Gabriel Kolko, a left-leaning historian, wrote his Ph.D. thesis to identify the forces that brought railroads under regulation at the end of the 19th century. It was the railroad barons themselves who eventually sought regulation (and thereby brought it about). Kolko recounts the customer protests against high rates, especially for short-haul service, and the cycles of boom and bust, when competition caused railroads to overbuild, and then underprice their services. The railroad industry eventually sought regulation as a means of dividing up the market and ending ruinous competition. This book debunks the common view that Teddy Roosevelt and the progressives, acting at the urging of angry farmers and other customers, forced government to assert regulatory control over the railroads.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Railroads and regulation : 1877-1916


    Contributors:

    Publication date :

    1965


    Size :

    VII, 273 S


    Remarks:


    Type of media :

    Book


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    Local classification TIB:    jur 308
    DDC:    385.10973
    BKL:    15.87 USA / 55.85 Schienenverkehr



    Government regulation of railroads

    Engineering Index Backfile | 1915


    State regulation of railroads

    Nice, David C. | Elsevier | 1986


    Railroads - rates and regulation

    Ripley, William Zebina | SLUB | 2010


    National regulation of railroads

    McCornack, Walter E. | Engineering Index Backfile | 1911