The Fools of '49: The California Gold Rush, 1848-1856

by Laurence Ivan Seidman

The mania for gold swept through the United States and triggered a stampede for California. Lured by the dream of wealth, of something for nothing, the gold-seekers rushed west. They traveled 15,000 miles by ship around Cape Horn. They crossed the fever-ridden jungles and swamps of Panama. In huge numbers they made the 2,000 mile overland journey by covered wagon across the plains and mountains and deserts from Missouri to the Pacific Coast. At their journey′s end most of the Forty-Niners found, not fame and fortune, but loneliness, hardship, and back-breaking work. Many of them also found sickness, poverty and death. Other people too paid a heavy price for this folly - Mexican-American and Chinese people were beaten and bullied, or driven from the mines, or killed; the California Indian population was decimated. This is the story of the gold rush. It is a story of courage and heroism, cowardice and selfishness. Using contemporary accounts - the words of the forty-niners themselves - professor Seidman casts a vivid light on this extraordinary episode in American history. Of special significance to Californians, it has deep meaning for all Americans

234 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1976

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and easy to read, almost like you are reading letters written straight to you.