1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782832803321

Autore

Larson John Lauritz <1950->

Titolo

Internal improvement [[electronic resource] ] : national public works and the promise of popular government in the early United States / / John Lauritz Larson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chapel Hill, : University of North Carolina Press, c2001

ISBN

979-88-908709-8-8

0-8078-7564-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (342 p.)

Disciplina

338.973

Soggetti

Infrastructure (Economics) - Government policy - United States - History - 19th century

Public works - Government policy - United States - History - 19th century

United States Economic policy To 1933

United States Economic conditions To 1865

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [295]-318) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Acknowledgments; Introduction: An Experiment in Republicanism; 1. Designs of the Monied Gentry; 2. Towards a National Republican Alternative; 3. The Problems with State Initiatives; 4. The ""Progress"" of Consolidation; 5. Spoiling Internal Improvements; 6. State Initiatives Again; 7. Into the Railway Age; Epilogue: Designs of a New Monied Gentry; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

When the people of British North America threw off their colonial bonds, they sought more than freedom from bad government: most of the founding generation also desired the freedom to create and enjoy good, popular, responsive government. This book traces the central issue on which early Americans pinned their hopes for positive government action--internal improvement. The nation's early republican governments undertook a wide range of internal improvement projects meant to assure Americans' security, prosperity, and enlightenment--from the building of roads, canals, and bridges to the