TAMING THE FORTY-NINER

by Elisabeth Margo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 1955

An examination of that ""vast natural experiment in social psychology which historians call the gold rush"" sights along a new line -- the lack of women. Their absence was the cause of the ""spree of the century"" which was strictly stag, for the gold- seekers were conditioned to keep the female adventurers and glamour girls in a separate compartment from the sweethearts and wives for whom they had a worshipful homesickness. Here are the two years, 1849-1851, in which the men gambled, drank, horsed around, fought, made money, went broke, got sick and generally kicked over the traces, in contrast to the eventual infiltration of ""civilization's fifth column"" -- the respectable woman -- when sunbonnets and hearthsides vitally changed the moral climate -- and in turn were somewhat altered by customs that would not be abandoned. An entertaining backward look that catalogs the before and after sharply.

Pub Date: Oct. 3, 1955

ISBN: 054845292X

Page Count: -

Publisher: Rinehart

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1955

Categories: NONFICTION