| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Railroads and American Law. By James W. Ely Jr. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001. x, 365 pp. $39.95, ISBN 0-7006-1144-4.)

Although the railroad's shaping effect on American law has long been recognized, we are now indebted to James W. Ely Jr. for richly documenting that impact and showing just how widespread it was. In the process of so doing, the author has produced a model work of legal history. The model assesses the effect of an influence, here the railroad, by surveying state and federal laws along with state and federal judicial and administrative decisions, while always striving to place the material in a meaningful historical context. Railroads and American Law is a testament to the value of this type of legal history, here refined even further by the author's balanced approach to his subject. 1

Under Ely's careful examination, preexisting generalizations about the railroad and the law fail to hold up. One such generality is that railroads were shielded from tort liability to encourage economic development. Neither that conclusion nor others proposed in its stead can house the disparate evidence that his study has generated. For instance, as early as 1856, Georgia abolished the fellow-servant defense in railroad injury cases. Legislatures and judges continually took into account the public interest, a private interest in property, and individual responsibility in coping with the iron horse. . . .

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