"Historians of technology will appreciate [McGreevy's] efforts to highlight the interconnectedness of environmental, social, and technological agents in Lockport's transition from a central node in America's nineteenth-century transportation infrastructure to a largely forgotten, postindustrial backwater." --
Technology and Culture "
Stairway to Empire offers a rare combination: a scholarly monograph with an autobiographical twist. In this labor of love, Patrick McGreevy ... offers a richly textured biography of his hometown of Lockport, New York ... It is deeply researched, interdisciplinary in nature, and written with sophistication and clarity." --
Journal of American History ..".McGreevy has produced a volume that not only details the story of the Erie Canal's completion but also considers its importance as a physical representation of American ideals, its significance as a tangible symbol of nineteenth-century national philosophy and its place in the larger narrative of American modernity and progress." --
The Canadian Geographer "This is an assessment of a brief moment of nationwide prominence and the persisting realities of the meaning of change for not only Lockport, but for every community." --
CHOICE "In this sagacious and thought-provoking study, McGreevy explores the multiple meanings of a once-renowned and significant American place experiencing the profound changes of industrialism and the onrushing market economy." -- Edward K. Muller, University of Pittsburgh