American Alchemy

American Alchemy: The California Gold Rush and Middle-Class Culture

Book review by: Nabeel Fargo

American Alchemy: The California Gold Rush and Middle-Class Culture, written by Brian Roberts, is a historical book that offers a comprehensive look at the California gold rush and the migration of the forty-niners and the wealth seeking middle-class culture during the late 1840s and early 1850s period. The author examines in this book various aspects about the California gold rush where a specific group of people rushed to California seeking for wealth and fortune. This book is a very interesting book because of its stories and facts that reflect the middle-class culture and what happened in California in the mid 1800s. The author also places class and gender at the center of his analysis in this book. The book is divided into 10 different chapters, and in each chapter the author focuses on several key aspects that took place in the mid 1800s during the gold rush era.

It seemed to me as I was reading this book that the gold rush for many was seen as a chance of a lifetime, and many people decided to go and risk everything in order to experience the adventure to California. Many left their homes and families behind, seeking for gold and riches. The average age of the forty-niners who went to the gold rush in 1849 was about 26 years old, and the other points out the fact that many of those adventurers were married and had wives because men got married at an early age during that period, thus going to California resulted in husbands leaving their wives, mothers, and sister to live alone without a man who was the head of the house and the main person who provided much of what was needed to the family. In this book we see that there was two different groups of people, the first group was a group of women who wanted to get reach in some way or another and wanted their husbands to leave for the gold rush and come back with pockets full of money and gold, but on the other hand there was another group of women who did not want their husbands to depart and leave them behind but rather wanted their husbands to stay with them because it was quiet difficult for a woman to take care of her household during that period.

I enjoyed reading this book because of the stories and the various facts that are included in the book which helped me understand many things regarding the California gold rush in the mid 1800s. I always thought that the people who went to the gold rush in California were mainly lower class, but after reading this book I found out that the majority of the gold seekers were middle class, and in addition, a significant number of people who went to the gold rush came from various places and were not American, some of those voyagers came from England, Ireland, France, Sweden, and Canada. Therefore, the gold rush was global. The gold rush for many of the voyagers who travelled on ships from the northwest and other various regions was a mission that had to be accomplished, and the voyagers realized that it would take them at least 2 years until they return to their homes and loved ones. Many of those voyagers or forty-niners, who made it to California were homesick and always expressed their desire to go back home. The author also indicates that the forty-niners did not go primarily to find gold but rather went to California because they were curious and they wanted to know what California was like in the first place.

I felt that I was quiet intrigued by how and what the society sees and defines the California gold rush after reading this book. I used to think that almost everyone who went to California during the gold rush became rich and was able to return home with money and gold, but in reality that was not the case with a large number of the forty-niners who went to California looking for gold but returned afterwards and regretted taking the risk of travelling to California and leaving their homes, wives, and families. One of the main aspects about the gold rush was the role of the wife, and in this book, the author clearly indicates the role of women in the gold rush, it was not easy for many of them to let their husbands depart and head to California, but rather many of them played a big role in the final decision for their husbands in the mid 1800s.

For many of those gold seekers or forty-niners, California was a great and perverse paradise. They condemned Latin Americans mainly because of their culture, beliefs, and lifestyle. In California everything seemed to be at least 100 years behind, from technology to many various aspects in comparison with what was available elsewhere in America. The author explains in this book the way the forty-niners viewed Latin Americans as lazy and useless. In addition, they thought that Latin Americans had failed to affect a proper mastery over external nature or internal natures. The author clearly tells us that the forty-niners did not get along with Latin Americans who had a darker skin color because they thought that Latin Americans were inferior to them and did not deserve to be with them.

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this book because I felt that the California gold rush was a major event in the history of the United States that took place in the mid 1800s, and it was interesting to see how people’s lives were changed during the gold rush, some got rich and some stayed the same. I personally liked the first five chapters of the book more than the other chapters. In the beginning I did not want to read this book because I thought that it was not going to be an interesting book, but now I am glad I read this book because it answered many questions that I had before reading it.