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America on the Move: A History of Rivers, Rails and Roads from Colonial Times to the Present

Seminar

06.02.2010 09:00  – 20:00 

Location: Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society

Conveners: Christof Mauch (RCC) and Uwe Lübken (RCC)

This seminar will explore how Americans moved around in the course of their history: on rivers and roads, lakes and canals, on horseback and on rail. Our focus was both on the history of transportation and on the environmental implications of waterways, railroads and highways. How did the construction of canals, for instance, and the arrival of steampower transportation change the face of the continent? Who built these infrastructures and under what circumstances? What created the bicycle craze? What were the ideas behind turnpikes and parkways? How did America become the “highway nation”?

Seminar

Seminar

  • The World beyond the Windshield, Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe, ed. by Christof Mauch and Thomas Zeller (2008).
  • Rivers in History: Perspectives on Waterways in Europe and North America, ed. by C. Mauch and T. Zeller (2008).
  • Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Geschichte der Eisenbahnreise: Zur Industrialisierung von Raum und Zeit im 19. Jahrhundert (1989).