The Gold Rush Of 1849

The story of the California gold rush and its effect on the character of the United States.

The California gold rush of 1849 was a defining era in U.S. History. The discovery of gold led to a mass migration to the country's west coast not only from the East Coast, but from all over the world. Travellers thronged to the area in the hope of becoming rich, but the truth is, few did. Many more made a living selling goods and services to the gold miners. This volume is packed with fascinating primary sources that bring the gold rush to life for readers. Readers will view and analyze numerous primary sources, including paintings, handwritten documents, political cartoons, photographs, and more. Sidebars encourage students to ask and answer questions about primary sources surrounding the gold rush.

San Francisco in 1849 was a time and place like no other in American history. As word of the discovery of gold in California spread, people from all over the world descended on San Francisco--ground zero for the avalanche of humanity and goods pouring into the fabled El Dorado. There have been many books on the Gold Rush, but Mud, Blood, and Gold is the first to focus solely on San Francisco as it was at the peak of the gold frenzy. With a 'you are there' immediacy author Rand Richards vividly brings to life what San Francisco was like during the landmark year of 1849. Based on eyewitness accounts and previously overlooked official records, Richards chronicles the explosive growth of a wide-open town rife with violence, gambling, and prostitution, all of it fueled by unbridled greed.

Nothing set the world in motion like gold. Between the discovery of California placer gold in 1848 and the rush to Alaska fifty years later, the search for the precious yellow metal accelerated worldwide circulations of people, goods, capital, and technologies. A Global History of Gold Rushes brings together historians of the United States, Africa, Australasia, and the Pacific World to tell the rich story of these nineteenth century gold rushes from a global perspective. Gold was central to the growth of capitalism: it whetted the appetites of empire builders, mobilized the integration of global markets and economies, profoundly affected the environment, and transformed large-scale migration patterns. Together these essays tell the story of fifty years that changed the world.

In 1848, news of the California Gold Rush swept the nation and the world. Aspiring miners, merchants, and entrepreneurs from all corners of the globe flooded California looking for gold. The cry of instant wealth was also heard and answered by Jewish communities in Europe and the eastern United States. While all Jewish immigrants arriving in the mid-nineteenth century were looking for religious freedoms and economic stability, there were preexisting Jewish social and religious structures on the East Coast. California's Jewish immigrants become founders of their own social, cultural, and religious institutions. Jewish Voices of the California Gold Rush examines the life of California's Jewish community through letters, diaries, memoirs, court and news reports, and photographs, as well as institutional, synagogue, and organizational records. By gathering a wealth of primary source materials-both public and private documents-and placing them in proper historical context, Ava F. Kahn re-creates the lives within California's Jewish community. Kahn takes the reader from Europe to California, from the goldfields to the developing towns and their religious and business communities, and from the founding of Jewish communities to their maturing years-most notably the instant city of San Francisco. By providing exhaustive documentation, Kahn offers an intimate portrait of Jewish life at a critical period in the history of California and the nation. Scholars and students of Jewish history and immigration studies, and readers interested in Gold Rush history, will enjoy this look at the development of California's Jewish community.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

The California gold rush of 1849 was a defining era in U.S. History. The discovery of gold led to a mass migration to the country's west coast not only from the East Coast, but from all over the world. Travellers thronged to the area in the hope of becoming rich, but the truth is, few did. Many more made a living selling goods and services to the gold miners. This volume is packed with fascinating primary sources that bring the gold rush to life for readers. Readers will view and analyze numerous primary sources, including paintings, handwritten documents, political cartoons, photographs, and more. Sidebars encourage students to ask and answer questions about primary sources surrounding the gold rush.