Book ID: CBB307492171

The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the transcontinental railroad (2019)

unapi

Chang, Gordon H. (Editor)
Hsu, Roland (Contributor)
Obenzinger, Hilton (Contributor)
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher (Editor)


Stanford University Press


Publication Date: 2019
Edition Details: Book Series: Asian America
Physical Details: 539
Language: English

The completion of the transcontinental railroad in May 1869 is usually told as a story of national triumph and a key moment for American Manifest Destiny. The railroad made it possible to cross the country in a matter of days instead of months, paved the way for new settlers to come out West, and helped speed America's entry onto the world stage as a modern nation that spanned a full continent. It also created vast wealth for its four owners, including the fortune with which Leland Stanford would found Stanford University some two decades later. But while the transcontinental has often been celebrated in national memory, little attention has been paid to the Chinese workers who made up 90% of the workforce on the Western portion of the line. The railroad could not have been built without Chinese labor, but the lives of Chinese railroad workers themselves have been little understood and largely invisible. This landmark volume shines new light on the Chinese railroad workers and their place in cultural memory. The Chinese and the Iron Road illuminates more fully than ever before the interconnected economies of China and the US, how immigration across the Pacific changed both nations, the dynamics of the racism the workers encountered, the conditions under which they labored, and their role in shaping both the history of the railroad and the development of the American West.

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Reviewed By

Review Stephanie Hinnershitz (2020) Review of "The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the transcontinental railroad". Journal of American History (pp. 765-766). unapi

Review Robert Cliver (October 2020) Review of "The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the transcontinental railroad". Technology and Culture (pp. 1258-1259). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB307492171/

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Authors & Contributors
Gruber, John E.
Hansen, Peter A.
Dennis Drabelle
Robert L. Frey
Goldfeder, Ron
Ryan, John
Concepts
Railroads
Land transportation
Locomotives, steam
Photography of railroads
Business enterprises
Labor and Laborers, Railroad
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
Progressive Era (1890s-1920s)
21st century
Places
United States
Western states (U.S.)
California (U.S.)
Promontory Point, Utah
Arizona (U.S.)
Nevada (U.S.)
Institutions
Southern Pacific Railroad Company
Central Pacific Railroad Company
Union Pacific Railway Company
Northern Pacific Railroad Company
Chicago and Rock Island Railroad Company
Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company
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