This is, the author says, ""an attempt at a synthesis of all the gold rushes as an aspect of the European peoples"". The presentation is more for the student or scholar than for the general reader, though even the layman can find much of interest in certain phases of the subject. The author has concentrated his attention on the second half of the 19th century, though he has prefaced his material with a brief history of gold. He covers the great discoveries, the technical progress in gold extraction, the differences of problem in each place, the types of miners, etc.