The filth of progress : immigrants, Americans, and the building of canals and railroads in the West /

"In America's historical imagination, toil and triumph against nature and overwhelming odds characterizes such achievements as the Erie Canal and the transcontinental railroad. Triumph transformed canal and railroad entrepreneurs into visionaries whose work brought the nation bountiful ric...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dearinger, Ryan, 1979- (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2016]
Edition:First edition.
Subjects:
Online Access:Click to View
Table of Contents:
  • "Bind the Republic together" : canals, railroads, and the paradox of American progress
  • Immigrant labor and the American imagination : Irish ditchdiggers, the triumph of progress, and the contest of canal communities in the Hoosier State
  • "Abuse of the labour and lives of men" : Irish construction workers and the violence of progress on the Illinois transportation frontier
  • "Hell (and Heaven) on wheels" : Mormons, immigrants, and the reconstruction of American progress and masculinity on the transcontinental railroad
  • "The greatest monument of human labor" : Chinese immigrants, the landscape of progress, and the work of building and celebrating the transcontinental railroad
  • End-of-track : reflections on the history of immigrant labor and American progress.