This book focuses on the social complexity of the California Gold Rush in the southern mines. The book deals with various asects of the gold rush including routes people took to the mines, racial issues in California, white attempts to establish dominance in the region, the economics of mining throughout the Gold Rush, towns and businesses that developed around the mines, violence and crime associated with mining towns, gender issues, gambling, and prostitution. Johnson offers a powerful and well researched account that covers the Gold Rush from multiple angles. She exposes the Gold Rush as a multi racial and multinantional event, by giving a voice to minority groups that are too often ignored in traditional Gold Rush histories.
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The review of this Book prepared by Mark Simpson
