The Pennsylvania Railroad at Bay: William Riley McKeen and the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad by Richard T. Wallis (review)

BOOK REVIEWS as the main focus of the book. Nowhere is this more evident than in a brief account of the 1968 urban unrest in Akron. The main point of the story is how Ben Maidenburg, editor at the time of the Beacon Journal, stood up at a meeting of black leaders and city officials and convinced the mayor to lift a curfew and thereby allow black leaders to preserve the peace, which they did. But this account of events privileges white leade s unnecessarily. Love and Giffels do mention discrimination on the shop floor,in unions, and in housing. But the story of ri bbe in Akron needs to be placed more firmly in the history of the area' s social, pol t cal and economic development. The authors especially need to explain how local political and economic institutions helped create and r force racial discrimination in Akron. The b also lacks a thoroughgoing analysis of the rub workers themselves,especially women, blacks, white ethnics. These weaknesses aside, Wheel Fortune should be considered strong journali in short, an informative firstdraft of the histor rubber in Akron. Gregory Wil University of Ak Richard T. Wallis. Tbe Pennsylvania Railroad at Bay:William Riley McKeen and tbe Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,2001. 189 pp. ISBN: 0253338727 cloth), $ 44.95. lthough it was America's greatest railrc and the nation' s largest private employer, mighty Pennsylvania Railroad was no match fo midwestern regional carrier and its resilient m agen In this book,Richard T.Wallis,despite a t dency to lionize his subject and overuse t» organizational and L -___-_.. ff financial miliutiae, D succeeds admirably in illustrating the limits of corporate power. In the process ,Wallis provides a powerful affirma6 . A. 3 t on for the power of hN 1 individual personalty and community fti„ 1„„ A'. i» , · regimented and bureaucratized corporate organization, a process that perhaps led to the ossificatic, n and ultimate collapse of a onceproud railroad empire. Wallis clearly portrays McKeen as an indizidualist rather th. in an obstrtictionist, yet acknowledcies b that this itidividualism was also a reflection of his communitz's values. The book zvo, ild benefit fri, iii a more extensive analysis of the links betwecii coint» nunity . 111, 1 itidustry,soniething that ma>· be difficult tc)accomplish given the absence of icKeens personal papers and at the risk ot turning tlie book int() ati() ther alitiqu. irian case study of local railroad protiiotion and construction. As Wallis indicates, good historical analysis of PRR Lines West are in short supply. Yet this book makes an admirable contribution tc) that literature as wei] as the brcwdei fields of transportation and business historr. Albert Cl): trella Southern Polytecbilic State University Marietta.Gcorgia t d 1 0.'' Ii f* 93 ...