The Philosophy of Railways: The Transcontinental Railway Idea in British North America

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

When the federal government began decom-missioning railways in the
1980s, there were many who interpreted this action as a betrayal of its
national mandate. Ever since Sir John A. Macdonald, had railways not
bound the country together, provided access to remote regions, and
ensured the transnational exchange of people, goods, and ideas? This
romantic view of railways is challenged in this marvelous book by A.A.
den Otter, a professor of history at Memorial University.

The book’s central thesis is that, from the 1840s until the
mid-1870s, contemporaries viewed railways not as instruments of nation
building but rather as agents of civilization and economic improvement.
Many, including John A. Macdonald, supported railways if they achieved
those ends, even if that meant that lines had to cross American borders.
But Macdonald’s public policy on railways was transformed during the
election of 1878, when he distracted voters from the lingering effects
of the Pacific Scandal by presenting railways in a new
light—specifically, as technological instruments of nation building.
Ironically, as den Otter argues, railways failed utterly in their
national purpose. Over time, new lines were built across American
borders, thereby reinforcing integration. In addition, as the eastern
and western regions of the country became more powerful, they came to
resent the railways, seeing them as instruments of the central
provinces.

Den Otter draws extensively on both the primary and the secondary
literature of the period and sets forth his argument in clear and
com-pelling prose. In presenting his thesis, he revises earlier
interpretations not only of railways, but also of events and individuals
associated with them. (Donald Creighton would be flabbergasted to see
his hero portrayed “not as a consummate diplomat and visionary
statesman but [as] a corrupt politician.”) Despite its title, which
might scare off some readers, this is a book that belongs in the library
of anyone who is interested in the history of Canada.