Gold Rush Societies and Migrant Networks in the Tasman World

Abstract

Investigates the role of memory in forming ethnic and national identities in the early twentieth-century 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.