Francaviglia looks anew at the geographical-historical context of the driving of the golden spike in May 1869. He gazes outward from the site of the transcontinental railroad's completion -the summit of a remote mountain ...

Transference of orientalist images and identities to the American landscape and its inhabitants, especially in the West-in other words, portrayal of the West as the 'Orient'--has been a common aspect of American cultural ...