Engines of Redemption - by R Scott Huffard (Paperback)

About the Book

"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" --

Book Synopsis

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. Examining the rapid growth, systemization, and consolidation of the southern railroad network, R. Scott Huffard Jr. demonstrates how economic and political elites used the symbolic power of the railroad to proclaim a New South had risen. The railroad was more than just an economic engine of growth; it was a powerful symbol of capitalism's advance.

However, as the railroad spread across the region, it also introduced new dangers and anxieties. White southerners came to fear the railroad would speed an upending of the racial order, epidemics of yellow fever, train wrecks, violent robberies, and domination by corporate monopolies. To complete the reconstruction of capitalism, railroad corporations and their allies had to sever the negative aspects of railroading from capitalism's powers and deny the railroad's transformative powers to black southerners. This study of the New South's experience with the growing railroad network provides valuable insights into the history of capitalism -- how it evolves, expands, and overcomes resistance.

Review Quotes

"A well-written and timely study. . . . [A] valuable addition to the burgeoning history of capitalism."--American Nineteenth Century History

"An exceptional piece of railroad history that both tells an important historical narrative about the growth of the southern post-Civil War railroad network while at the same time using the railroad as a mechanism to investigate themes around race, capitalism, and technological progress. . . . exceptional." -- American Historical Review

"Based on extensive research in southern newspapers, archive collections, and memoirs. . . . The book is a refreshing change because it uses sources in a fresh way to reveal how and why southerners responded to the massive changes that swept through the New South."--North Carolina Historical Review

About the Author

R. Scott Huffard Jr. is assistant professor of history at Lees-McRae College.