Silent Steel Nails: Chinese Laborers Who Created the American Railway Miracle
About This Novel
A groundbreaking and thrilling history of the transcontinental railroad built by Chinese workers who helped shape modern America but only now emerge from history's shadows. Thousands of Chinese workers came to the United States from across the ocean in search of their fortune. They gathered on the transcontinental railroad's western construction sites and spent years blasting tunnels through the snowy cliffs of the Sierra Nevada and laying tracks in the scorching Utah desert. Their sweat and blood connect the east and west of America. But those who survived these dangerous jobs would suffer a different kind of death: a historic death that would push them first to the fringes of American society and then to the fringes of public memory. In this groundbreaking work, award-winning scholar Shaoshu Zhang uses unprecedented research to reconstruct the stories of Chinese railroad workers and affirm the role they played in rebuilding America. This book is a valuable corrective to historical injustice, restoring these "silent spikes" to their rightful place in the American miracle.
What Readers Think
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Community(0)
Official(1)Scraped 23d ago
good
An indelible piece of true history that pays tribute to every simple, pure and hard-working Chinese people
Rating
Community(0)
Official(1)Scraped 23d ago
good
An indelible piece of true history that pays tribute to every simple, pure and hard-working Chinese people
