Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California

By J.S. Holliday

Book Overview

In this vivid account of the birth of modern California, J.S. Holliday frames the gold rush years within the larger story of the state's transformation from the quietude of a Mexican hinterland in the 1840s to the forefront of entrepreneurial capitalism by the 1890s. No other state, no nation experienced such an adolescence of freedom and success. By 1883 California was hailed as "America, only more so."

Holliday's boldly interpretive narrative has the authority and immediacy of an eyewitness account. This eminent historian recreates the masculine world of mining camps and rough cities, where both business and pleasure were conducted far from hometown eyes and conventional inhibitions. He follows gold mining's swift evolution from treasure hunt to vast industry; traces the prodigal plunder of California's virgin rivers and abundant forests; and describes improvised feats of engineering, breathtaking in their scope and execution.

Holliday also conjures the ambitious, often ruthless Californians whose rush for riches rapidly changed the state: the Silver Kings of the Comstock Lode, the timber barons of the Sierra forests, the Big Four who built the first transcontinental railroad, and the lesser profit-seekers who owned steamboats, pack mules, gambling dens and bordellos--and, most important for California's future, the farmers who prospered by feeding the rapidly growing population. This wildly laissez-faire economy created California's image as a risk-taking society, unconstrained by fear of failure.

The central theme of Rush for Riches is how, after decades of careless freedom, the miners were finally reined in by the farmers, and how their once mutually dependent relationship soured into hostility. This potential violence led to a dramatic courtroom decision in 1884 that shut down the mighty hydraulic mining operations--the end of California's free-for-all youthful exuberance.

Unique in its format, this beautiful book offers not only a compelling narrative but also almost two hundred fifty illustrations, one hundred in full color, that richly illuminate the themes and details of the text: daguerreotypes, photographs, paintings, lithographs, sketches, and specially drawn maps.

Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520214021
• ISBN13: 9780520214026
• Release Date: June 1999
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 3.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 9.2" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Five Stars all the way, please do NOT be strayed by the single, 1 star review

This book is THE premier California gold rush book, both in terms of content accuracy and quality, and in terms of publication quality! I am not going to bother to repeat what the other reviewers have said (the 5 star ones), but I have to comment on the totally outrageous "1 star" reviewer's comments, which falsely state that J.S. Holliday did not give homage to the Indians in Califonia. The index for "Rush for Riches" includes numerous references to the Indians of California and their situation and roles, during the Gold Rush, and in fact there has been no author that has been more sensitive to California's native Indians, in my opinion... For example, this book discusses in detail such topics as the Indians being blocked from secularized missions, civil rights legislation, disease and mortality among the Indians, the extermination campaign against the Indians, their lifestyles and culture during this time, and it even discusses their use as mine laborers, mission workers, etc. How anyone can have the insensitivity to rate this book any less than 5 full stars, is a mystery to me. It is by far the finest gold rush book EVER written, and if you read it yourself, you will find this out, for yourself. Furthermore, this book was subsidized and co-published by the prestigious Oakland Museum of California, AND by the University of California, and its hardbound retail price is and was outrageously low, given its all- around quality. I do recommend the hardbound version, by the way.

A beautiful book, beautifully written.

This is a beautiful book, beautifully written by one of the foremost experts on the gold rush and its impact on California history. Thoroughly researched, insightful, engaging, and richly illustrated. Highly recommended. -David Burkhart, author of Earthquake Days: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake & Fire in 3-D.

Gold Rush highlights

This book was so highly recommended that I rushed to my library and checked out the hardcopy edition. Excellent use of color and fascinating collection of photographs. I am writing a historical novel centered in San Francisco and the Mother Lode. This book is simply excellent.