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Product Identifiers
PublisherGlobe Pequot Press, T.H.E.
ISBN-101493070061
ISBN-139781493070060
eBay Product ID (ePID)25057262417
Product Key Features
Book TitleFortune's Frenzy : a California Gold Rush Odyssey
Number of Pages324 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicUnited States / State & Local / West (Ak, CA, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, WY), United States / 19th Century, Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
Publication Year2023
IllustratorYes
GenreHistory
AuthorEilene Lyon
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1 in
Item Weight21.7 Oz
Item Length9.1 in
Item Width6.3 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2022-058812
Dewey Edition23
Reviews"How do we remember the forty-niners? ... Perhaps we picture a grizzled prospector panning for gold, broke and desperate, praying for the mother lode. Whatever we imagine, according to a new book by Eilene Lyon, the reality was much worse... "Fortune's Frenzy" recasts a pivotal American myth -- that of rugged miners striking out to wrest their fortunes from the land -- as a boondoggle, a con. It's a reminder that since the country was founded, capitalism has been grinding people like Jenkins and Ransom into dust. Once upon a time, the dust was gold."
Dewey Decimal979.404092
SynopsisThe road to hell is paved with good intentions...and gold dust. When Henry Jenkins's sawmill business goes bust and his family loses their Indiana farm to foreclosure, he believes gold is the answer to his financial woes. But it takes money to make money. Joining up with the Blackford Mining Company, Jenkins and the prospective miners ......, The road to hell is paved with good intentions...and gold dust. When Henry Jenkins's sawmill business goes bust and his family loses their Indiana farm to foreclosure, he believes gold is the answer to his financial woes. But it takes money to make money. Joining up with the Blackford Mining Company, Jenkins and the prospective miners sign fraudulent promissory notes to borrow from a ruthless businessman, Allen Makepeace, to reach the gold fields. But when the men arrive in California after an arduous river and sea journey, they face even more dangers in the lawless West that challenge their physical and spiritual well-being. When Jenkins, a God-fearing man, fails to strike it rich in California, he scrabbles to repay Makepeace and return to his destitute family in Indiana. Following in his wake, Henry's son-in-law becomes a captive passenger on a notorious death ship. Later, Henry's adult children find their way west and the family pays a terrible price. Fortune's Frenzy: A California Gold Rush Odyssey puts the experiences of the Jenkins family and others who took part in the gold rush in the context of 1850s American culture: their past; their community; their daily lives (and deaths) in frontier Indiana, on the sea route to California, and in the mines. The theme is age-old, and still relevant: desperate people falling for get-rich-quick schemes. They fail to consider the sacrifices they will have to make and the dismal odds of their success. Many ended up worse off than when they started., The road to hell is paved with good intentions...and gold dust. When Henry Jenkins's sawmill business goes bust and his family loses their Indiana farm to foreclosure, he sees gold as the answer to his financial woes. Joining a company of younger men, Jenkins and the other prospective miners sign fraudulent promissory notes to borrow from a ruthless businessman, Allen Makepeace, to reach the gold mines. They sail the risky route via Panama to the mines in 1851. But gold is not so easy to find by then. Making enough to survive and get home will be difficult; repaying Makepeace could be impossible. As Henry Jenkins becomes mired in mining, his wife, Abby, struggles to meet the needs of her large family amidst crop failures, waves of deadly disease, and harassment by Henry's creditors. When Henry's sons-in-law follow in his wake, they find themselves on a notorious death ship, stranded in the vast Pacific. Will any of these frantic men make it home to their distressed families? Fortune's Frenzy reveals the plight of miners who borrowed at extortionate rates to get to California, and explores the dangerous and deadly sea routes to the west coast that killed roughly 10 percent of those who risked the journey. Alternating between the miners' trials and terrors, and the challenges for the wives, children, and mothers left behind, Fortune's Frenzy delves into the country's pressing social, economic, and nationalist issues in the pre-Civil War decades. The theme is age-old, and still relevant: desperate people falling for get-rich-quick schemes. They fail to consider the sacrifices they will have to make and the dismal odds of their success.
LC Classification NumberF865.L975 2023
