About this Event
Bookshop West Portal will be welcoming Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Award winner Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea, Why Read Moby-Dick, and Mayflower. Philbrick will discuss his new book, The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World, a thrilling and detailed deep dive into a remarkably formative time in California's and our country's history. Paced like a novel and from a myriad of perspectives, you won't be able to put this one down! Lee Bruno, local historian, journalist, and author of Misfits, Merchants, and Mayhem: Tales from San Francisco’s Historic Waterfront, 1849–1934, will be in conversation with Philbrick.
You don't need to have read the book beforehand to enjoy the event, but we do recommend reserving your copy ahead of time:
Seating is first-come, first-served. (RSVPs are optional, but encouraged for our planning purposes.)
Meet the author, find out about a terrific new book, ask questions, hear directly from the author, and get personalized signed books!
About the Book:
National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Nathaniel Philbrick, author of In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower, reveals how California's Gold Rush forged the modern United States--and lit the long fuse to civil war
In January 1848, a carpenter spotted flecks of gold in a shallow stream at Sutter's Mill in California--triggering the greatest voluntary migration in U.S. history and jolting a fragile republic already sliding toward crisis. In The Rush, Nathaniel Philbrick transforms the Gold Rush from a tale of sudden riches into the origin story of America's modern contradictions: capital consolidated at dizzying speed, democracy in thrall to private power, xenophobia weaponized in the name of liberty--and a stubborn belief in the American experiment that refuses to die. This is the story of a nation tearing at the seams--a republic tested by its own ideals.
From the feverish gold-mining camps of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the wharves and vigilance committees of San Francisco, Philbrick renders a combustible, all-world society: Chilean brothers reinventing themselves to outrun prejudice; Native communities navigating dispossession and violence; the merchant-showman Samuel Brannan, drawn into the center of early vigilantism; and the politicians vying for control of California's future--the ambitious free-soil political boss David Broderick, who squared off against William Gwin, the Southern power broker intent on tilting the state toward slavery and the Confederacy. Not until a year after the outbreak of the Civil War, when President Lincoln signed legislation that would unite the nation east to west by building a transcontinental railroad, was California's loyalty secured.
Philbrick follows the gold as it moves from riverbed to countinghouse to the halls of power, revealing how vigilantism hardened into law and how debates over slavery in the West tipped the balance in Washington. The result is a clear, human story of how a scramble for wealth reshaped ideas of freedom, labor, and belonging--and how California's rise helped push a fractured nation toward war. The Rush is alive with characters whose choices still reverberate: a searing, panoramic epic that captures both the fury and the promise of America.
About the Author:
Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of In the Heart of the Sea, winner of the National Book Award; Mayflower, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Valiant Ambition, winner of the George Washington Prize; Bunker Hill, winner of the New England Book Award; Travels with George; Away Off Shore; Second Wind; Sea of Glory; and The Last Stand.
Lee Bruno is an author and journalist. His most recent book is Misfits, Merchants, and Mayhem: Tales from San Francisco’s Historic Waterfront, 1849–1934, winner of the 2019 Independent Book Publisher Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal for History. His first book, Panorama: Tales from San Francisco’s 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition, was published in 2014. Bruno is a frequent contributor to the San Francisco Historical Society's quarterly journal, The Argonaut. He has reported on business, technology, and science with writings appearing in various national and international publications. He has lived in San Francisco for more than forty years, raising a family of four sons with his wife and enjoying open-water swims with the eccentrics at the South End Rowing Club.
Agenda
🕑: 06:30 PM - 07:00 PM
Buy the book, browse the shelves, snag your seat!
🕑: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Hear from the author + Q&A
🕑: 08:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Signing Line - Get your copy personalized by the author
Event venue & nearby stays
BookShop West Portal, 80 West Portal Avenue, San Francisco, United States
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