Book Review: Strategy and managed decline; London Transport 1948–87 by James Fowler

might be challenging for readers new to American railroad history. However, this approach is well suited to reveal the complexities of the late-19th century railways, when construction, management, and regulation were newly emerging. Moreover, the author’s comprehensive approach provides opportunities to consider new connections, such as the role of towns in financing railway construction, the outcome of land grants to railroads, and the railroads’ instability amid the booming economy of the time. The ample supplementary material, including reprints of timetables and maps and short biographies of railroad managers and executives, provides a starting point for quantitative analyses of how railroad service changed over the course of the nineteenth century and for tracing the transition in railroad control from smalltown managers in Michigan’s hinterland to big-city directors in Detroit and Philadelphia. These incredibly detailed books offer a new perspective on fin de siècle American railroads and are especially useful for international comparative research considering industrialization and railroads at this pivotal moment in global history.