The American Worker on the Transcontinental Railroad

Chapter 19 of the American Promise, "The Growth of America's Cities," explains what kind of work people did in Industrial America. Occupation depended on race and ethnicity of the American. The text explains the "old" immigrant and the "new" immigrant. The "new" immigrant included people from Eastern Europe and Asia. These immigrants were attracted to the "American Dream" and "California Gold Rush," when choosing to immigrat here, but forced to take the "undesirable" jobs, like constructing the transcontinental railroad. The video posted above shows anthropologists studying the sites along where these Asain-Americans worked and speculate what the life of an Asain immigrant in the 19th century was like. I found this video interesting, because it credits Asian immigrants for the construction of the transcontinental railroad. In this other video, created by the BBC network, shows the history of the transcontinental railroad creation through the perspective of the wealthy white man who managed the epic project. Through this one project, one can see each end of the spectrum in regards to the poverish American Worker and the wealthy American Worker.