| This dissertation examines the transformative role of the railroad in California during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It focuses on the Southern Pacific Railroad and its subsidiaries and the part that it played in the making (and remaking) of places and communities throughout the state. As an agent of change, the Southern Pacific had an immediate and long-term effect on the social, political, and economic construction of place and community. This study explores that effect and seeks to understand its historical importance for the state as a whole.; The dissertation builds on the work of historians such as Richard Orsi, William Deverell, and Albro Martin, while incorporating the theoretical perspectives of Henri Lefebvre and Dolores Hayden.; Like Orsi's work, this study found that the effects of the railroad in California present a past far more complicated than the one Progressive historians have advanced. Although Progressive interpretations have rightfully noted the corruption and depredations of the railroad corporation, they have ignored its contribution in diversifying the region's economy and promoting the welfare of its citizens in places and communities throughout the state.; In addition to complexity, this study also discovered a past that is full of paradoxes, ambiguities, and ambivalence. Deverell's view, for example, that Californians could embrace the technology of the railroad while actively opposing the railroad corporation is one that finds ample expression throughout this dissertation.; The dissertation ends with an analysis of the decline of the railroad and its displacement by autos and trucks. In contrast to Martin's contention that this decline was due largely to restrictive federal legislation, this study found that it was the Southern Pacific's corporate policy of prioritizing the disbursement of profit in the form of dividends rather than capital improvements that played a greater role in the railroad's decline. |
