The Department of History hosts public lecture, March 23, 5 p.m. CUB Junior Ballroom 201
Dr. Ryan Dearinger is Chair and Associate Professor of History at Eastern Oregon University, and scholar of the American West and Pacific Northwest. He will be giving a presentation on his recently published book The Filth of Progress (UC Press, 2015, https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520284609).
Dr. Dearinger’s work tells the story of the immigrants and Americans—the Irish, Chinese, Mormons, and native-born citizens—whose labor created the West’s infrastructure and turned the nation’s dream of a continental empire into a reality. Salvaging stories often omitted from the triumphant narrative of progress by focusing on the suffering and survival of the workers who were treated as outsiders, this book reveals that canals and railroads were not static monuments to progress but moving spaces of conflict and contestation. This event is sponsored by the Sherman and Mable Smith Pettyjohn Memorial Fund and the Berry Family Faculty Excellence Fellows.
