After the Gold Rush: Tarnished Dreams in the Sacramento Valley Paperback - 2009

From the rear cover

In After the Gold Rush, David Vaught examines the hard-luck miners-turned-farmers--the Pierces, Greenes, Montgomerys, Careys, and others--who after failing to hit pay dirt during California's gold rush, struggled to make a living in wheat, livestock, and fruit along Putah Creek in the lower Sacramento Valley. They refused to admit a second failure, faced flood and drought, endured monumental disputes and confusion over land policy, and struggled to come to grips with the vagaries of local, national, and world markets.

Their dramatic story exposes the underside of the American dream and the haunting consequences of trying to strike it rich.

"An excellent history of farming in the Sacramento Valley in the late nineteenth century."--California History

"Vaught tells a riveting story of two generations of farmers who 'committed themselves not only to the market but to community life as well.' He argues that these twin commitments, born of their failures in the gold fields, were an essential part of the culture of American capitalism that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century."--Business History Review

"A rich account of a rural world that has been overlooked by historians, and it is an important addition to recent work on rural life that has, to date, focused exclusively on the Midwest . . . very accessible to general and specialist readers alike."--Southern California Quarterly

"Vaught set himself the goal of writing a 'new' rural history of California, examining the state's wheat farmers in their social and cultural contexts. In After the Gold Rush, he achieves his goal admirably."--Journal of American History

"An agricultural history that weaves together an unpredictable creek, a fluctuating market, and the perseverance of the American Dream."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History

From the jacket flap

In After the Gold Rush, David Vaught examines the hard-luck miners-turned-farmers--the Pierces, Greenes, Montgomerys, Careys, and others--who after failing to hit pay dirt during California's gold rush, struggled to make a living in wheat, livestock, and fruit along Putah Creek in the lower Sacramento Valley. They refused to admit a second failure, faced flood and drought, endured monumental disputes and confusion over land policy, and struggled to come to grips with the vagaries of local, national, and world markets.

Their dramatic story exposes the underside of the American dream and the haunting consequences of trying to strike it rich.

An excellent history of farming in the Sacramento Valley in the late nineteenth century.--California History

Vaught tells a riveting story of two generations of farmers who 'committed themselves not only to the market but to community life as well.' He argues that these twin commitments, born of their failures in the gold fields, were an essential part of the culture of American capitalism that emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century.--Business History Review

A rich account of a rural world that has been overlooked by historians, and it is an important addition to recent work on rural life that has, to date, focused exclusively on the Midwest . . . very accessible to general and specialist readers alike.--Southern California Quarterly

Vaught set himself the goal of writing a 'new' rural history of California, examining the state's wheat farmers in their social and cultural contexts. In After the Gold Rush, he achieves his goal admirably.--Journal of American History

An agricultural history that weaves together an unpredictable creek, a fluctuating market, and the perseverance of the American Dream.--Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Media reviews

Citations

• Reference and Research Bk News, 08/01/2009, Page 105