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Illustration Credits
Sutter’s Fort: Library of Congress
The mill at Coloma: California State Library
North America circa 1852: map by Laura Hartman Maestro
Ready for anything: California State Library
Entering the mountains: Library of Congress
The Challenge: Peabody Essex Museum
Jean-Nicolas Perlot: Bancroft Library
A long tom: California State Library
Chinese miners: California State Library
California in the 1850’s: map by Laura Hartman Maestro
Home in the gold country: California State Library
A major river operation: Library of Congress
Water cannons: Bancroft Library
Comparing notes: California State Library
Abandoned ships: San Francisco Maritime Historical Park
Sam Brannan: Bancroft Library
San Francisco after the great fire of 1851: Library of Congress
John Frémont: Library of Congress
Jessie Frémont: Southwest Museum
William Sherman: Library of Congress
Leland Stanford: Bancroft Library
George Hearst: Bancroft Library
Mariano Vallejo: Bancroft Library
John Sutter: California State Library
James Marshall: California State Library
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank all the archivists and librarians who made the research for this book such a pleasure. The staffs at the Bancroft Library, the Huntington Library, the California State Library, the Beinecke Library, the Library of Congress, the California Historical Society, the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society, the Nantucket Historical Association, the Oregon Historical Society, the Peabody Essex Museum, the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, the Southwest Museum, Stanford University’s Green Library, the Evans Library at Texas A&M University, and the Center for American History and the Perry- Castaneda Library at the University of Texas at Austin were thoroughly professional and most helpful.
The author would also like to thank Roger Scholl, William Thomas, and Chava Boylan of Doubleday, and Jim Hornfischer of Hornfischer Literary Management.
FIRST VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION, OCTOBER 2003
Copyright © 2002 by H. W. Brands
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the
Doubleday edition as follows:
Brands, H. W.
The age of gold : the California Gold Rush and the new American
dream / H. W. Brands.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 509) and index.
1. California—Gold discoveries. 2. California—Gold discoveries—Social aspects. 3. United States—Civilization—1783–1865. 4. United States—Social conditions—To 1865.
I. Title.
F865 .B76 2002
979.4′04—dc21
2002023776
CIP
eISBN: 978-0-307-48122-1
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H. W. BRANDS
A masterful biography of the Civil War general and two-term president who saved the Union twice—on the battlefield and in the White House.
“Once again, H.W. Brands has crafted a wonderful portrait of a great leader who endured and prevailed in hours of stress and strain. Brands’s U.S. Grant is a compelling figure, a man too often overlooked by history. This book rectifies that with grace and insight.”—JON MEACHAM, author of American Lion, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography
“There is a magnificent unity to this story of Grant’s leadership in both war and peace that is not found anywhere else. In this compelling narrative, Grant emerges more fascinating than ever before.”—DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, author of Team of Rivals and No Ordinary Time, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history
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