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  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407058344
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 560
Categories:

The Age Of Gold



The spellbinding, adventure-packed story of the Californian Gold Rush. An international bestseller for fans of Devil in the White City and Rose Tremain's The Colour.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 sparked a frenzy that shook the world. People swarmed to the gold fields from as far as China and Australia. They came by ship and overland, braving Tierra del Fuego and the pestilence of Panama, lured by the promise of riches.

At the heart of The Age of Gold is the story of Captain John Fremont, the flamboyant adventurer who "liberated" California from Mexico, only to find himself accused of mutiny. Fremont met his match in young Jessie Benton, a headstrong, fiercely intelligent Senator's daughter. Together, John and Jessie Fremont would play a fateful role in the drama unfolding on the gold fields as they lurched, like so many others, from financial ruin to astonishing riches.

  • Published: 1 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407058344
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 560
Categories:

About the author

H W Brands

H. W. Brands is the author of The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Award and a New York Times bestseller. He is Distinguished Professor and holder of the Melburn G. Glasscock Chair in American History at Texas A &M University.

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Praise for The Age Of Gold

'A great adventure story, more action-packed than any Western movie... a gripping picture of an extraordinary moment in history. Brands' fascinating account of the California Gold Rush is as epic as his subject'

Philip Hoare, The Sunday Telegraph

'At once scholarly, witty and accessible . . . it is hard to imagine a rangier or more entertaining guide to this period of American history'

Daily Telegraph

'The extraordinary story of the California Gold Rush... In John and Jesse Fremont, a glamorous couple, HW Brands has found the heroes of his tale' Rose Tremain in the Daily Mail

'Fascinating.' Paul Johnson, Literary Review

'A riveting story told by a born writer.' John Julius Norwich