Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America

Author:   Sean Patrick Adams (Associate Professor, University of Florida)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN:  

9780801894008


Pages:   324
Publication Date:   26 January 2010
Recommended Age:   From 17
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America


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Overview

In 1796, famed engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe toured the coal fields outside Richmond, Virginia, declaring enthusiastically, ""Such a mine of Wealth exists, I believe, nowhere else!"" With its abundant and accessible deposits, growing industries, and network of rivers and ports, Virginia stood poised to serve as the center of the young nation's coal trade. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, Virginia's leadership in the American coal industry had completely unraveled while Pennsylvania, at first slow to exploit its vast reserves of anthracite and bituminous coal, had become the country's leading producer. Sean Patrick Adams compares the political economies of coal in Virginia and Pennsylvania from the late eighteenth century through the Civil War, examining the divergent paths these two states took in developing their ample coal reserves during a critical period of American industrialization. In both cases, Adams finds, state economic policies played a major role. Virginia's failure to exploit the rich coal fields in the western part of the state can be traced to the legislature's overriding concern to protect and promote the interests of the agrarian, slaveholding elite of eastern Virginia. Pennsylvania's more factious legislature enthusiastically embraced a policy of economic growth that resulted in the construction of an extensive transportation network, a statewide geological survey, and support for private investment in its coal fields. Using coal as a barometer of economic change, Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth addresses longstanding questions about North-South economic divergence and the role of state government in American industrial development, providing new insights for both political and economic historians of nineteenth-century America.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sean Patrick Adams (Associate Professor, University of Florida)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780801894008


ISBN 10:   080189400
Pages:   324
Publication Date:   26 January 2010
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"List of Figures, Maps, and Tables Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction: The Political Economy of Coal 1. The Intersection of Politics and Geology: America's First Coal Trade 2. The Commonwealth's Fuel: The Rise of Pennsylvania Anthracite 3. Trunk and Branch: State Internal Improvement Networks and the Coal Trade 4. ""Hidden Treasures"" and Nasty Politics: Antebellum Geological Surveys in Pennsylvania and Virginia 5. Miners without Souls: Corporations and Coal in Pennsylvania and Virginia 6. Three Separate Paths: The Impact of the Civil War Epilogue: Capture and Confusion Notes Essay on Sources Index"

Reviews

For anyone interested in state policies, paths of economic development, and antebellum political economy, this study is necessary reading. Choice Adams's innovative study has opened up a new arena for investigation and, judging from the richness of his analysis, one with great potential. -- Edward J. Davies, II Journal of American History Adams makes good use of the available primary and secondary sources in support of his thesis. -- Willard Carl Klunder Historian Historians of many fields will want to take note. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Explaining the troubled present is not Adam's objective, but his book provides a powerful tool for doing just that. -- Warren R. Hofstra Common-Place As with any successful study, this one answers some questions and provokes others... One hopes that rather than this being the last word on the subject, it serves as a call for further investigation. -- Andrew M. Schocket Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography An engaging and persuasive work that addresses in a highly accessible manner the intricacies of state-level politics and economic decision-making. -- James Campbell Journal of American Studies Thoroughly researched, attractively written, and nicely produced, with clear maps and useful data graphs. -- Howell John Harris History An impressive exemplar of comparative history. Adams is a gifted writer with an excellent eye for detail. -- John Majewski Enterprise and Society Profoundly powerful insights into the importance of political and economic institutions. -- Robert E. Wright Journal of Interdisciplinary History This is economic history as it should be written... Adams has created an important and highly readable interpretation of Virginia and Pennsylvania's economic history in the early and mid-1800s, and I commend him. -- Paul Salstrom West Virginia History Rooted in impressive scholarship in the archives, and with a sound knowledge and understanding of the secondary sources, it merits a wide readership. -- Neville Kirk Economic History Review


Adams's innovative study has opened up a new arena for investigation and judging from the richness of his analysis, one with great potential. - Journal of American History As with any successful study, this one answers some questions and provokes others... One hopes that rather than this being the last word on the subject, it serves as a call for further investigation. - Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography An engaging and persuasive work that addresses in a highly accessible manner the intricacies of state-level politics and economic decision-making. - Journal of American Studies An impressive exemplar of comparative history. Adams is a gifted writer with an excellent eye for detail. - Enterprise and Society Profoundly powerful insights into the importance of political and economic institutions. - Journal of Interdisciplinary History This is economic history as it should be written... Adams has created an important and highly readable interpretation of Virginia's and Pennsylvania's economic histories in the early and mid-1800s, and I commend him. - West Virginia History


Author Information

Sean Patrick Adams is an associate professor of history at the University of Florida.

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