This work examines the politics of moneymaking in the railroad industry and the relationship of railroad entrepreneurs with the conservative Prussian state during the industry's critical phase of growth and consolidation. James M. Brophy explores the pivotal role the business politics of the railroad industry played in Prussian industrialization, state building, and bourgeois political culture.

Using the railroad industry as the basis on which to construct a larger argument about the role of the capitalist class in reconstituting the Prussian-German state, Brophy breaks new ground in locating the informal, bureaucratic, and parliamentary political spheres businessmen infiltrated and the legislative issues they influenced.

Capitalism, Politics, and Railroads in Prussia, 1830-1870 reassesses how business activity shaped political culture, and throws new light on the impact of the economy on state organizations. This study will interest scholars of modern German and European history, business history, and the history of the railroad, as well as political science and economics.