Reader recommendation: The Age of Gold

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

January 28, 2011

The Age of Gold by H.W. Brands – the story of the California Gold Rush – paints a masterful picture of humanity from around the world as it comes in search of a sudden fortune unlike anything experienced before. Even more, the book tells of other events that the Gold Rush spawned: California statehood and the transcontinental railroad, to name two. It's a tale of the best and the worst, of fortunes made – and fortunes lost.