Great journeys

Examines the history of the Silk Road, the name given to a series of three major trade routes and hundreds of smaller side roads by which goods were transported from China to countries and empires around the Mediterranean Sea,and discusses the importance of the Silk Road in the exchange of information and ideas.

Describes the experience of Chinese immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century, their work on the transcontinental railroad, and also discusses the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese workers from entering this country.

Uses the experiences of two individuals, Ada "Bricktop" Smith and Joe Jones, to present the story of the Great Migration of Southern Blacks to northern cities from the late 1800s to the years after World War I.

Describes the journeys west made by many settlers in the mid-1800s--mostly overland, but also by sea--discussing their reasons for going, the difficulties they faced, and life on the way.