Gold Rush Saints: California Mormons And the Great Rush for Riches
Product Type: Book
Product Price: $19.95
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
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Description
From 1846 to 1857 Mormons played a crucial role in shaping events in California and the West. They were the first American settlers of San Francisco, and without them, John Sutter might not have built his sawmill and thus discovered gold in 1848.
In Gold Rush Saints, Kenneth N. Owens combines narrative history and documentary accounts to reveal a hidden wealth of California and Mormon history. The first-person accounts of pioneer Mormons, both men and women, offer new perspectives on myths and realities of gold rush California.
Reviews
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-12-16
Summary: "Gold Rush Saints"
Very well researched history of the Mormons in the Gold Rush era. It has helped me with information for my next book.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2006-03-16
Summary: "Mormon social and political confrontations"
From 1846-1857 Mormons shaped events in California: they were the first American settlers of San Francisco. Narrative history blends with documentary accounts on California Mormon history: first-person accounts of early pioneers provide new insights on gold rush history and experiences. Chapters survey social and political controversies of the time between Mormons and between Mormons and other groups, examine the roles they played in settling California and overcoming the state's isolation, and include insights from the pioneers themselves. An excellent addition to California history.
Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2005-02-09
Summary: "An extensively researched history"
Volume 7 of the "Kingdom in the West: The Mormons and the American Frontier", Gold Rush Saints is an extensively researched history drawing heavily upon documents and primary sources to chronicle the role that Mormons played and the effect they had in California during the Gold Rush era. The text is scholarly in tone yet accessible to lay readers as it presents exciting stories of travel, cooperation, success, and destitution. Focusing especially upon influential and charismatic Mormon personalities, the hardships they endured and the legacies they contributed to, Gold Rush Saints is a welcome and seminal contribution to American and California history shelves.