This book describes the process and possible long-term effects of the California gold rush. Brand manages a fine mix of the larger view -- statistics, maps of larger immigration movements, etc. -- with storylines of various specific characters, from the familiar (General William Sherman and John Fremont), to the vaguely familiar (Leland Stanford and the actual discoverer of gold at Sutter's Mill, James Marshall), to the unknown (fortune hunters and settlers who chronicled their trips across the western prairies as well as from Australia, France, and China). The author has chosen some terrific characters (and decent writers) from other foreign lands to tell their stories. This book also clearly describes the effort of crossing the raw continent, the many human and animal carcasses that fell by the wayside (or succumbed to violence), and the arduous physical process of extracting precious metals from the earth until industrialization took over that work too. One of the more eye-opening sections for me was the description of how many fires -- big, devastating ones -- San Francisco suffered in the 1840s and 1850s. The text is always interesting and very readable.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
The review of this Book prepared by David Loftus
