Ghosts of Gold Mountain : the epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad

Resource Information

The work Ghosts of Gold Mountain : the epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Manchester City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Ghosts of Gold Mountain : the epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad

Title remainder

the epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad

Statement of responsibility

Gordon H. Chang

Creator

• Chang, Gordon H

Author

• Chang, Gordon H

Subject

• Central Pacific Railroad Company -- Employees | History
• China
• China -- Emigration and immigration | History -- 19th century
• Chinese
• Chinese -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
• Emigration and immigration
• Employees
• 1800-1899
• Foreign workers, Chinese -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
• History
• Railroad construction workers
• Railroad construction workers -- West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
• United States, West
• West (U.S.) -- History -- 19th century
• Foreign workers, Chinese
• Central Pacific Railroad Company

Genre

• History

Language

eng

Summary

"The long-lost tale of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history. In 1864, as the Civil War still raged, throngs of Chinese migrants began to converge on the enormous western worksite of the Transcontinental Railroad. Over the next five years, they blasted tunnels through the granite cliffs of the Sierra Nevada and laid tracks across the burning Nevada and Utah deserts. As many as twelve hundred lost their lives along the route. Those who survived would suffer a different kind of death: a historical one, as they were pushed first to the margins of American life and then to the fringes of public memory. Of the twenty thousand Chinese laborers who toiled on the western portion of the Transcontinental, not one is named in histories of the railroad. Many were literate, yet not a scrap of their writing remains. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning historian Gordon H. Chang recovers the stories of these "silent spikes" and returns them to their rightful place in our national saga. Drawing on recent archeological findings, as well as payroll records, ship manifests, photographs, and other sources from American and Chinese archives, Chang retraces the laborers' odyssey in breathtaking detail. He introduces individual workers, describes their hopes and fears, and shows how they lived, ate, fought, loved, worked, and worshiped. Their sweat and blood not only fueled the ascent of an interlinked, industrial United States, but also laid the groundwork for a thriving Chinese America. A magisterial feat of scholarship and storytelling, Ghosts of Gold Mountain honors these immigrants' sacrifice and ingenuity, and celebrates their role in this defining American achievement."--Dust jacket

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

LBSOR/DLC

Dewey number

331.6/251097809034

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps

Index

index present

LC call number

HD8039.R3152

LC item number

C524 2019

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography