A Global History of Gold Rushes

Benjamin Mountford, Stephen Tuffnell, Benjamin Mountford, Stephen Tuffnell

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9780520294554
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520967588
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 19th Century History
• Index: History

Nothing set the world in motion like gold. Between the discovery of California placer gold in 1848 and the rush to Alaska fifty years later, the search for the precious yellow metal accelerated worldwide circulations of people, goods, capital, and technologies. A Global History of Gold Rushes brings together historians of the United States, Africa, Australasia, and the Pacific World to tell the rich story of these nineteenth century gold rushes from a global perspective. Gold was central to the growth of capitalism: it whetted the appetites of empire builders, mobilized the integration of global markets and economies, profoundly affected the environment, and transformed large-scale migration patterns. Together these essays tell the story of fifty years that changed the world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• A Global History of Gold Rushes
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Editors’ Acknowledgments
• Timeline and Map: Selected Nineteenth-Century Gold Rushes
• PART ONE GLOBAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE AGE OF GOLD
• PART TWO SETTLER SOCIETIES AND GOLD RUSH DEMOCRACY
• PART THREE FINANCE, SPECULATION, AND THE ECONOMICS OF GOLD RUSHES
• PART FOUR EXPERTISE, THE ENVIRONMENT, AND MINING TECHNOLOGIES
• Select Bibliography
• List of Contributors
• Index