Railroads, Reconstruction, and the Gospel of Prosperity

This book describes the southern Republicans' post- Civil War railroad aid program--the central element of the Gospel of Prosperity" designed to reestablish a vigorous economy in the devastated South. Conceding that race and Unionism were basic issues, Mark W. Summers explores a neglected facet of the postwar era: the attempt to build a new South and a biracial Republican majority through railroad aid.

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Autorentext

Mark Wahlgren Summers

Inhalt

• FrontMatter,
• Contents,
• Preface,
• Acknowledgments,
• Chapter 1. "Our Poor Distressed Country",
• Chapter 2. The Necessities of State Aid,
• Chapter 3. An Imaginative Reinterpretation of the Law,
• Chapter 4. "Railroad Fevers" and the Party Line at the Capitols,
• Chapter 5. The Enemy Within: Parochialism Run Amok,
• Chapter 6. Winning Friends and Influencing Legislation,
• Chapter 7. "Let the Representatives . . . Have a Hand in It.",
• Chapter 8. Testing the Gospel of Prosperity, 1870-1871,
• Chapter 9. "They Must Stand Aside . . .": The Republican Mission in Peril,
• Chapter 10. Friends in Need on Capitol Hill,
• Chapter 11. Friends in Deed on Wall Street? The Enemy Without,
• Chapter 12. Railroad Ties and Bonds: Construction, Credit, and the "Consumptive Purse",
• Chapter 13. The Alabama & Chattanooga Catastrophe,
• Chapter 14. "They Have Thus Prostituted . . ." : Republicanism Riven,
• Chapter 15. "A War Now Begins between These Roads and the People," 1873,
• Chapter 16. "Men are Giting Desperate . . .": The Panic, Collapse, and Survival of the Gospel of Prosperity, 1873-1880,
• Coda "And Was Jerusalem Builded Here ?",
• Appendix. Could the Democrats Have Done Better?,
• Abbreviations,
• Bibliography,
• Index,