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Gold Fever

One Man's Adventures on the Trail of the Gold Rush

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Gold. For centuries people have been entranced by the riches it promises; thousands have gone wild in their search for it and surely there will be many more.

After the Financial Crisis, the price of gold reached peaks never seen in history. All over the world, particularly in the United States, people with no experience of prospecting began shopping for shovels, pickaxes, gold pans, tents, generators, and all manner of equipment they had no idea how to use. And off they went mining.

In 2013, Steve Boggan decided he wanted a piece of the action, flying to San Francisco to join the 21st century's gold rush in a quest to understand the allure of the metal – and maybe find some for himself, too. Meeting a selection of colourful characters dreaming of striking it rich, he gets a crash course in small-scale prospecting while learning about the history and economics of gold.

He also takes us back in time to the original gold rush, two centuries ago, tracing the path of the first intrepid 49ers who trekked thousands of miles, risking death for the chance of unimaginable wealth. Written with Boggan's characteristic charm, Gold Fever is a hugely entertaining travelogue and a moving insight into a key period in the creation of modern America.
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    • Kirkus

      June 1, 2015
      A British journalist muses on his journey through California Gold Country. Former Independent chief reporter Boggan (Follow the Money: A Month in the Life of a Ten-Dollar Bill, 2012) first took interest in gold when its value topped $1,000 per ounce in 2008. His work as a journalist led him to interview people who left jobs and families to hunt for gold in California. Most never struck it rich and ended up broke, but Boggan discovered that they "cheerfully...trussed up all sense of reason and kept on digging" anyway. Intrigued by this phenomenon, the author began studying the history of the California Gold Rush and watching the gold market. In 2013, he flew to San Francisco knowing, and fully accepting, that "odds [were] stacked against [him]." Following in the footsteps of a group of forty-niners whose stories he tells alongside his own, Boggan began his adventures at the northern end of California on the Klamath River, marveling at the beauty of the landscape and living in mortal fear of being eaten alive by bears. As historically well-informed as he was about Gold Country, the author had no practical knowledge of how to prospect. He learned as he went along from people like a retired pipe fitter who sold everything to live in an RV and look for gold and a former U.S. Navy Seal who practiced extreme underwater prospecting. Boggan found only a few flakes of gold, which he coveted like "a miser in a mountain cave." His rewards were far more intangible: experiences with unforgettable people and landscapes and insight into the "malady" that had compelled him to take his journey in the first place. Boggan's narrative and persona are charming, but they are not quite enough to make up for a story that, in its attempt to cover so much historical and personal ground, is digressive and unevenly paced. An engaged-but not always engaging-travel/adventure memoir.

      COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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  • English

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