piOhio Canal Era, i a rich analysis of state policies and their impact in directing economic change, is a classic on the subject of the pre-Civil War transportation revolution. This edition contains a new foreword by scholar Lawrence M. Friedman, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, and a bibliographic note by the author.p pProfessor Scheiber explores how Ohio-as a public enterprise state, creating state agencies and mobilizing public resources for transport innovation and control-led in the process of economic change before the Civil War. No other historical account of the period provides so full and insightful a portrayal of law in action. Scheiber reveals the important roles of American nineteenth-century government in economic policy-making, finance, administration, and entrepreneurial activities in support of economic development.p pHis study is equally important as an economic history. Scheiber provides a full account of waves of technological innovation and of the transformati