LEADER 04482nam 2200637 450 001 9910456107103321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-282-02558-9 010 $a9786612025587 010 $a1-4426-7846-1 024 7 $a10.3138/9781442678460 035 $a(CKB)2420000000004277 035 $a(OCoLC)288096896 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10218793 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000305956 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11243722 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000305956 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10293325 035 $a(PQKB)11691622 035 $a(CaBNvSL)slc00211197 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3254888 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC4671828 035 $a(DE-B1597)464750 035 $a(OCoLC)979743254 035 $a(DE-B1597)9781442678460 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL4671828 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr11257519 035 $a(OCoLC)958565088 035 $a(EXLCZ)992420000000004277 100 $a20160923h19971997 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe philosophy of railways $ethe transcontinental railway idea in British North America /$fA.A. den Otter 210 1$aToronto, [Ontario] ;$aBuffalo, [New York] ;$aLondon, [England] :$cUniversity of Toronto Press,$d1997. 210 4$d©1997 215 $a1 online resource (317 p.) 300 $aIncludes index. 311 $a0-8020-4161-2 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tAbbreviations -- $t1. Technological Nationalism: The Backdrop -- $t2. The Guarantee Act: Signpost for an Era -- $t3. Nova Scotia: Railways and the New Economy -- $t4. The Grand Trunk Railway: The New Imperialism -- $t5. Saint John: Fulcrum Metropodôl -- $t6. The Pacific Scandal: Nationalism and Business -- $t7. The National Policy: Defining a Nation -- $t8. The Philosophy of Railways: Conclusions and Conjectures -- $tNotes -- $tIllustration Credits -- $tIndex 330 $aWhen, in the late 1980s, the federal government initiated a plan to deregulate the Canadian railway system, lobby groups protested the betrayal of a national mandate. They asserted that the railway was founded to promote a sense of national identity, to provide access to isolated regions of the country, and to ensure a transnational exchange of goods and ideas. In The Philosophy of Railways, A.A. den Otter considers the relationship between nationalism and technology, and shows how the popular rhetoric surrounding the evolution of the Canadian Pacific Railway has mythologized the role of a private corporation and its technology. He questions the notion that the railways were built as an antidote to American manifest destiny, suggesting instead that the widespread adoption of railway transportation as a civilizing mission impelled Canadians to bow to technology's integrating effects, including confederation and closer ties with the United States.The study begins by looking at the intellectual climate that spawned the Canadian railway idea, revealing that this idea was strongly influenced by a combination of British and American liberalism, a philosophy that saw technology as the means to destroy trade barriers. In fact, during the mid-nineteenth century, Canadians preferred to build transportation links to the American seaboard rather than to Saint John or Halifax, and this created a deep-seated alienation in the country's peripheral regions. Not only does den Otter include the Maritimes in his analysis, but he employs a careful reading of national documents including assembly debates, the private correspondence of major political figures, and newspaper commentary to contextualize the public debate.By investigating the complex and ambiguous process by which the Canadian railway system both consolidated national identity and facilitated continental integration, The Philosophy of Railways establishes that isolationism, until relatively recently, was not the unilateral stance of those committed to the growth of the railway. 606 $aRailroads$zCanada$xHistory 608 $aElectronic books. 615 0$aRailroads$xHistory. 676 $a385.0971 700 $aOtter$b A. A. den$g(Andy Albert den),$f1941-$01033807 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910456107103321 996 $aThe philosophy of railways$92452555 997 $aUNINA