In less than ten years in the nineteenth century, more than 300,000 people made the journey to California, some from as far away as Chile and China. Dreamers and eccentrics, they included the first African American judge, an early feminist, and a self-styled emperor. Historian Gary Noy’s new book, Gold Rush Stories: 49 Tales of Seekers, Scoundrels, Loss, and Luck, explores the human stories behind the California Gold Rush generation. These individuals brought social tumult and environmental degradation, and their stories reveal the true complexities of the Gold Rush,

Please RSVP for this free event.

Co-sponsored by the California Studies Association and the Townsend Center for the Humanities.

This talk is part of the California Studies Dinners series, a forum for the discussion of California politics, economy, and society that meets once a month on the Berkeley campus. It brings together scholars, students, and specialists from around the Bay Area to hear speakers talk about new books, research and ideas of note concerning California. The series has been going strong for twenty years (with a predecessor going back thirty years!), and is the finest intellectual forum on California history, geography and public affairs in Northern California.

Gary Noy teaches history at Sierra Community College, where he founded the Center for Sierra Nevada Studies. A Sierra Nevada native, he has written and edited four other books on the stories of the Sierras.