How railroads changed American government

My review of The Great Railroad Revolution by Christian Wolmar has just been published on Early View for Public Administration Review.  I focus on the way in which this technological shock shaped American government.  “The current fashion is to emphasize the ways in which ideology and institutional inertia constrain the governmental response to such shocks. But Wolmar tells a different story. In the long run, The Great Railroad Revolution suggests, the governmental response to this innovation was pragmatic, hard-headed, and flexible.” A draft of the review is also posted on SSRN.