The Age of Gold : The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream

Professor of History H W Brands
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
 9780385720885
0-385-72088-2

The California Gold Rushinspired a new American dreamthe dream of instant wealth, won by audacity and good luck.The discovery of gold on the American River in 1848triggered the most astonishing mass movement.

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of peoples since the Crusades. It drew fortune-seekers from the ends of the earth, accelerated Americas imperial expansion, and exacerbated the tensions that exploded in the Civil War.H.W. Brands tells his epic story from multiple perspectives: of adventurers John and Jessie Fremont, entrepreneur Leland Stanford, and the wry observer Samuel Clemensside by side with prospectors, soldiers, and scoundrels. He imparts a visceral sense of the distances they traveled, the suffering they endured, and the fortunes they made and lost. Impressive in its scholarship and overflowing with life, The Age of Gold is history in the grand traditions of Stephen Ambrose and David McCullough.