Law and English Railway Capitalism, 1825-1875 is the first large scale historical treatment of the relationship between English law and the rise of a leading sector of 19th century industrial enterprise. The book examines the impact of English common law and lawyers on the early steam railway industry. Grounded in a wide variety of legal and industrial source materials, the studys eight analytical narrative chapters examine a range of interactions between early railway capitalism and the evolving culture, doctrine, and procedures of Victorian lawyers. Subjects considered in depth include the legal ramifications of the great railway manias. law and the infiltration of the English countryside, railway accidents, corporate monopolism, and the organization of Englands first corporate legal departments. Each chapter contributes to the books ambitious general interpretation of the profound but ambiguous engagement of an antiquated but powerful legal system with a dynamic new industry.

R.W. Kostal's profile page

R. W. Kostal is at University of Western Ontario.