Rock Island Requiem

Rock Island Requiem
Author :
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Total Pages : 400
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780700629626
ISBN-13 : 0700629629
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Rock Island Requiem by : Gregory L. Schneider

Download or read book Rock Island Requiem written by Gregory L. Schneider and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2020-02-05 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrated in history and song, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company—the Rock Island Line—was a powerful Midwestern railroad that once traversed thirteen states with its fast freights and Rocket passenger trains but eventually succumbed to government regulation and a changing economy. Gregory Schneider chronicles the Rock Island’s painful decline and along the way reveals some of the key problems within the American railroad industry during the post–World War II era. Schneider takes readers back to a time when railroads still clung to a storied past to offer new insight into the devastating impact of economic policymaking during the 1960s and 1970s. Schneider recounts the largest railroad liquidation in American history—as well as one of the most successful reorganizations in American business—to depict the demise and ultimate collapse of Rock Island as part of a broader account of hard times in the railroad industry beginning in the 1970s. Schneider weaves a complex story of how business, politics, government bureaucracy, and individual greed helped to limit the economic possibilities of the railroad industry and catapult the Rock Island Railroad into oblivion. Weakened by a troubled economy, the Rock fell victim to inept management and labor union intransigence; but Schneider also reveals how government regulations and price controls prevented innovation, hindered capital acquisition, and favored other forms of transportation that lie beyond the scope of regulation. Railroads were even hurt by taxation of property and real estate while competitors were able to use government-subsidized highways and airports without having to pay taxes to fund them. Now that America has gone on to witness the collapse of such mammoth firms as Enron and Lehman Brothers, not to mention the bankruptcy and bailout of General Motors, the story of the Rock provides an instructive lesson in how a major American enterprise was allowed to fall victim to forces often beyond its control—while the bailout of the Penn Central, at the expense of smaller lines like Rock Island, helped initiate the era of “too big to fail.” For economic historians and railroad buffs alike, Rock Island Requiem is a well-researche


Rock Island Requiem Related Books

Rock Island Requiem
Language: en
Pages: 400
Authors: Gregory L. Schneider
Categories: Transportation
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-02-05 - Publisher: University Press of Kansas

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Celebrated in history and song, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company—the Rock Island Line—was a powerful Midwestern railroad that once trav
The Rock Island Line
Language: en
Pages: 181
Authors: Bill Marvel
Categories: Transportation
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-10-01 - Publisher: Indiana University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Explore the rich history of the legendary railroad that spanned the American Midwest in this beautifully illustrated volume. Beginning operations in the mid-nin
Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas
Language: en
Pages: 1
Authors: Michael E. Hibblen
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017 - Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For nearly 80 years, the Rock Island was a major railroad in Arkansas providing passenger and freight services. A decline in rail travel after World War II and
A Mighty Fine Road
Language: en
Pages: 342
Authors: H. Roger Grant
Categories: Transportation
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-10-06 - Publisher: Indiana University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad's history is one of big booms and bigger busts. When it became the first railroad to reach and then cross the Missis
Driftless
Language: en
Pages: 456
Authors: David Rhodes
Categories: Fiction
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-01-01 - Publisher: Milkweed Editions

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

“A fast-moving story about small town life with characters that seem to have walked off the pages of Edgar Lee Masters’s Spoon River Anthology.”—The Wal