The California Gold Rush
In Our Time: History
04/02/15
•45m
About
Comments
Featured In
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the California Gold Rush. In 1849 the recent discovery of gold at Coloma, near Sacramento in California, led to a massive influx of prospectors seeking to make their fortunes. Within a couple of years the tiny settlement of San Francisco had become a major city, with tens of thousands of immigrants, the so-called Forty-Niners, arriving by boat and over land. The gold rush transformed the west coast of America and its economy, but also uprooted local populations of Native Americans and made irreversible changes to natural habitats.
With:
Kathleen Burk
Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London
Jacqueline Fear-Segal
Reader in American History and Culture at the University of East Anglia
Frank Cogliano
Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh.
Previous Episode
The Curies
March 26, 2015
•47m
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the scientific achievements of the Curie family. In 1903 Marie and Pierre Curie shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity, a term which Marie coined. Marie went on to win a Nobel in Chemistry eight years later; remarkably, her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie would later share a Nobel with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie for their discovery that it was possible to create radioactive materials in the laboratory. The work of the Curies added immensely to our knowledge of fundamental physics and paved the way for modern treatments for cancer and other illnesses.
With:
Patricia Fara
Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge
Robert Fox
Emeritus Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oxford
Steven T Bramwell
Professor of Physics and former Professor of Chemistry at University College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Next Episode
Matteo Ricci and the Ming Dynasty
April 16, 2015
•45m
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit priest who in the 16th century led a Christian mission to China. An accomplished scholar, Ricci travelled extensively and came into contact with senior officials of the Ming Dynasty administration. His story is one of the most important encounters between Renaissance Europe and a China which was still virtually closed to outsiders.
With
Mary Laven
Reader in Early Modern History at the University of Cambridge
Craig Clunas
Professor of the History of Art at the University of Oxford
and
Anne Gerritsen
Reader in History at the University of Warwick
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted