Engineering Philadelphia

Rezensionen / Stimmen

[Engineering Philadelphia] is a fine contribution to economic history that reminds readers that to truly grasp the twisting tale of American industrialization they must understand how families such as the Sellerses made choices that shaped their world.

- Eric J. Morser (Journal of American History) Engineering Philadelphiaexamines the remarkable Sellerses, Philadelphia machinists whose talents and inventive significance spanned the long nineteenth century. Much more than a treatment of one company, entrepreneur, or even industry, this book connects the Sellers men to economic development, urban geography, social reform, nation-building, and, ultimately, deindustrialization; not, however, as subjects, but as powerful agents with deliberate intentions and wide-ranging, often successful, goals. Vitiello's comprehensive and fluid analysis of these machine-building men reveals the Sellers family's holistic approach to furthering their goals. In devoting themselves to constructing educational, civic, and urban infrastructure, the Sellerses 'engineered' a city that was integral to national and international markets.

- Donna J. Rilling (American Historical Review) Although the most famous family member, Escol Sellers, was the model for Mark Twain's quintessential capitalist/speculator/scoundrel in The Gilded Age, throughout the nineteenth century the Sellerses of Philadelphia contributed constructively to the city's economic growth, urban planning, and political reform. Domenic Vitiello has written business history at its best-wonderful stories about interesting people framed by a strong understanding of how family and social networks interacted with technological and political change to shape the nineteenth-century metropolis.

- William Pencak, University of Southern Alabamaeditor, (Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies) Vitiello employs the long story of the Sellers family to describe the development of Philadelphia's business and industrial organizations and to connect these organizations to Philadelphia's growth and decline as an industrial center....This sort of insightful long-range analysis makes Engineering Philadelphia relevant to historians and planners and shows howhistorical studies can benefit those currently working in planning or politics.... The dual focus on industrial businessnetworks and urban development... seems like an ideal combination to bring a concentrated historical analysis to bear onlarger themes of urban geography.

- Geoff Zylstra (Technology and Culture)