For most of the nineteenthand much of the twentiethcenturies, railroads dominatedAmerican transportation.They transformedlife and they captured theimagination. Yet by 1907railroads had also becomethe largest cause of violentdeath in the country, in thatyear claiming the lives ofnearly twelve thousand passengers,workers, and others.In Death Rode the Rails,Mark Aldrich explores theevolution of railroad safety in the United States by examininga variety of incidents: the spectacular train wrecks,the smaller accidents in shops and yards that devastatedthe lives of workers and their families, and the deaths ofthousands of women and children killed while walking onor crossing the street-grade tracks.The evolution of railroad safety, Aldrich argues, involvedthe interplay of market forces, science and technology, andlegal and public pressures. He considers the railroad as asystem in its entiretyincluding its operational realities,technical constraints, economic history, internal politics,and labor management. Aldrich shows that economics initiallyencouraged American carriers to build and operatecheap and dangerous lines. Only over time did the trade-offbetween safety and outputshaped by labor markets andpublic policymotivate carriers to develop technologicalimprovements that enhanced both productivity and safety.A fascinating account of one of America's most importantindustries and its dangers, Death Rode the Rails will appealto scholars of economics and the history of transportation,technology, labor, regulation, and business, as wellas to railroad enthusiasts. 40 halftones, 29 line drawings.
List of FiguresList of TablesPrefaceIntroduction1. In the Beginning: American Railroad Dangers and Safety, 182818732. Off the Tracks: The Changing Pattern of Derailments, 187319003. Collisions and the Rise of Regulation, 187319004. The Major Risks from Minor Accidents, 187319005. Engineering Success and Disaster: Bridge Design and Failure, 184019006. Coping with the Casualties: Companies, Workers, and Injuries, 185019007. Safety Crisis and Safety First, 190019208. Lobbying for Regulation: Transporting Hazardous Substances, 190319309. Private Enterprise and Public Regulation: Safety between the Wars, 1922193910. Safety in War and Decline, 19401965Conclusion: The Political Economy of Railroad Safety, 18301965Appendix 1: Nineteenth-Century Railroad Accident and Casualty StatisticsAppendix 2: Casualties and Accidents from Interstate Commerce Commission Statistics, 18881965List of AbbreviationsNotesEssay on SourcesIndex
