The California Gold Rush
from cambridgeforum
Historian Nathaniel Philbrick, famed American author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, discusses his latest book THE RUSH, where he turns his storytelling lens West to follow the history of the gold rush, as it moves from riverbed to counting house to the halls of power. His book reveals how the pursuit of gold shaped the development of America from the Wild West to debates over slavery in the Western territories, to the resulting chaos caused in Washington. The scramble for wealth reshaped our ideas of freedom, labor and belonging and by enabling the rise of California, pushed a fractured nation toward Civil War. Ilyon Woo, the New York Times best-selling author of "Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom" moderates the conversation.
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