| Abstract: | While historians have paid a great deal of attention to theminers who flocked to California during the Gold Rush, theyhave generally ignored those Argonauts who failed to strikeit rich, but nevertheless remained in the regions surroundingthe goldfields. In his ambitious, richly detailed, but ultimatelyuneven community history, David Vaught directs his attentionto those neglected failures, specifically migrants drawn fromeastern and Midwestern farm communities, pointing out that "f]arfrom vanishing into the landscape, these farmers, still in theprime of their |
