Gold Rush Societies and Migrant Networks in the Tasman World
- Focuses specifically on the Otago gold rushes within the histories of British and Irish migration
- Investigates the relationship between space and place within the British, Irish, and Chinese diasporas
- Research based on primary sources including 32 collections of letters, 23 personal diaries, 57 autobiographies and 20 local and regional newspapers
- Combines transnational and comparative approaches that can both elucidate shared experiences and recognize the distinctiveness of individual groups and localities
This book creatively explores the gold rushes in the Tasman World through an examination of the Otago gold rushes, revealing how transnational connections and local social and natural environments shaped colonial identities. The first monograph-length study on the Otago gold rushes and their place in the histories of British and Irish migration, it increases our understanding of the British World by grounding transnational networks in the local ecologies, geologies and weather patterns which shaped local social structures and profoundly affected migrants’ relationships to loved ones in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere.
List of Abreviations
Glossary
Editorial Note Introduction Chapter One: "To Return Home with ... Satisfaction and Pleasure": Home and Family Networks Chapter Two: "A Great Many People I know from Victoria": The Victorian Dimension of the Otago Gold Rushes Chapter Three: Work and Environments Chapter Four: Leisure Sites and Cultures Chapter Five: Chinese Gold Seekers in Otago Chapter Six: "Monuments of Industry"?: The Otago Gold Rushes in Public and Private Memory Conclusion
Bibliography
Very well researched, and always alert both to the trends of current scholarship and to the nuances of the evidence. It is impressively but unobtrusively documented and written in a clear and engaging fashion.
