Sander's thoughtful and informed study of this pioneering philanthropist is the first to recognize Garrett and her monumental contributions to equality in America.
In the nineteenth century Woman's Exchanges formed a vast national network that created economic alternatives for financially vulnerable women in a world that permitted few respectable employment options. One of the nation's oldest continuously operating voluntary movements many are still in business after more than a century the Exchanges were fashionable and popular shops where women who had fallen on hard times could sustain themselves by selling their handiwork on consignment without having to seek public employment. Over the century Exchanges became an important forum for entrepreneurial growth and an example of how women used the voluntary sector which had so successfully served as a conduit for their political and social reforms to advance opportunities for economic independence.
How John W. Garrett and the B&O Railroad he headed for twenty-six years helped to transform America by linking the nation. Chartered in 1827 as the country’s first railroad, the legendary Baltimore and Ohio played a unique role in the nation’s great railroad drama and became the model for American railroading. John W. Garrett, who served as president of the B&O from 1858 to 1884, ranked among the great power brokers of the time. In this gripping and well-researched account, historian Kathleen Waters Sander tells the story of the B&O’s beginning and its unprecedented plan to build a rail line from Baltimore over the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River, considered to be the most ambitious engineering feat of its time. The B&O’s success ignited “railroad fever” and helped to catapult railroading to America’s most influential industry in the nineteenth century. Taking the B&O helm during the railroads’ expansive growth in the 1850s, Garrett soon turned his attention to the demands of the Civil War. Sander explains how, despite suspected Southern sympathies, Garrett became one of President Abraham Lincoln's most trusted confidantes and strategists, making the B&O available for transporting Northern troops and equipment to critical battles. The Confederates attacked the B&O 143 times, but could not put “Mr. Lincoln’s Road” out of business. After the war, Garrett became one of the first of the famed Gilded Age tycoons, rising to unimagined power and wealth. Sander explores how—when he was not fighting fierce railroad wars with competitors—Garrett steered the B&O into highly successful entrepreneurial endeavors, quadrupling track mileage to reach important commercial markets, jumpstarting Baltimore’s moribund postwar economy, and constructing lavish hotels in Western Maryland to open tourism in the region. Sander brings to life the brazen risk-taking, clashing of oversized egos, and opulent lifestyles of the Gilded Age tycoons in this richly illustrated portrait of one man’s undaunted efforts to improve the B&O and advance its technology. Chronicling the epic technological transformations of the nineteenth century, from rudimentary commercial trade and primitive transportation westward to the railroads’ indelible impact on the country and the economy, John W. Garrett and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is a vivid account of Garrett’s twenty-six-year reign.
Sander's thoughtful and informed study of this pioneering philanthropist is the first to recognize Garrett and her monumental contributions to equality in America.
In the nineteenth century Woman's Exchanges formed a vast national network that created economic alternatives for financially vulnerable women in a world that permitted few respectable employment options. One of the nation's oldest continuously operating voluntary movements many are still in business after more than a century the Exchanges were fashionable and popular shops where women who had fallen on hard times could sustain themselves by selling their handiwork on consignment without having to seek public employment. Over the century Exchanges became an important forum for entrepreneurial growth and an example of how women used the voluntary sector which had so successfully served as a conduit for their political and social reforms to advance opportunities for economic independence.
Women's clubs and organizations have always been vitally important to the health and well-being of the city of Akron, Ohio. They brought much-needed services to the city, created health institutions that continue today, and built Akron's cultural and literary foundations." "The story of women and their organizations is not told in typical histories of the city. Those historics of Akron have concentrated on the industrial, business, and government/political foundation of the city, the rubber barons, and the well-known, affluent men. Yet Akron women and their accomplishments cannot be overlooked. Over the decades, women, usually working through their clubs and organizations, have transformed the city."--BOOK JACKET.
Drawing on extensive research of archives, historical journals and newspapers, letters, and academic studies, McCarthy (history, the Graduate Center of the State U. of New York; she's director of its Center for the Study of Philanthropy) has written a detailed and thoughtful analysis of philanthropy in the US up to the Civil War. In the process, she defines the mores and trends in American society during eras marked by the struggle for abolition, fights against racism, and efforts to institute social justice. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).
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