In this Book
- After the Gold Rush: Tarnished Dreams in the Sacramento Valley
- Book
- 2009
- Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
summary
2008 Winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Award of the American Historical Association"It is a glorious country," exclaimed Stephen J. Field, the future U.S. Supreme Court justice, upon arriving in California in 1849. Field's pronouncement was more than just an expression of exuberance. For an electrifying moment, he and another 100,000 hopeful gold miners found themselves face-to-face with something commensurate to their capacity to dream. Most failed to hit pay dirt in gold. Thereafter, one illustrative group of them struggled to make a living in wheat, livestock, and fruit along Putah Creek in the lower Sacramento Valley. Like Field, they never forgot that first "glorious" moment in California when anything seemed possible. In After the Gold Rush, David Vaught examines the hard-luck miners-turned-farmers—the Pierces, Greenes, Montgomerys, Careys, and others—who refused to admit a second failure, faced flood and drought, endured monumental disputes and confusion over land policy, and struggled to come to grips with the vagaries of local, national, and world markets.Their dramatic story exposes the underside of the American dream and the haunting consequences of trying to strike it rich.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-xi
- Prologue. “Glorious”
- pp. 1-8
- PART ONE: MAKING A SETTLEMENT
- 1 Removals
- pp. 13-26
- 3 Farms without Titles
- pp. 45-56
- 4 “A Very Public Place”
- pp. 57-69
- PART TWO: DISASTER AND PERSISTENCE
- 5 “To Begin Again”
- pp. 73-88
- 6 Favorite Son
- pp. 89-103
- 7 Prominent Citizens
- pp. 104-123
- PART THREE: THE SECOND GOLD RUSH
- 8 “As Good As Wheat”
- pp. 127-149
- 9 “A Devil’s Opportunity”
- pp. 150-171
- 10 Looking Back
- pp. 172-193
- PART FOUR: THE NEW GENERATION EMERGES
- 11 Gold—Wheat—Fruit
- pp. 197-219
- 12 Legacies
- pp. 220-228
- Epilogue. Remnants
- pp. 229-231
- Essay on Sources
- pp. 295-300
Additional Information
ISBN
9780801897801
Related ISBN(s)
9780801884979, 9780801892578
MARC Record
OCLC
593239759
Pages
328
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No