The California Gold Rush
2 Apr, 2015
970 History of North America
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the California Gold Rush. In 1849 the recent discovery of gold at Coloma, near Sacramento in California, led to a massive influx of prospectors seeking to make their fortunes. Within a couple of years the tiny settlement of San Francisco had become a major city, with tens of thousands of immigrants, the so-called Forty-Niners, arriving by boat and over land. The gold rush transformed the west coast of America and its economy, but also uprooted local populations of Native Americans and made irreversible changes to natural habitats.
Guests
- Kathleen Burk
11 episodes
Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London - Jacqueline Fear-Segal
3 episodes
Reader in American History and Culture at the University of East Anglia - Frank Cogliano
5 episodes
Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh
Reading list
-
Gold Rush: Three Years in California
J. D. Borthwick (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011) Google Books → -
The Age of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
H. W. Brands (Doubleday, 2002) Google Books → -
The Diary of a Forty-Niner
Chauncey Canfield (Turtle Point Press, 1993) Google Books → -
The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853
Edward Dolnick (Little Brown, 2014) Google Books → -
Contested Eden: California Before the Gold Rush
Ramon A. Gutierrez and Richard J. Orsi (eds.) (University of California Press, 1998) -
The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience
J. S. Holliday (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002) Google Books → -
Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California
J. S. Holliday (University of California Press, 1999) Google Books → -
Days of Gold: The California Gold Rush and the American Nation
Malcolm Rohrbough (University of California Press, 1997) Google Books →
Related episodes
-
The American West
13 Jun, 2002 970 History of North America -
The Gold Standard
20 Jan, 2022 330 Economics -
The Field of the Cloth of Gold
6 Oct, 2005 940 History of Europe -
The Mexican-American War
28 Jun, 2018 970 History of North America -
Voyages of James Cook
3 Dec, 2015 900 History -
The Industrial Revolution
23 Dec, 2010 940 History of Europe -
Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
30 Dec, 2010 330 Economics -
The Pilgrim Fathers
5 Jul, 2007 970 History of North America -
The Mexican Revolution
20 Jan, 2011 970 History of North America -
The American Populists
15 Jun, 2017 320 Political science -
1848: Year of Revolution
19 Jan, 2012 900 History -
The Iron Age
24 Mar, 2011 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Russo-Japanese War
1 Apr, 2021 950 History of Asia -
Capitalism
24 Jun, 1999 330 Economics -
The City - a history, part 2
1 Apr, 2010 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology -
Early Geology
12 Apr, 2012 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Slavery and Empire
17 Oct, 2002 900 History -
The Siege of Tenochtitlan
27 Oct, 2011 970 History of North America -
The Haitian Revolution
23 Oct, 2014 970 History of North America -
The City - a history, part 1
25 Mar, 2010 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology
Programme ID: b05nxgdd
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05nxgdd
Auto-category: 973.5 (California Gold Rush, 1848-1855)