Empire’s Tracks boldly reframes the history of the transcontinental railroad from the perspectives of the Cheyenne, Lakota, and Pawnee Native American tribes, and the Chinese migrants who toiled on its path. In this meticulously researched book, Manu Karuka situates the railroad within the violent global histories of colonialism and capitalism. Through an examination of legislative, military, and business records, Karuka deftly explains the imperial foundations of U.S. political economy. Tracing the shared paths of Indigenous and Asian American histories, this multisited interdisciplinary study connects military occupation to exclusionary border policies, a linked chain spanning the heart of U.S. imperialism. This highly original and beautifully wrought book unveils how the transcontinental railroad laid the tracks of the U.S. Empire.
...MoreReview Antoinette Burton (2020) Review of "Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad". Journal of American History (pp. 1082-1083).
Review Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (2022) Review of "Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad". The Journal of Transport History (pp. 335-337).
Review Justin Shapiro (April 2022) Review of "Empire's Tracks: Indigenous Nations, Chinese Workers, and the Transcontinental Railroad". Technology and Culture (pp. 585-587).
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