Stampede

Gold Fever and Disaster in the Klondike

De: Brian Castner

Narrado por: Brian Castner

A gripping and wholly original account of the epic human tragedy that was the great Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98. One hundred thousand men and women rushed heedlessly north to make their fortunes; very few did, but many thousands of them died in the attempt.

In 1897, the United States was mired in the worst economic depression that the country had yet endured. So when all the newspapers announced gold was to be found in wildly enriching quantities at the Klondike River region of the Yukon, a mob of economically desperate Americans swarmed north. Within weeks tens of thousands of them were embarking from western ports to throw themselves at some of the harshest terrain on the planet--in winter yet--woefully unprepared, with no experience at all in mining or mountaineering. It was a mass delusion that quickly proved deadly: avalanches, shipwrecks, starvation, murder.

Upon this stage, author Brian Castner tells a relentlessly driving story of the gold rush through the individual experiences of the iconic characters who endured it. A young Jack London, who would make his fortune but not in gold. Colonel Samuel Steele, who tried to save the stampeders from themselves. The notorious gangster Soapy Smith, goodtime girls and desperate miners, Skookum Jim, and the hotel entrepreneur Belinda Mulrooney. The unvarnished tale of this mass migration is always striking, revealing the amazing truth of what people will do for a chance to be rich.

Entertaining history

The history of the gold rush along with being just good historical reading includes tales of courage, greed, malice and the entire spectrum of human conduct. You have to ask if you would have joined into the rush during an age were becoming prosperous was much more difficult than today and the citizens were more adventurous and hardy. I think I probably would have tied, and probably died trying.

great historical information made very interesting

This is about the characters (along with other interesting information) about the people that made up the gold rush to Alaska. interesting from cover to cover

Excellent! Rip roaring adventure!Horrifying! Heartbreaking!

Caster tears the gild and romance out of this story and in its place gave me a rip roaring adventure that left my head shaking and pulse running. He zooms out to put the whole event in context of the age before zooming in on vivid, hard, fair portrait of individuals that lived it… . It’s a short book, densely packed with historical nuggets beneath prose as clear as mountain stream.

History well written in almost story form

If you like a deep dive into a historical event, this is a great one to listen to. It is well written. There are intersections with almost every person written about which made it very interesting to me. You get the excitement of a gold rush like you struck it rich and the downfall when you didn’t.

Great story, really enjoyed this book

I read about the book in the WSJ review & really enjoyed it & highly recommend. Wasn't aware of the magnitude of this gold rush & fun to learn about the characters & history involved. Will look into other books written by this author.

The most American story ever told.

Well written story about the tragic pursuit of gold where there was none. The hope, the desperation and desperation to incomplete information, the “What could go wrong” attitude.
Ironical:)
Great book, a pleasure to read more than once.

Outstanding

The truth about a gold rush and maybe any get rich scheme or concept. I particularly like authors comparison of gold rush to great migration of people in today’s world

what's not to like?

well written, well told, well narrated...instant classic, I've got nothing bad to say about it, says a lot right there.

Gold prospects draw the desperate, greedy, &bunkos

Very well-written history of the Klondike gold rush. This is more intriguing than most snippets of history, and it ends well with a notice that similar "gold rushes" are ongoing for humanity, but often manifesting in alternative forms. FYI: bunkos = con-artists.

A great listen

While at first this might not be a historical period that I would normally gravitate towards, I quickly became engrossed in the history and the array of characters. Brian weaves his story along an expert path that exposes the absurdity of the gold rush mania and the brutal human costs while giving voice to those history had previously excluded from the narrative. I feel like I will be reflecting on this story for some time. Who knew that a story about a centuries ago gold rush would be so applicable to modern times? America seems destined to repeat its history.

Brian is also a fantastic narrator, clear and easy listening as he tells his story. I find his books to be well worth the time to listen and this is another solid addition to my library.