The Filth of Progress explores the untold side of a well-known American story. For more than a century; accounts of progress in the West foregrounded the technological feats performed while canals and railroads were built and lionized the capitalists who financed the projects. This book salvages stories often omitted from the triumphant narrative of progress by focusing on the suffering and survival of the workers who were treated as outsiders. Ryan Dearinger examines the moving frontiers of canal and railroad construction workers in the tumultuous years of American expansion; from the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 to the joining of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads in 1869. He tells the story of the immigrants and Americans—the Irish; Chinese; Mormons; and native-born citizens—whose labor created the West’s infrastructure and turned the nation’s dreams of a continental empire into a reality. Dearinger reveals that canals and railroads were not static monuments to progress but moving spaces of conflict and contestation.
#820237 in Books University of California Press 2012-09-05Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .90 x 6.00l; 1.05 #File Name: 0520273672360 pages
Review
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Oprah isn't the enemyBy Paul GiurlandaThis is a scholarly history of what Harold Bloom; called "the American Religion;" that is; the tradition of individual spiritual seeking which has a major source in Emerson; Thoreau; Whitman; James--you know; the usual suspects. It's a useful counter-balance to the line from major thinkers like Robert Bellah (whom I admire enormously) that Americans under-value tradition; community; self-control; and discipline. As Schmidt points out; things are more complicated than that. There's a passion in this book; and Schmidt has his own point of view that comes through strongly without becoming overbearing (in my view). If you have a scholarly bent and are interested in spirituality; religion; or politics; you'll find this book stimulating even if you don't agree with it.0 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Book sucks; sorry. Reads like a textbookBy Ian WilliamsThere is some very interesting literature on this subject out there and this one reads like a textbook. I had to read it for a class (Spiritual But Not Religious at UVA) and the only bad thing about the class is this book.
