Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
The Age of Gold cover art

The Age of Gold

By: H. W. Brands
Narrated by: Brian Mancinelli
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Lone Star Nation cover art
A Splendid Savage cover art
Bound for Canaan cover art
David Crockett: The Lion of the West cover art
Gotham cover art
Dreams of El Dorado cover art
Thunder in the Mountains cover art
Wolf: The Lives of Jack London cover art
The Pirate Coast cover art
Eureka cover art
Jedediah Smith cover art
The War That Made America cover art
The Great Quake cover art
To Claim a King cover art
William Walker's Wars cover art
Blood Moon cover art

Summary

By the Author of the Bestselling Pulitzer Prize Finalist THE FIRST AMERICAN

THEY WENT WEST TO CHANGE THEIR LIVES AND IN THE BARGAIN THEY CHANGED THE WORLD. THIS IS THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE GOLD RUSH.

When gold was first discovered on the American River above Sutter's Fort in January 1848, California was sparsely populated frontier territory not yet ceded to the United States from Mexixo. The discovery triggered a massive influx as hundreds of thousands of people scrambled to California in search of riches, braving dangerous journeys across the Pacific, around Cape Horn, and through the Isthmus of Panama, as well as across America's vast, unsettled wilderness. Cities sprang up overnight, in response to the demand for supplies and services of all kinds. By 1850, California had become a state—the fastest journey to statehood in U.S. history. It had also become a symbol of what America stood for and of where it was going.

In The Age of Gold, H. W. Brands explores the far-reaching implications of this pivotal point in U.S. history, weaving the politics of the times with the gripping stories of individuals that displays both the best and the worse of the American character. He discusses the national issues that exploded around the ratification of California's statehood, hastening the clouds that would lead to the Civil War. He tells the stories of the great fortunes made by such memorable figures as John and Jessie Fremont, Leland Stanford and George Hearst—and of great fortunes lost by hundreds now forgotten by history. And he reveals the profound effect of the Gold Rush on the way Americans viewed their destinies, as the Puritan ethic of hard work and the gradual accumulation of worldly riches gave way to the notion of getting rich quickly.

©2002 H.W. Brands (P)2002 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.
  • Abridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

“A fine, robust telling of one of the greatest adventure stories in history.” – David McCullough, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of John Adams

“Fascinating stories that transcend the mundane and take us to new levels of the human experience...Brands tells it, superbly.”– Stephen E. Ambrose

“An engrossing, multifaceted history... Its author, like the miners of the gold rush themselves, leaves no stone unturned.”– Janet Maslin, The New York Times

More from the same

What listeners say about The Age of Gold

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.