Studies in Transport History Series (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Studies in Transport History Series * H. Roger Grant (bio) Studies in Transport History Series. Edited by John Armstrong. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996. Recently the editorial board of the Journal of Transport History (JTH), published at the University of Manchester in England, decided on an unusual book-publishing venture. It would produce a six-volume Studies in Transport History series, in which important articles from JTH on five major subject areas would be reprinted. The titles are Air Transport; Canals and Inland Navigation; Coastal and Short Sea Shipping; Railways, volumes 1 and 2, and, finally, Road Transport in the Horse-Drawn Era. As a result, the editorial board has made available mostly forgotten and relatively inaccessible pieces of transportation scholarship. After all, the vast majority of American academic libraries and, of course, most scholars lack a complete run of the JTH. Rather than merely reprinting important pieces, each volume contains an introduction in which the assigned editor places the republished works in an appropriate framework. The JTH editorial board has sensibly selected a combination of transport modes. The fact that two volumes deal with railroads is understandable, since historically this mode has had the greatest overall impact on modern society. Coverage is impressive. Although the JTH is English-based, its volumes include global happenings. For example, D. L. Lightner’s study, [End Page 549] “Railroads and the American Economy: The Fogal Thesis in Retrospect,” and A. C. Mierzejewski’s “German National Railway between the World Wars: Modernisation or Preparation for War?” are included. The editor of this volume, Terry Gourvish, has penned a thoughtful introduction, “Railways in the Macro-economy,” a benefit to the reader. Although this review can hardly cover specific contributions (they total sixty-six), additional observations are appropriate. When the literature of transportation in America is considered, the focus has been largely on rail rather than air, animal, canal, or sea. Admittedly, volumes of this series predominantly focus on the British experience; still, the pieces included hold considerable value for students of American nonrail transport topics. Since no subject should be written in a historical vacuum, an article by A. D. George, “Aviation and the State: The Grahame-White Aviation Company, 1912–1923,” offers a valuable context in which to consider the pioneer years of commercial aviation in the United States or elsewhere. If there is a weakness in these six published works, it is the lack of a cumulative or an individual volume index. Yet a table of contents provides some assistance in finding the desired pieces. Finally, the overall scholarly quality of the articles is a superb advertisement for acquiring a subscription to the Journal of Transport History. H. Roger Grant Dr. Grant is chair of the history department at Clemson University, where he edits Railroad History. He has written more than a dozen books on railroad history. Footnotes * Permission to reprint a review published here may be obtained only from the reviewer. Copyright © 1998 Society for the History of Technology