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Title: Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California by J. S. Holliday ISBN: 0-520-21402-1 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: June, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: California, America Only More So
Comment: I found Rush For Riches to be much more than just a beautifully illustrated book about California (more than 100 excellent pictures and sketches). It is foremost a story well-told, and it provides a framework for understanding the past and predicting the future. As I read the book, I became aware of the forces that shaped California's economic and social evolution - from a sparsely settled, undeveloped, and neglected province of Spain/Mexico (1769-1848) to the state that by the 1890s had attained the image "America, only more so." Dr. Holliday points out that California's transformation reflects the very essence of the American experience: how freedom from the old rules and traditions that controlled life "back home" did, in California, give birth to inventiveness and risk-taking; how opportunity attracted a racially and ethnically diverse population; and how both industry and agriculture developed side-by-side to sustain the rapid growth.
Holliday's book emphasizes the importance of the application of "civic virtue" and "ethical understanding" in public affairs. Chapter by chapter, the book describes how the selfish interests of the Miners - collectively the dominant economic-political force in California during the 1850s - early 1880s, came into conflict with the individual rights of California's Farmers and Anti-Debris Association leaders. Through judicial efforts, the Miners' often anarchical power was finally reined in - after twenty-five long years.
Rush For Riches reviews the Spanish Period, Mexican Period, the Gold Rush, and concludes with Judge Sawyer's 1884 court decision which brought an end to hydraulic mining in California.
The book is a study of the past, yes, but it is more than that, it is a wake up call for all Americans to give serious thought to present and future social and economic problems which California and many other states now face.
Rush For Riches is the story of California's transformation into America's leading entrepreneurial state. It is history, only more so.
(I previously purchased from Amazon.com The World Rushed In, another book by J. S. Holliday, which I found to be very deserving of its 5-star Amazon.com readers' rating.)
Bob Kirchner
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