Argentina and the Emergence of Modern Transportation and Communication Systems, 1860-1910

FAIN: FT-254744-17

Eduardo D. Elena
University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL 33146-2919)

A book-length study about the emergence of modern transportation and communication systems in Argentina between 1860 and 1910.

Conquering Distance: Argentina and the Fortunes of Steam-Age Globalization, 1860-1910 considers how historical actors engaged with the opportunities and dilemmas of a shrinking world. It investigates changing understandings of distance in a time when steam-age systems like the railways enabled movement on a scale and speed never before seen. The study profiles the individuals and institutions that competed to profit from new spatial connections: central among them, financiers, transporters, and state officials based in Argentina and Western Europe. Yet rather than presenting steam-age globalization as a story of inexorable contraction—in which the world becomes ever smaller, seamless, and “flat”—the study accounts for the uneven impact of connecting mechanisms on different places and peoples. Accordingly, it sheds light on the women and men who confronted the perils of a more tightly-linked world and the commentators who assessed the shortcomings of steam-age advances.