Publication: University of California Press, 1997, Berkeley
First edition. 8vo. Two-tone quarter cloth and boards, titles stamped in gilt on the spine, peach-colored front and rear endpapers, xv [5], 353 pp., acknowledgments, introduction, illustrated, maps, historians and sources, notes, index. "On the morning of January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold in California. The news spread across the continent, launching hundreds of ships and hitching a thousand prairie schooners filled with adventurers in search of heretofore unimagined wealth. Those who joined the procession - soon called 49ers - included the wealthy and the poor from every state and territory, including slaves brought by their owners. In numbers, they represented the greatest mass migration in the history of the Republic." In this first comprehensive history of the Gold Rush, the author demonstrates that the consequences of the California Gold Rush spread outward in ever widening circles to touch the lives of families and communities everywhere in the United States. As new, unread copy in dust jacket.
Inventory Number: 51248