Troubled waters : steamboat disasters, river improvements, and American public policy, 1821-1860 / Paul F. Paskoff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Paskoff, Paul F.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Steamboat disasters.

River engineering.

Finance.

Government policy.

Inland navigation.

Industrial safety.

Navigation.

Mississippi River--Navigation--History--19th century.

Mississippi River.

Inland navigation--Middle West--Safety measures--History--19th century.

River engineering--Government policy--United States--History--19th century.

River engineering--United States--Finance--History--19th century.

Steamboat disasters--United States--Prevention--History--19th century.

United States--Politics and government--1815-1861.

United States.

Politics and government.

Mississippi River Valley--History--19th century.

Mississippi River Valley.

Middle West.

Physical Description:

xvii, 324 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2007]

Summary:

Paskoff offers a comprehensive examination of the federal government's river improvements program, which aimed to reduce hazards to navigation on the great rivers of America's interior during the early and mid-nineteenth century. Danger on the rivers came in a variety of forms. Shoals, rapids, ice, rocks, sandbars, and uprooted trees and submerged steamboat wrecks embedded in river beds were the most common perils and accounted for the largest number of steamboat disasters. This daunting array of river hazards required a similarly broad range of efforts to remove or at least ameliorate them. Against a variety of obstacles?natural, political, and technological?the river improvements program succeeded in reducing the rate of steamboat loss, even as steamboat traffic dramatically increased. Its success, Paskoff argues, demonstrates that the federal government was far more active than generally thought in promoting economic growth and development in the years before the Civil War.

Contents:

1 Troubled Waters 11

2 Politics before Polk 40

3 Politics: Polk and Post-Polk 64

4 Ways and Means 109

5 Factors of Destruction 138

6 The Success of Public Policy 164.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-311) and index.

ISBN:

9780807132685

0807132683

OCLC:

82470410