Steam City

"David Schley crafts a fresh history not just of capitalism in Baltimore but of industrial capitalism itself, attending to the impacts of railroad development on the politics, geography, and image of cities, in a time when railroads were considered public-spirited undertakings. The inherent tensions-between private and public, profit and public good, image and function- were numerous and profound. By the time the railroad was implanted in the landscape, it had become the very embodiment of blind, grasping, confining capitalism. The iron cage is made of iron rails, and the iron rails define the streets, which confine the people"--