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Raging Erie Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal

Ferrara Mark S.
Innbundet / 2024 / Engelsk

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780231216371
Publisert
2024-07-02
Utgiver
Vendor
Columbia University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter
Ferrara Mark S.

Biographical note

Mark S. Ferrara is professor of English at the State University of New York. His recent books include American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living (2020) and Living the Food Allergic Life (2023).

Raging Erie Life and Labor Along the Erie Canal

Ferrara Mark S.
Innbundet / 2024 / Engelsk
Ferrara Mark S.
Innbundet / 2024 / Engelsk
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Ferrara has written a terrific and necessary book about the deeper depths of the Erie Canal and the underside of the American Dream. With the bicentennial of the great waterway upon us, <i>The</i> <i>Raging Erie</i> uncovers the lives of the many laboring people who are often castaways in America’s first transportation revolution. A must-read.

- Richard S. Newman, author of <i>Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the Present</i>,

Ferrara reconsiders the Erie Canal by casting a wider net than any previous study. He argues that the canal failed as a creator of progress and a mystical "bond of union" once we consider the homes, lives, labors, and livelihoods of those people most immediately affected by it. Through wonderful, sharp chapters focusing on Indigenous communities, immigrant workers, children and families, enslaved and free peoples, fugitives from slavery, foot soldiers in nineteenth-century social justice movements (like abolitionists), vice industries, and the poor and downtrodden, Ferrara questions the very nature of progress.

- Ryan Dearinger, author of <i>The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West</i>,

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was a monumental achievement. Linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, it transformed New York City into a hub of international trade, drove the rise of industrial cities in once sparsely populated areas, and accelerated the westward expansion of the United States. Yet few of the laborers who toiled along the canal shared in the prosperity it brought.Mark S. Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation. The Raging Erie chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock. Ferrara also shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path.Brimming with vivid characters drawn from the underbelly of antebellum life, The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.
Les mer
Mark S. Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the Erie Canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation.
Les mer
Introduction. Digging Clinton’s Ditch1. Decline and Fall of Iroquoia2. Wharf Rats, Powder Monkeys, and Beasts of Burden3. Navvies, Paddys, Loafers, and Trampers4. Scolds, Witches, Wives, and Biddys5. Slave Rescues, Abolition, and the Underground Railroad6. Ghosts, Hellfire, and Revival on the Psychic Highway7. Port Towns, Brothels, Slums, and SaloonsConclusion. Transforming Life and Work in AmericaAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex
Les mer

Relaterte produkter

Ferrara has written a terrific and necessary book about the deeper depths of the Erie Canal and the underside of the American Dream. With the bicentennial of the great waterway upon us, <i>The</i> <i>Raging Erie</i> uncovers the lives of the many laboring people who are often castaways in America’s first transportation revolution. A must-read.

- Richard S. Newman, author of <i>Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the Present</i>,

Ferrara reconsiders the Erie Canal by casting a wider net than any previous study. He argues that the canal failed as a creator of progress and a mystical "bond of union" once we consider the homes, lives, labors, and livelihoods of those people most immediately affected by it. Through wonderful, sharp chapters focusing on Indigenous communities, immigrant workers, children and families, enslaved and free peoples, fugitives from slavery, foot soldiers in nineteenth-century social justice movements (like abolitionists), vice industries, and the poor and downtrodden, Ferrara questions the very nature of progress.

- Ryan Dearinger, author of <i>The Filth of Progress: Immigrants, Americans, and the Building of Canals and Railroads in the West</i>,

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was a monumental achievement. Linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, it transformed New York City into a hub of international trade, drove the rise of industrial cities in once sparsely populated areas, and accelerated the westward expansion of the United States. Yet few of the laborers who toiled along the canal shared in the prosperity it brought.Mark S. Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation. The Raging Erie chronicles the fates of the Native Americans whose land was appropriated for the canal, the European immigrants who bored its route through the wilderness, and the orphan children who drove draft animals that pulled boats around the clock. Ferrara also shows how the canal served as a conduit for the movement of new ideas and religions, a corridor for enslaved people seeking freedom via the Underground Railroad, and a spur for social reform movements that emerged in response to the poverty and suffering along its path.Brimming with vivid characters drawn from the underbelly of antebellum life, The Raging Erie explores the social dislocation and untold hardships at the heart of a major engineering feat, shedding light on the lives of the canallers who toiled on behalf of American expansion.
Les mer
Mark S. Ferrara tells the stories of the ordinary people who lived, worked, and died along the banks of the Erie Canal, emphasizing the forgotten role of the poor and working class in this epochal transformation.
Les mer
Introduction. Digging Clinton’s Ditch1. Decline and Fall of Iroquoia2. Wharf Rats, Powder Monkeys, and Beasts of Burden3. Navvies, Paddys, Loafers, and Trampers4. Scolds, Witches, Wives, and Biddys5. Slave Rescues, Abolition, and the Underground Railroad6. Ghosts, Hellfire, and Revival on the Psychic Highway7. Port Towns, Brothels, Slums, and SaloonsConclusion. Transforming Life and Work in AmericaAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780231216371
Publisert
2024-07-02
Utgiver
Vendor
Columbia University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter
Ferrara Mark S.

Biographical note

Mark S. Ferrara is professor of English at the State University of New York. His recent books include American Community: Radical Experiments in Intentional Living (2020) and Living the Food Allergic Life (2023).

Relaterte produkter