Home on the Rails

“A groundbreaking contribution to the history of women and the railroad, Richter’s meticulous research and lucid prose illuminate the passage from Victorian America to modern times, the nuanced layers of private lives and separate spheres, and the public culture and corporate strategy that show the remaking of the life and landscape of nineteenth-century America — a terrain where the New Woman took her seat on the Twentieth Century Limited and began the journey anew.” — Indiana Magazine of History

“A fine work of cultural history, broadly conceived and imaginatively researched.” — The Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography

“This is a book about far more than what Americans thought about women riding trains: it is an ambitious consideration of how Americans came to grips with the social, geographic, and economic changes of the second half of the nineteenth century. . . . A work that is intellectually rich, amply documented and contains enough social history on the conditions of rail cars, behaviors of passengers, and Americans' love of travel to merit it a place alongside more traditional historiography on American railroads.” — Journal of Transport History

“[A] major contribution to women’s studies as well as transportation and social history. [Richter] has creatively used sources, including the rich archives of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the self-proclaimed 'Standard Railroad of the World.' The concept of public domesticity is historically important and carefully explored in this well-written and expertly illustrated volume.” — Historian

"This is not your parents' railroad history. . . . [Home on the Rails] breathes life into an old, often stale debate about the role of the ideology of separate spheres in the lives of women. — Technology and Culture

“Contributes to a growing historiography on the public and political implications of seemingly 'private' domesticity. . . . Engaging and innovative. . . . Offers a sophisticated and nuanced analysis of transitions in American society during the nineteenth century. It will hold great interest to general and scholarly audiences.” — Journal of Illinois History

“Railroad buffs out there, beware! The gender train has reached your station. For those of us who travel by train, the experience will never quite be the same again. The old dichotomy of 'public' and 'private' gains new salience through Richter’s fascinating analysis of the railroad as cultural bellwether.” — Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara

“A stylish, original, and entertaining interpretation of the domestication and commodification of public life on the rails at the end of the nineteenth century. Amy Richter’s engaging voice will draw in students, and her arguments about the gendered transformation of public space in Victorian America will spark conversations among scholars at all levels.” — Jane Dailey, The Johns Hopkins University

“Home on the Rails fills a considerable void in the history of trains and travel. Fresh material and a crisp writing style make for a useful and delightful book.” — H. Roger Grant, Clemson University