Ten chilly people braved the weather and the wind last week to attend this book discussion. Their presence, as always, was much appreciated.
Our book was The Age of Gold: the California gold rush and the new American dream by H. W. Brands. Gold has always had a special hold on the human imagination. It has been coveted and hoarded, turned into everything from coins to jewelry to fine art. When gold was discovered by James Marshall while building a saw mill for John Sutter in January of 1848, the discovery started a gold rush of immense proportions. People rushed to California from not just the eastern United States, but from revolution ravished Europe, China, South America and Australia. These immigrants changed the course of American history and the nature of the American people. The author describes the treacherous voyages to the gold fields, whether by wagons across the country’s mountains and deserts, sailing around the Cape Horn or by crossing the jungles of Panama. The author describes the geology of gold and the ways to mine it, the horrors of the mining towns thrown up around the mines, the building of the transcontinental railroad and the effects of all this on the Native Americans and the Mexicans who had lived in California before the rush. Gold was found in great quantities, but few of the miners became rich. People like Leland Stanford and Sam Brennan made immense fortunes by selling supplies to the miners. The author concludes that the gold rush changed America by changing the American dream from attaining prosperity through hard work to looking for get rich quick schemes. It ushered in the Gilded Age of great fortunes and robber barons.
Our next meeting will be February 26, 2015 at 7:00 pm. The book to be discussed, Fordlandia: the rise and fall of Henry Ford’s jungle city by Greg Grandin, is available at the Circulation Desk. All are welcome.
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