Customer Reviews

Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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.

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.

This book, which we purchased through Amazon, is fascinating. There are facts in here that were previously unknown by us. It was such a great read that before we quite finished reading it, we had worn some of the gold print off the cover. This book "Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California" is especially great for anyone who is interested in the history of California and the west. We would recommend this book without any reservations.

In an otherwise well written story, the author intentionally minimizes a key fact in California's "success" - specifically the extermination of the native population starting with the American period. Yes, diseases brought by the Spanish had taken a huge toll but that didn't compare to what happened after the Americans arrived. In 1850 the estimated surviving Indian population of California was from 150,000 to 500,000, but by 1900 this population decreased over 95% to just 16,000. If such a huge population drop had occurred in say England or France within a 50 year period, people today would demand WHAT HAPPENED? Yet, the author ignored the details what caused this major decrease in California's Indian population, but very few people seem to care. In 1851 the first California Governor Peter Burnett in his address to the state legislature called for the extermination of California's Indians... "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races, until the Indian race becomes extinct, must be expected." His entire speech on the subject is public record.

As you read the tone of this speech and others made by California's leaders at the time, they are clearly reminiscent of a certain German fascist. Most Americans today when they hear the word "extermination" pertaining to human beings, think of Hitler's "final solution" for the Jewish people. But in fact, in U.S. experience, the word was first used in California, by Governor Burnett, and other early prominent California leaders, and they used it in the context of how to deal with California's Indians.

To write about California's early history under U.S. control and to leave out this key aspect of California's actual history, is a disgrace. But doing so, is comparable to writing a 20th century history of Germany and leaving out Adolf Hitler and his influence.

But in California the Americans "won" and thus control what is written about its history. Likewise, had Nazi Germany won WW II, the topic of Hitler's "final solution" for the Jewish people would probably not appear in print either.

In his notes, the author leaves out primary sources such as "Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs, California Superintendency, 1849-1880." M234. Available at the National Archives and select academic institutions. These letters by federal agents and other Americans in California reveal many instances of Indians being slaughtered by miners and other "brave" pioneers...

"...that Indian women and children, guilty of no offense, are frequently put to death, sometimes in cold blood..." Pastor Sylvester Woodbridge, Jr., Benecia California, January 23, 1851.

This is just a short except from one of MANY such letters on this subject throughout this 20,000 plus page collection.

Just as Nazi Germany's prosperous years were built upon the property, belongings, and valuables taken from those it deemed subhuman, California's early "success" was essentially no different, and these historical FACTS should have been included.

History has shown itself to be a messy and frequently unpleasant thing to look at clearly, yet failure to do so, only perpetrates wishful thinking and immaturity of a culture.

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.

If I were the author and publisher, I would be embarrassed to have put this book to print. In 2005, it seems deplorably irresponsible that any "scholar" would claim to have understood the impact of California's 'rush for riches' without any real attention to the impact of the gold rush on Native Californians. Given that 130,000 of 150,000 Native peoples were killed by miners and ranchers during this time, paid $5 per scalp or decapitated head and reimbursed by the state for horses and ammunition, you would think a book like this would at least spend some time analyzing such inhumanely racist actions... Lots of glossy pictures can't cover up the real history.