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The Conversation USA

The Conversation USA

US history shows spending on infrastructure doesn't always end well

  • Written by Richard White, Professor of American History, Stanford University
imageConstructing barge canals took a massive investment that didn't pay off.New York State Archives

Over the past two centuries, federal, state and municipal governments across the U.S. have launched wave after wave of infrastructure projects.

They built canals to move freight in the 1830s and 1840s. Governments subsidized railroads in the mid- and...

Read more: US history shows spending on infrastructure doesn't always end well

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