H.W. Brands Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Interview

H.W. Brands explains why he chose to write about the California gold rush and why it marked the decline of America's 'long Puritan hangover'.

Bold Type: What prompted you to take up the story of the California gold rush?

H.W. Brands: It was really a subject I returned to. I grew up on the West Coast in Portland, Oregon and had learned about the gold rush when I was in school. It may get more attention in schools on the West Coast than in the East, or at least it did when I was growing up. Now I see history textbooks where the whole period gets one paragraph. Later when I was living in California I would go out on weekends to visit the gold rush country. I'm a twentieth century historian who has written a lot about the 18th century. Another of the reasons I wanted to write about the 19th century was that it's familiar even though it's not. A lot of the institutions and actors are known to the readers: the Congress, the debate over slavery, the Indian wars and the railroad. Unlike in earlier books, I don't have to spend a lot of backstory on British court politics, for example.

BT: Your earlier book The First American used the life of Benjamin Franklin to trace the birth and growth of a distinct American identity. The evolution of that identity is also a theme in The Age of Gold, but the means ...