a device to gain concessions. However, the emerging generation of army leaders, especially Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, and Phil Sheridan, understood the importance of railroads in moving and supplying troops and incorporated rail technology into their strategic thinking. After the war, these same commanders recognized the crucial role railroads would play in settling and "civilizing" the West by defeating the tribes that correctly viewed the Iron Horse as an instrument dooming their way of life. Accordingly, the army forged a new [End Page 220] relationship with the railroads in which "government provided the land, the army provided the protection, and private businesses built and operated the railroads" (p. 226). This arrangement proved a striking success on the plains, but left the military "wholly unprepared to use railroads to mobilize troops and supplies for an overseas war" (p. 226). The Spanish-American War exposed this weakness with cruel swiftness. In telling this story from the army's point of view, Angevine succeeds in demonstrating the shifts of culture and policy both within the military and in its relationship to what quickly emerged as the nation's dominant industry and technology. As an institutional study, The Railroad and the State brims with insights; for example, the striking consequences of the army's shift in emphasis from civil engineering to military professionalism. At the same time, it illuminates what the author calls "the impact of technology on strategic thought." The research is thorough, the documentation full, and the writing clear. Readers interested in railroads, military history, or the social role of technology will find this study a rewarding experience. Maury Klein Dr. Klein is professor of history at the University of Rhode Island. Copyright © 2006 The Society for the History of Technology

Economic history · Economics · Management · Military history · Military science · Political science · Politics · Revolution in Military Affairs · Spanish Civil War · State (computer science) · American Environmental and Regional History · American History and Culture · History · Law