Golden Manhood
Race, Empire, and the Making of the White West

What did it mean to be a "white man" on the nineteenth-century frontier?

In the goldfields of California and British Columbia, men crossed oceans, climbed mountains, gambled fortunes, endured brutal labor, and chased the promise of sudden wealth. But beneath the glittering mythology of the Gold Rush was a deeper struggle: the struggle to define who belonged at the top of the emerging Western world, and why.

Golden Manhood uncovers the powerful connection between race, masculinity, risk, and empire that shaped the gold-rush frontier. From the gambling tables and mining camps to colonial courts and interracial encounters, it reveals how ordinary acts of work, danger, ambition, and self-control became measures of racial identity and social worth.

The frontier was not simply a place where fortunes were made.

It was a place where a new kind of man was being made.

Drawing readers into the rough, volatile worlds of California and British Columbia, Golden Manhood explores how the ideals of courage, independence, respectability, and mastery helped construct a racial hierarchy that would outlive the gold rush itself.

This is the untold story behind the myth of the White West,and the men who believed they were destined to rule it.