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Malcolm J. Rohrbough
Days of Gold
The California Gold Rush and the American Nation
$24.95, £14.95 paperback
978-0-520-21659-4
Available Now
569 pages, 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches, 14 b/w illustrations, 4 maps
April 1997, Available worldwide
Categories: History; California & the West; Californian & Western History; United States History; American Studies; Gender Studies
April 1997, Available worldwide
Categories: History; California & the West; Californian & Western History; United States History; American Studies; Gender Studies
"Rohrbough treats Gold Rush California as the multiethnic and multiracial society that it was. . . . At the heart of Rohrbough's wonderful book is [the] tension between a way of life that seems a modern libertarian's fantasy . . . and the commitments that the miners had made to a family and a community that they left behind."—Richard White, The New Republic
"Rohrbough tells the story straight from the mouths (or pens) of those who lived it. . . . He has done his own careful mining of material to find nuggets of insight, buried in the . . . writings of men who fled humble circumstances to play California's giant 'lottery.'"—Keith Henderson, Christian Science Monitor
"The best single volume on this nation-building event."—Lingua Franca
"Rohrbough tells the story straight from the mouths (or pens) of those who lived it. . . . He has done his own careful mining of material to find nuggets of insight, buried in the . . . writings of men who fled humble circumstances to play California's giant 'lottery.'"—Keith Henderson, Christian Science Monitor
"The best single volume on this nation-building event."—Lingua Franca
"With this exhaustively researched, elegantly written study, so successful as narrative and as scholarship, Malcolm J. Rohrbough joins Rodman Paul and J. S. Holliday as a master historian of this defining American epic."—Kevin Starr, author of Americans and the California Dream, 1850-1915
On the morning of January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold in California. The news spread across the continent, launching hundreds of ships and hitching a thousand prairie schooners filled with adventurers in search of heretofore unimagined wealth. Those who joined the procession—soon called 49ers—included the wealthy and the poor from every state and territory, including slaves brought by their owners. In numbers, they represented the greatest mass migration in the history of the Republic.
In this first comprehensive history of the Gold Rush, Malcolm J. Rohrbough demonstrates that in its far-reaching repercussions, it was the most significant event in the first half of the nineteenth century. No other series of events between the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War produced such a vast movement of people; called into question basic values of marriage, family, work, wealth, and leisure; led to so many varied consequences; and left such vivid memories among its participants.
Through extensive research in diaries, letters, and other archival sources, Rohrbough uncovers the personal dilemmas and confusion that the Gold Rush brought. His engaging narrative depicts the complexity of human motivation behind the event and reveals the effects of the Gold Rush as it spread outward in ever-widening circles to touch the lives of families and communities everywhere in the United States. For those who joined the 49ers, the decision to go raised questions about marital obligations and family responsibilities. For those men—and women, whose experiences of being left behind have been largely ignored until now—who remained on the farm or in the shop, the absences of tens of thousands of men over a period of years had a profound impact, reshaping a thousand communities across the breadth of the American nation.
In this first comprehensive history of the Gold Rush, Malcolm J. Rohrbough demonstrates that in its far-reaching repercussions, it was the most significant event in the first half of the nineteenth century. No other series of events between the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War produced such a vast movement of people; called into question basic values of marriage, family, work, wealth, and leisure; led to so many varied consequences; and left such vivid memories among its participants.
Through extensive research in diaries, letters, and other archival sources, Rohrbough uncovers the personal dilemmas and confusion that the Gold Rush brought. His engaging narrative depicts the complexity of human motivation behind the event and reveals the effects of the Gold Rush as it spread outward in ever-widening circles to touch the lives of families and communities everywhere in the United States. For those who joined the 49ers, the decision to go raised questions about marital obligations and family responsibilities. For those men—and women, whose experiences of being left behind have been largely ignored until now—who remained on the farm or in the shop, the absences of tens of thousands of men over a period of years had a profound impact, reshaping a thousand communities across the breadth of the American nation.
1998 Caughey Western History Association Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West
Co-winner of the 1999 Ray A. Billington Prize, The Organization of American Historians
Co-winner of the 1999 Ray A. Billington Prize, The Organization of American Historians