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Show 134 How Trains Eventalized the Modern World The advent of the transcontinental railroad is arguably the most powerful example of ontological force in American history. It dominated landscapes, histories of perception, and introduced an entirely new way of experiencing space and time. In our current 21stcentury age of instant mobility and new media, the historical significance of the emergent actor in the 19th-century may go unappreciated. But make no doubt about it: the railroad eventalized the world and wrought an entirely new industrial age that harnessed space and time to its industrial advantage. This allowed railway companies, and tycoons, to assemble powerful subjective networks that eventually warranted constitutional protection. Railway companies achieved this objective by making important allies. Steam was the first, and perhaps the most important, alliance with railway companies. Steam enabled mechanical power to progress by encouraging railway workers and engineers to design railway tracks that would travel on a flat, lined surface while avoiding curvatures and steep grades. All of these efforts were done on the train's behalf due to its incredible capacity to sustain movement at such a fast pace with a steam engine. While the train was originally fueled by wood, coal became its natural ally in 1870 because it was cheaper and more readily available, as Great Britain had Although the Reconstruction Amendments were intended to establish their equal protection under the law, they simply did not have the networks to make this idealistic amendment a real possibility. Consequently, the railroad network and its powerful communicative, political, and economic allies left Blacks behind to struggle for their own equalities without modern allies during Jim Crow. In fact, many of the vernacular and performative acts of Black resistance took place on the railroad (see Hasian, 2001; Kelly, 2013) since this was where real progress and real equality - corporate equality - was taking place. Once again, this case study demonstrates that force of the law cannot be attained in synchronic isolation: it is only forceful, or even relevant, inasmuch as it allies itself with other actor-networks. |
