Overview

In 1796, famed engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe toured the coal fields outside Richmond, Virginia, declaring enthusiastically, ""Such a mine of Wealth exists, I believe, nowhere else!"" With its abundant and accessible deposits, growing industries, and network of rivers and ports, Virginia stood poised to serve as the center of the young nation's coal trade. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, Virginia's leadership in the American coal industry had completely unraveled while Pennsylvania, at first slow to exploit its vast reserves of anthracite and bituminous coal, had become the country's leading producer. Sean Patrick Adams compares the political economies of coal in Virginia and Pennsylvania from the late eighteenth century through the Civil War, examining the divergent paths these two states took in developing their ample coal reserves during a critical period of American industrialization. In both cases, Adams finds, state economic policies played a major role. Using coal as a barometer of economic change, Old Dominion, Industrial Commonwealth addresses longstanding questions about North-South economic divergence and the role of state government in American industrial development, providing new insights for both political and economic historians of nineteenth-century America.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sean Patrick Adams (Associate Professor, University of Florida)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.590kg
ISBN:  

9780801879685

ISBN 10:   080187968
Pages:   324
Publication Date:   07 February 2005
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

"List of Figures, Maps, and Tables Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction: The Political Economy of Coal 1. The Intersection of Politics and Geology: America's First Coal Trade 2. The Commonwealth's Fuel: The Rise of Pennsylvania Anthracite 3. Trunk and Branch: State Internal Improvement Networks and the Coal Trade 4. ""Hidden Treasures"" and Nasty Politics: Antebellum Geological Surveys in Pennsylvania and Virginia 5. Miners without Souls: Corporations and Coal in Pennsylvania and Virginia 6. Three Separate Paths: The Impact of the Civil War Epilogue: Capture and Confusion Notes Essay on Sources Index"

Reviews

For anyone interested in state policies, paths of economic development, and antebellum political economy, this study is necessary reading. Choice 2005 Adams's innovative study has opened up a new arena for investigation and, judging from the richness of his analysis, one with great potential. -- Edward J. Davies, II Journal of American History 2005 Adams makes good use of the available primary and secondary sources in support of his thesis. -- Willard Carl Klunder Historian 2006 Historians of many fields will want to take note. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 2006 Explaining the troubled present is not Adam's objective, but his book provides a powerful tool for doing just that. -- Warren R. Hofstra Common-Place 2006 As with any successful study, this one answers some questions and provokes others... One hopes that rather than this being the last word on the subject, it serves as a call for further investigation. -- Andrew M. Schocket Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 2006 An engaging and persuasive work that addresses in a highly accessible manner the intricacies of state-level politics and economic decision-making. -- James Campbell Journal of American Studies 2006 Thoroughly researched, attractively written, and nicely produced, with clear maps and useful data graphs. -- Howell John Harris History 2006 An impressive exemplar of comparative history. Adams is a gifted writer with an excellent eye for detail. -- John Majewski Enterprise and Society 2006 Profoundly powerful insights into the importance of political and economic institutions. -- Robert E. Wright Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2007 This is economic history as it should be written... Adams has created an important and highly readable interpretation of Virginia and Pennsylvania's economic history in the early and mid-1800s, and I commend him. -- Paul Salstrom West Virginia History Rooted in impressive scholarship in the archives, and with a sound knowledge and understanding of the secondary sources, it merits a wide readership. -- Neville Kirk Economic History Review

For anyone interested in state policies, paths of economic development, and antebellum political economy, this study is necessary reading. Choice Adams's innovative study has opened up a new arena for investigation and, judging from the richness of his analysis, one with great potential. -- Edward J. Davies, II Journal of American History Adams makes good use of the available primary and secondary sources in support of his thesis. -- Willard Carl Klunder Historian Historians of many fields will want to take note. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Explaining the troubled present is not Adam's objective, but his book provides a powerful tool for doing just that. -- Warren R. Hofstra Common-Place As with any successful study, this one answers some questions and provokes others... One hopes that rather than this being the last word on the subject, it serves as a call for further investigation. -- Andrew M. Schocket Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography An engaging and persuasive work that addresses in a highly accessible manner the intricacies of state-level politics and economic decision-making. -- James Campbell Journal of American Studies Thoroughly researched, attractively written, and nicely produced, with clear maps and useful data graphs. -- Howell John Harris History An impressive exemplar of comparative history. Adams is a gifted writer with an excellent eye for detail. -- John Majewski Enterprise and Society Profoundly powerful insights into the importance of political and economic institutions. -- Robert E. Wright Journal of Interdisciplinary History This is economic history as it should be written... Adams has created an important and highly readable interpretation of Virginia and Pennsylvania's economic history in the early and mid-1800s, and I commend him. -- Paul Salstrom West Virginia History Rooted in impressive scholarship in the archives, and with a sound knowledge and understanding of the secondary sources, it merits a wide readership. -- Neville Kirk Economic History Review

Just when it looks as if good historical political economy might perish from the earth, along comes Sean Patrick Adams with a study of politics, coal, slavery, and industrialization that is so readable, so compelling, and so richly contextualized that even the most resistant cultural historians should find it immensely rewarding. This is the definitive account of how and why the coal trade developed as it did in Virginia and Pennsylvania. This is history - political, economic, and cultural history - at its finest. - John Lauritz Larson, Pardue University

Author Information

Sean Patrick Adams is an associate professor of history at the University of Florida.

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