Robert Taylor writes about H.W. Brands’ book The Age of Gold. I’ve also enjoyed reading this book and the insights it provides into the California Gold Rush of 1849 and its larger effects on California and the country.
“The Gold Rush is treated as a chapter in California history, but its importance in American history has been underreported,” he says. “I looked in American history books, and the coverage ranged from a couple of sentences to a paragraph — about this ‘curious event’ that happened in the West. Then the authors turned back to what they considered the real story, the coming of the Civil War. I wanted to change this from a chapter in California history to a chapter in American history — and it actually became a chapter in world history,” he says.