The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West by Ryan Dearinger

Abstract

428 OHQ vol. 118, no. 3 distracted by efforts to establish parallel unions in Texas, the Midwest, and the Pacific Northwest. This book should be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the long history of Mexican-ancestry people in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest more broadly. It is written in a clear and engaging way that should appeal to college instructors, informed readers, and the general public. Marc Rodriguez Portland State University THE FILTH OF PROGRESS: IMMIGRANTS, AMERICANS, AND THE BUILDING OF CANALS AND RAILROADS IN THE WEST by Ryan Dearinger University of California Press, Oakland, 2015. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 284 pages. $29.95 paper. In studying the transportation revolution in nineteenth-century America, people incline to furnish a triumphant narrative by emphasizing its technological achievements, economic benefits, and political advantages. Few have paid enough attention to the life and treatment of the laborers who constructed many national marvels contributing to American progress. Stating explicitly in the title, The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West, Ryan Dearinger explores the untold dark side of the story, focusing on the excruciating process and human suffering. Such revelations point to a great irony of commonly celebrated internal improvements. Contrary to the claims of uplifting American labor and binding the republic together, the building of the nation’s transportation networks demanded the ruthless exploitation of wageworkers and exacerbated the plight of ethnic and class divisions . For a mass of the laborers who gained little except meager wages, the so-called progress was nothing but misery. To make the case, Dearinger studiously details how unskilled workers, mostly immigrants , were treated on the transportation frontier from the 1820s to the 1870s. Three distinctive groups — Irish, Chinese, and Mormons — suitably occupy a central place in the study. Not only did this “un-American” trio shoulder the main burden of building the West’s infrastructure , but it also stood at the bottom of American political hierarchies. The first half of this book examines Irish laborers on three closely related projects: the Wabash and Erie Canal in Indiana, the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and the Illinois Central Railroad. As was the case elsewhere, Irish ditchdiggers and railroaders endured the most brutal working conditions, received the lowest wages, and encountered savage ethnic violence. Even after constructing these great projects, they had to swallow the final insult by being purposely excluded from celebrations . In fact, the Irish were the first “casualties of progress” (p. 106). The second half of the book covers Mormons on the Union Pacific Railroad, and Chinese and Irish on the Central Pacific Railroad. Besides bearing all the physical abuses, these three groups possessed an inalienable political handicap of being viewed as “neither white nor American” (p. 110). Their immigrant status, religious nonconformity, and cultural distinctiveness effectively prevented them from obtaining a fair share of American prosperity. Moreover, the Irish, Chinese, and Mormons were denied some basic personal liberties and political rights. This kind of mental torture was as painful as physical abuse itself. The Filth of Progress goes beyond simply describing the oppression of laborers. It also perceptively analyzes a complicated relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed. Rejecting their fate as casualties of progress, the Irish, Chinese, and Mormons fought fiercely to improve their situations in America. Each group, with specific agendas, formulated its own strategies to make both economic and political gains. To demand a white man’s livelihood , Irish workers constantly tried to demonstrate their worthy characters of masculinity, independence, and whiteness. They also knew how to barter their votes for various benefits and favors such as higher wages, safer working conditions, and more social spaces. Ironically, the Irish were both the victims and advocates of the free-labor ideology. Mormons (another group of American outcasts) of all social classes 429 Reviews enthusiastically participated in the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, hoping that a demonstration of their patriotism would result in national acceptance. The Latter-Day Saints Church envisioned a huge amount of economic benefits for Mormon communities in the new American empire. Mormons cleverly engaged in the debate over progress for their own causes. Unlike Irish and Mormons, whose collective...