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Wednesday book: All that glitters is not necessarily any good

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From: The Independent - London
Date: 20000503
Author:Frank McLynn

Roaring Camp: the social world of the California gold rush

by Susan Lee Johnson

(WW Norton, pounds 20)

STORIES OF gold fever suggest Bret Harte, Mark Twain and Jack London, and a new history of the Californian gold rush sounds exciting. Unfortunately, this is the worst of books about the best of subjects. It is not really about the gold rush at all, but simply an excuse for Susan Lee Johnson to ride her contemporary hobby-horses.

Those who know political correctness, US campus style, will be familiar with the litany of cliches. To amend Orwell's "four legs good, two legs bad", this is a ...

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