Empire's Tracks

Author: Manu Karuka
Publisher: University of California Press
ISBN: 0520296648
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

Book Description
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.

Empire Express

Author: David Haward Bain
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101658045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1432

Book Description
After the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad was the nineteenth century's most transformative event. Beginning in 1842 with a visionary's dream to span the continent with twin bands of iron, Empire Express captures three dramatic decades in which the United States effectively doubled in size, fought three wars, and began to discover a new national identity. From self--made entrepreneurs such as the Union Pacific's Thomas Durant and era--defining figures such as President Lincoln to the thousands of laborers whose backbreaking work made the railroad possible, this extraordinary narrative summons an astonishing array of voices to give new dimension not only to this epic endeavor but also to the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of an unforgettable period in American history.

The Trouble with Empire

Author: Antoinette M. Burton
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199936609
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Book Description
While imperial blockbusters fly off the shelves, there is no comprehensive history dedicated to resistance in the 19th and 20th century British Empire. The Trouble with Empire is the first volume to fill this gap, offering a brief but thorough introduction to the nature and consequences of resistance to British imperialism. Historian Antoinette Burton's study spans the 19th and 20th centuries, when discontented subjects of empire made their unhappiness felt from Ireland to Canada to India to Africa to Australasia, in direct response to incursions of military might and imperial capitalism. The Trouble with Empire offers the first thoroughgoing account of what British imperialism looked like from below and of how tenuous its hold on alien populations was throughout its long, unstable life. By taking the long view, moving across a variety of geopolitical sites and spanning the whole of the period 1840-1955, Burton examines the commonalities between different forms of resistance and unveils the structural weaknesses of the British Empire.0.

Gunpowder Empire

Author: Harry Turtledove
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780765346094
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 298

Book Description
The launch of an exciting new series of parallel-world adventure from "the modern master of alternate history" (Publishers Weekly)

Making Tracks

Author: Terry Pindell
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 9780802112798
Category : Railroad travel
Languages : en
Pages : 399

Book Description
The author relates his journey across America aboard passenger trains, recalls the tales of noted figures in the history of American railroading, and highlights adventures and passengers he met along the way

Empires and Anarchies

Author: Michael Quentin Morton
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1780238614
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Book Description
Oil lies at the heart of the modern history of the Middle East. For decades, the world’s largest oil reserves have enriched the region’s nations. But oil wealth has not brought with it universal prosperity. It has, though, transformed the Middle Eastern people and societies—enriching empires and engendering anarchies. Empires and Anarchies is an unconventional history of oil in the Middle East. In Michael Quentin Morton’s account the burnt-out remains of Saddam Hussein’s armaments and the human tragedy of the Arab Spring are as much of the story as the shimmering skylines of oil-rich nations. From the first explorers trudging through the desert to the excesses of the Peacock Throne and the high stakes of OPEC, Morton lays out the history of oil in compelling detail, arguing that oil simultaneously enriched and fractured the Middle East, eroding traditional ways of life, and eventually contributing to the rise of Islamic radicalism. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the promises and peril of the world’s oil boom.

Nothing Like It In the World

Author: Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9780743203173
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 468

Book Description
The story of the men who build the transcontinental railroad in the 1860's.

Empire's Tracks

Author: Manu Karuka
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520969057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

The Bone House

Author: Stephen R Lawhead
Publisher: Lion Fiction
ISBN: 1782640355
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
Join Kit Livingstone on a mind-bending quest to unlock the secrets of the multiverse in this epic fantasy adventure series. After discovering the truth about alternate realities from his great-grandfather Cosimo in a rainy alley in London, Kit is on the run and on a mission to restore a map that charts the hidden dimensions of the multiverse. But survival depends on staying one step ahead of the savage Burley Men. The key to the quest is the Skin Map, but Kit has no idea where it leads or what it means. The pieces have been scattered throughout this universe and beyond, and evil forces are also vying for their power. Travel with Mina, a time traveler from seventeenth-century Prague, and discover hidden realms across time and space, from Egyptian sphinxes to Bohemian coffee shops and Stone Age landscapes where universes collide. But beware of those who would use the ley lines for their own sinister purposes. From acclaimed author Stephen R. Lawhead, The Bright Empires series is a thrilling blend of epic treasure hunt, ancient history, alternate realities, cutting-edge physics, philosophy, and mystery. This page-turning adventure is like no other and is sure to captivate fans of fantasy and science fiction alike.

Empires of the Sea

Author: Roger Crowley
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1588367339
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 378

Book Description
In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic struggle between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world. In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written his most mesmerizing work to date–a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar and features a cast of extraordinary characters: Barbarossa, “The King of Evil,” the pirate who terrified Europe; the risk-taking Emperor Charles V; the Knights of St. John, the last crusading order after the passing of the Templars; the messianic Pope Pius V; and the brilliant Christian admiral Don Juan of Austria. This struggle’s brutal climax came between 1565 and 1571, seven years that witnessed a fight to the finish decided in a series of bloody set pieces: the epic siege of Malta, in which a tiny band of Christian defenders defied the might of the Ottoman army; the savage battle for Cyprus; and the apocalyptic last-ditch defense of southern Europe at Lepanto–one of the single most shocking days in world history. At the close of this cataclysmic naval encounter, the carnage was so great that the victors could barely sail away “because of the countless corpses floating in the sea.” Lepanto fixed the frontiers of the Mediterranean world that we know today. Roger Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality, technology and Inca gold. Empires of the Sea is page-turning narrative history at its best–a story of extraordinary color and incident, rich in detail, full of surprises, and backed by a wealth of eyewitness accounts. It provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilizations.