TsT36. 2018.

Articles

♦ Florencia D’uva
An Episode in the Struggle for the Regulation of Railway Labor in Argentina: The 1912 Strike by Engine Drivers and Firemen
Abstract:
This study examines the strike by Argentine railroad engineers and firemen in early 1912. This conflict posed a challenge to the “La Fraternidad” union, whose members across the country walked off the job simultaneously for the first time in its history. The companies and the government also had to face the consequences of the shutdown of rail traffic. This study reconstructs the course of the strike, focusing on the grievances, demands, and actions taken by the workers during the conflict. It argues that analyzing this event provides a unique vantage point for examining how railroad workers experienced their working and living conditions by articulating demands that challenged both the companies and the state. The research draws on an extensive body of documentation that includes union, partisan, and national newspapers; internal documents from La Fraternidad; official histories of the railway union; and reports and memoranda prepared by government institutions and the companies.

♦ Alcides Goularti and Fábio Farias
Domestic Demand and Industrial Policy: A Comparative Analysis of the Shipbuilding Industry in Brazil and Mexico, 1970–2002
Abstract:
The objective of this article is to describe and analyze, in a comparative manner, the economic history of the Brazilian and Mexican shipbuilding industries from 1970 to 2002. The period includes the continuation of heavy industrialization in the 1970s, the foreign debt crisis of the 1980s, and the neoliberal restructuring of production from the 1990s through 2002, alongside political changes in Brazil and Mexico. The main focus is on institutional, productive, and political processes, with an emphasis on the role of the state in promoting the development of the shipping sector.

♦ Aurora M. Martínez Corral
A Comparative Architectural Study of Historic (1848–1929) and Contemporary Spanish Train Stations: A Chronicle of the Silent Disappearance of Cultural Heritage
Abstract:
Many of the major historic train stations have been replaced by mundane buildings that justify their existence on the basis of concepts such as functionality or safety. Tangible values—such as spatial configuration and materiality—and intangible values—such as the spirit of the place or the associated collective memory—have been eliminated or substantially diminished. This study conducts a critical comparative analysis of the passenger terminals in historic stations and their replacements, with the aim of determining what is actually happening to this heritage and the gap between rhetoric and action. Not only are we losing architectural quality with these new constructions, but also part of our recent memory, as well as part of our public spaces. This silent, tacitly accepted disappearance and collective disengagement may lead us to the sad conclusion that these historic buildings are doomed to disappear or lose their heritage status in the name of commercialization and potential speculation.

♦ Miguel Muñoz Rubio
“The Crowning Achievement.” The Role of the Railroad in the Work of Karl Marx. An Analysis on the 150th Anniversary of the Publication of *Capital*
Abstract:
The aim of this article is to analyze the role of the railroad in the work of Karl Marx. To this end, his notebooks, published works, and correspondence have been studied. The results of this analysis indicate, first, that during an early period spanning from his joining the Rheinische Zeitung to his arrival in England, his main contributions lay in identifying the railroad as one of the driving forces behind the transportation revolution that made the consolidation of capitalism possible, and in advocating for it to be part of public ownership. Second, during his time in Britain, Marx studied how the railroad, as yet another form of the transportation industry, functioned in the production and circulation of capital.

Reviews

♦ Margarita Vilar-Rodríguez
André Straus & Leonardo Caruana de las Cagigas, Highlights on the History of Reinsurance
♦ by Begoña Villanueva
José Manuel Huidobro Moya and Miguel Vergara Trujillo, 30 Years of the Telecommunications Sector in Spain
♦ Jesús Miras Araujo
Raimundo Otero Enríquez, Sociology and History of the Decentralized City
♦ Rafael Barquín
Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla, The Steam Merchant Marine in Barcelona (1834–1914)