Robert G. Angevine. The Railroad and the State: War, Politics, and Technology in Nineteenth-Century America. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004. xvii + 351 pp. ISBN 0-8047-4239-1, $65.00 (cloth).

Robert Angevine’s excellent monograph offers valuableinsights for historians of technology, business, and the military.This book details the "symbiotic" relationship of railroadsand the military, showing how the relationship evolved duringthe nineteenth century. Angevine lays out his story chronologically. The fact that theUnited States was going to need some sort of transportationinfrastructure in order to move troops in a timely manner wasfirst realized after the War of 1812. As a result,     

Railroads and Time Consciousness in the Antebellum South

Historians have often looked to industrial capitalism to furtherour understanding of "time consciousness." This article explorestime consciousness through the experience of a railroad in pre-CivilWar South Carolina. Examining the South Carolina Railroad allowsus to examine how time consciousness operated in a region notassociated with industrial capitalism, and also see how multipletimes could function simultaneously. While clocks were importantto railroad operations, companies also had to address an arrayof non-clock times. Moreover, companies were never fully incontrol of their own time, but were in constant conflict andnegotiation with various groups in the community. While industrializationand factory labor remain important ways to understand time consciousness,looking beyond the factory walls can help historians make betteruse of the analytical power of time.