The California Gold Rush and the Comi..., Leonard L. Richards
The California Gold Rush and the Comi..., Leonard L. Richards
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The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War

Author: Leonard L. Richards

Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/01/2006


Synopsis

In this revelatory study, awardwinning historian Leonard L. Richards makes clear the links between the Gold Rush and the Civil War. He explains how Southerners envisioned California as a new market for slaves for digging for gold and planned to split off the southern half of the state for slaves.

About Leonard L. Richards

Leonard L. Richards, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, earned degrees at the University of California, Berkeley and Davis. His books have won numerous awards and honors, including the American Historical Association’s Albert J. Beveridge Award in 1970 and the second-place Lincoln Prize in 2001; he was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1987. Richards currently lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Kris on December 06, 2018

Richards doesn’t actually write anything about the Civil War. The book is about bills in Congress, laws in states, political influence, California becoming a state, and the legality of slavery. He falls into the standard nonfiction trap: constantly flitting from one name to the next, with no end in......more

Goodreads review by Ray on December 17, 2008

In the interest of time, and because his assessment matches mine, I've plagerized Stuart's 5/12/08 review of this book. As he wrote: "An interesting subject - how California nearly became a slave state, or was nearly severed into two states, one free and one slave. Some nice detail about the infamou......more

Goodreads review by Pete on November 29, 2021

An eye-opening read. I was expecting stories of miners and frontiersmen, but instead was treated to an indepth look at the political machinations around California's bid for statehood. Most interesting (and troubling) was how large a part the question of whether or not CA would be a slave state or f......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on May 01, 2022

The Gold Rush was the catalyst for the population boom in California, and really defined the cultural and economic character of the state. But nationally, the state’s entry into the Union had a tremendous impact on the political climate of the entire country. This book provides a really nice context......more

Goodreads review by Phillip on October 14, 2018

This is a tremendous book of California history. I had no idea that California played a part in the Civil War, and I grew up here. They never taught us this in school. All history buffs should read this book.......more