Although schoolchildren are taught that Robert Fulton invented the steamboat in 1807, the reality is far more complex. Sutcliff (editor of Mighty Rough Times I Tell You
) demonstrates that Fulton was a latecomer to the effort to build a commercially viable steamship. A full two decades before the Clermont
carried passengers between New York City and Albany, the largely forgotten Virginian James Rumsey and Connecticut-born John Fitch battled each other to be the first to launch a steam-powered boat and for potentially lucrative waterway monopolies. Fitch was partially successful, running a steamboat commuter service between Philadelphia and Trenton during the summer of 1790, but couldn't compete with stagecoaches. Sutcliff illuminates the importance of the steamboat to the developing United States, explaining how boats that could bring goods upriver would unite the western portion of the country with the east, increasing trade dramatically and permitting greater development of the frontier. Sutcliff's story is one of political intrigue, involving virtually all of the nation's founding fathers, mixed with scientific acumen and a sense of business ethics so low that even in today's climate many of the principals' actions would sound an alarm. Sutcliff offers intriguing material in an extremely readable volume, though she doesn't provide any new insight into the personalities of the protagonists. 16 pages of b&w illus. Agent, Ed Knappman at New England Publishing Associates. (July 4)
