The Great Train Race Railways and the Franco-German Rivalry, 1815-1914 [Hardcover]

From their origins, railways produced an intense competition between the two major continental systems in France and Germany. Fitting a new technology into existing political institutions and social habits, these two nations became inexorably involved in industrial and commercial rivalry that eventually escalated into the armed conflict of 1914. Based on many years of research in French and German archives, this study examines the adaptation of railroads and steam engines from Britain to the continent of Europe after the Napoleonic age. A fascinating example of how the same technology, borrowed at the same time from the same source, was assimilated differently by the two continental powers, this book offers a groundbreaking analysis of the crossroads of technology and politics during the first Industrial Revolution.

Allan Mitchell was Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He served on the editorial boards ofThe American Historical ReviewandCentral European History. Trained in both France and Germany, he became a distinguished proponent of comparative European History.

List of Illustrations
Preface

Introduction:The Conundrum of Comparative History

PART I: LAUNCHING THE RAILWAY AGE

Chapter 1. France, 18151870

• Liberalism and the Legrand Star
• The Emergence of the Great Railway Companies
• The Surge of the Second Empire
• Trains and Free Trade
• The Military Implications

Chapter 2. Germany, 18151870

• The Dilemmas of Political Diversity
• Particularism Unbound
• Prussia and the Push for Unification
• Before the Take-Off
• Strategic Thought and Military Action

Chapter 3. Comparisons, 18151870

• Administrative Organization
• Economic Competition
• Military Strategy

PART IlS*