The Rush
America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853
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The Rush
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Narrated by:
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Bernard Setaro Clark
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By:
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Edward Dolnick
About this listen
A riveting portrait of the Gold Rush, by the award-winning author of Down the Great Unknown and The Forger's Spell.
In the spring of 1848, rumors began to spread that gold had been discovered in a remote spot in the Sacramento Valley. A year later, newspaper headlines declared "Gold Fever!" as hundreds of thousands of men and women borrowed money, quit their jobs, and allowed themselves - for the first time ever - to imagine a future of ease and splendor. In The Rush, Edward Dolnick brilliantly recounts their treacherous westward journeys by wagon and on foot, and takes us to the frenzied gold fields and the rowdy cities that sprang from nothing to jam-packed chaos. With an enthralling cast of characters and scenes of unimaginable wealth and desperate ruin, The Rush is a fascinating - and rollicking - account of the greatest treasure hunt the world has ever seen.
©2014 Edward Dolnick (P)2014 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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In April of 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and 14 others set out for California on snowshoes and over the next 32 days endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely enthralling
- By Anonymous User on 06-07-19
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Desperate Passage
- The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
- By: Ethan Rarick
- Narrated by: Christopher Prince
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 826
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 686
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 686
In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I REALLY enjoyed this book
- By Anonymous User on 02-09-10
By: Ethan Rarick
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Exploration Fawcett
- Journey to the Lost City of Z
- By: Lt. Col. P. H. Fawcett
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 82
This is the true story of the real Colonel Fawcett, whose life was the inspiration for the best-selling book The Lost City of Z and an upcoming movie starring Brad Pitt. A thrilling account, it tells of Colonel Fawcett and his mysterious disappearance in the Amazon jungle, which is now considered one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.
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2 out of 5 stars
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boring
- By Ramanda Brockett on 08-07-18
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The Age of Gold
- The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
- By: H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 410
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 303
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 308
When gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill on the American River, it completely transformed the territory of California. Hundreds of thousands of people sped to California by any means possible, and small cities sprung up to service their needs as they sought the precious metal. By 1850, California had become a state; it had also become a symbol of where the nation was going.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very Enjoyable
- By Anonymous User on 01-15-04
By: H.W. Brands
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Skeletons on the Zahara
- A True Story of Survival
- By: Dean King
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,405
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,250
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,249
Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of 12 American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Haunting
- By thawstone on 06-05-16
By: Dean King
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The Floor of Heaven
- A True Tale of the Last Frontier and the Yukon Gold Rush
- By: Howard Blum
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
It is the last decade of the 19th century. The Wild West has been tamed and its fierce, independent and often violent larger-than-life figures – gun-toting wanderers, trappers, prospectors, Indian fighters, cowboys, and lawmen –are now victims of their own success. They are heroes who’ve outlived their usefulness.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A major disappointment
- By Joshua on 05-03-14
By: Howard Blum
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The Lost City of Z
- A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,244
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,326
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Story4 out of 5 stars 3,338
A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to find out what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Worthy Read for Armchair Explorers
- By Anonymous User on 03-01-09
By: David Grann
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Ordeal by Hunger
- By: George R. Stewart
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 163
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
The tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846, 87 people, men, women, and children, set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Life Changing
- By Gyropilot on 06-03-08
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The Best Land Under Heaven
- The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: Michael Wallis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 440
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 406
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 402
Cutting through 160 years of mythmaking, best-selling historian Michael Wallis presents the ultimate cautionary tale of America's westward expansion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Well researched but performance is just mediocre
- By Anonymous User on 07-14-17
By: Michael Wallis
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The Big Burn
- Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Story5 out of 5 stars 153
In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America and the tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy in the land.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Mediocre
- By Anonymous User on 11-04-20
By: Timothy Egan
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Lasso the Wind
- Away to the New West
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
Egan leads us on an unconventional, freewheeling tour: from America's oldest continuously inhabited community, the Ancoma Pueblo in New Mexico, to the high kitsch of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where London Bridge has been painstakingly rebuilt stone by stone; from the fragile beauty of Idaho's Bitterroot Range to the gross excess of Las Vegas, a city built as though in defiance of its arid environment.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator mispronounces everything
- By Anonymous User on 01-27-22
By: Timothy Egan
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A Wretched and Precarious Situation
- In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier
- By: David Welky
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 50
A remarkable true story of adventure, betrayal, and survival set in one of the world's most inhospitable places. In 1906, from atop a snow-swept hill in the ice fields northwest of Greenland, hundreds of miles from another human being, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted a line of mysterious peaks looming in the distance. He called this unexplored realm "Crocker Land". Scientists and explorers agreed that the world-famous explorer had discovered a new continent rising from the frozen Arctic Ocean.
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4 out of 5 stars
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it all comes together at the end
- By Anonymous User on 01-30-18
By: David Welky
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Hard Gold (I Witness)
- The Colorado Gold Rush of 1859: A Tale of the Old West
- By: Avi
- Narrated by: Alston Brown
- Length: 3 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 72
Early Whitcomb's family needs a miracle. Their Iowa farm has been in the family for generations, but a long drought has withered their savings and left them in debt - and in danger of foreclosure. Early's uncle, Jesse, thinks he has the solution: to head West and dig for gold. Fueled by reports of prospectors striking it rich in the Rocky Mountains, Jesse can't think about anything but gold. Early is wild to go with him, as much for the adventure as for the gold. But the journey costs money - more than the boys can afford....
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5 out of 5 stars
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great story
- By Anonymous User on 04-09-19
By: Avi
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The Promise of the Grand Canyon
- John Wesley Powell's Perilous Journey and His Vision for the American West
- By: John F. Ross
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
John Wesley Powell’s first descent of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in 1869 counts among the most dramatic chapters in American exploration history. When the Canyon spit out the surviving members of the expedition - starving, battered, and nearly naked - they had accomplished what others thought impossible and finished the exploration of continental America that Lewis and Clark had begun almost 70 years before.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Parallels
- By Anonymous User on 01-25-19
By: John F. Ross
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Canoeing with the Cree
- A 2,250-mile voyage from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay
- By: Eric Sevareid
- Narrated by: John Farrell
- Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 196
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 165
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 165
In 1930, two novice paddlers - Eric Sevareid and Walter C. Port - launched a secondhand 18-foot canvas canoe from the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling for an ambitious summer-long journey from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. Without benefit of radio, motor or good maps, the teenagers made their way over 2,250 miles of rivers, lakes, and difficult portages.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Seems like an abridged version
- By Angela on 12-31-09
By: Eric Sevareid
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In the Kingdom of Ice
- The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,470
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,152
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,146
In the late nineteenth century, people were obsessed by one of the last unmapped areas of the globe: The North Pole. No one knew what existed beyond the fortress of ice rimming the northern oceans. On July 8, 1879, the USS Jeannette set sail from San Francisco to cheering crowds in the grip of "Arctic Fever." The ship sailed into uncharted seas, but soon was trapped in pack ice. Two years into the harrowing voyage, the hull was breached. Amid the rush of water and the shrieks of breaking wooden boards, the crew abandoned the ship.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Superb tale that unravels at an iceburg's pace
- By Mel on 03-19-15
By: Hampton Sides
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Disappointment River
- Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports listeners back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of energy extraction and climate change.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Jean on 05-06-18
By: Brian Castner