In his excerpt “Introduction”, Richard Whites dives into the evolution of railroad corporations of the nineteenth century, their failures and successes, and how the people at the time held negative feelings towards these corporations. His belief is these transcontinental railroads of the 19th century caused great political and social clashes that could have been avoided if it didn’t come into being at the time, but at the same time Richard White acknowledges how these transcontinental railroads shaped what it is today and it is the failures that led to today’s systems.
It’s these railroad connections that connected the East to the West, North to the South, creating plenty of business and investment opportunities for people to get rich, and the rich to get richer, but it came with more negatives than positive at the time according to White. The world at the time just wasn’t ready for such innovation and it also greatly harmed the environment. This is due to there being an excess of railroads, a lot that he saw as unnecessary, and were not efficiently built or controlled, this cost the corporations and the government more than they saw in profits. He saw it more of an “execution” fault, than a fault in the idea of a transcontinental railroad system itself.
White mention’s that Railroaded emphasizes finance capitalism and he states – “It was not “capital” that built the railroads but credit, and the capital was ultimately at risk in the railroads did not belong to the men who controlled them.” (pg. 5) At the same time he goes on to mention Thomas Scott, Henry Vallard and others who were entrepreneurs that helped the railroads to proceed by buying bonds. He then mentions that the market at the time was not set apart from particular state policies, institutions, or social and cultural practices.
Perhaps my favourite part of his introduction is “…although many readers will find such a claim astonishing. It is about the utter uprooting of older ways of life and older ways of communication and travel by a new technology in the hands of new men with a new form of corporate organization.” (pg. 5) He believed that the investments that fed these “new technologies” would have been better spent on other more “current” issues, and not let technological advancement try to get ahead of its time, but looking at it from a view of the world two centuries later from when they were built, those technological advancements were necessary and it is for them that we have this part of the world shaped and as connected as it is today.
A thorough write-up, but I’m a little confused on some points. What is the claim that White thinks readers will find “astonishing,” and why? What is the significance of the quote at the top of para 3, where you note that he claims credit was more important in building the railroads than capital—and how does that tie into the idea of financial capitalism? And if you find his claims persuasive, as you seem to, then why do you conclude that, viewing them from the same 21st century perspective that White shares, the changes he describes were after all “necessary” and helped connect the world we know today?
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