A Year of Mud and Gold is a collection of over two hundred excerpts from letters and diaries of ordinary men and women caught up in the rapid transformation of

San Francisco in 1849 was a time and place like no other in American history. As word of the discovery of gold in California spread, people from all over the wo

"The correspondents come from a variety of economic and social backgrounds. Some are barely literate, while others craft prose on par with the finest nineteenth

The mid-nineteenth-century gold rushes bring to mind raucous mining camps and slapped-together cities populated by carousing miners, gamblers, and prostitutes.

Amy tries desperately hard to be a good wife and mother. She puts her whole heart into doing the best she can. But will her best ever be good enough for this ma