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The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War (Vintage Civil War Library) |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Civil War > Item 142
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The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War (Vintage Civil War Library)
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by Leonard L. Richards
Sales Rank: 196070
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List Price: $14.95
$10.17
At Amazon
on 9-17-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 304 pages
Published by: Vintage February 12, 2008
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0307277577
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0307277572
Book Dimensions:
7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 9.6 ounces
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War (Hardcover)
Most books about the American Civil War ignore the West. At best they will take up the 1862 Confederate invasion of New Mexico, and perhaps mention that a handful of Confederate troops made it as far west as Tucson. Otherwise, aside from the Union occupation of New Orleans, Grant's actions in Tennessee and Mississippi, and Sherman's March to the Sea, most books on the conflict concentrate on Lee's campaigns in Virginia and his two invasions of the North. Books about the approach of the war take up the issues of slavery and States' Rights in the context of the politics in the East and the repercussions of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The West is not usually discussed. Yet, California's gold helped finance the Union victory, and Californians were deeply involved in the politics that led to the conflict. Leonard L. Richards, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, tries to redress this imbalance. In this new book he takes up the politics of California, from the entrance of John C. Frémont on the eve of the Mexican War, through the Gold Rush and California's admission as a state, to the 1860 election that led to the war. Many Northern Californians today often wonder why the state couldn't have been divided into two? The more ecologically-minded north could manage its own water, and the thirsty south would have had to limit its unbridled growth. Richards tells us how the state almost did become divided, several times in fact. The closest division came was in 1858 when the California legislature passed an act to separate the state, creating a Territory of Colorado south of the vicinity of San Luis Obispo. Richards says this was because of a desire among the Mexicans of the south for more self-determination, but they would have never succeeded without the votes of the pro-Southern Democrats in the north who hoped to create a slave state in southern California. The southern part of the state voted three to one in a referendum in support of the plan, but the US Congress, faced with the approaching Civil War, ignored the proposal. Considering the great interest among many in Congress and the Buchanan Administration in the vain attempt to create a pro-slavery Kansas, their negligence of a much more possible new slave state in southern California is surprising, but by 1858 the Republicans were in the ascendancy and the Democrats were fragmenting. Against the background of the national debate, Richards describes the local politics in California, a free state dominated by pro-slavery Southerners, highlighted by a famous duel between the pro-slavery Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court and an anti-slavery US Senator. The several plans to create a transcontinental railroad are also described against the background of the slavery issue and the Kansas statehood debate. My only wish is that the Epilogue, a concise summary of California and California soldiers during the Civil War, should instead have been expanded into several chapters. The book is called "...the Coming of the Civil War" and that's what it is. But when there are so few books that discuss California during the war, it would have been nice if Richards could have written more.
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The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War (Vintage Civil War Library)
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Price: $10.17
Updated on 9-17-2008.
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