Hello, Historians, I hope you are having a good day!
I have been looking into what has made the United States the most successful country in the world, focusing on the psychological aspect. There is obviously something very different about Americans which has caused the nation to become the center of the world in almost everything from innovation to entertainment.
I was reading a Pew Research collection about some key studies where Americans were clearly set apart from every other country in regions such as optimism, religion, and individualism.
When looking back on the nation's turning points, the gold rush in 1849 especially symbolized the American mindset to me: hundreds of thousands of Americans picked up as many belongings as they could to set off on a 3000-mile, extremely dangerous journey based off of rumors that there was an abundance of gold.
So my question, hoping to spark a discussion: What does the reaction triggered by the gold rush say about the american character? What is this "American Mindset" which has caused the nation to stand out from all others? Is it a mix of risk taking, optimism, and the belief that hard work pays off? How did it begin?
It is with good reason that the title of the classic work on the California Gold Rush, The World Rushed In by J. S. Holliday (1981), made reference to the entire world. A fair number of the roughly 150k who came to California with the excitement of 1849 were from many other countries. The phenomenon speaks to the character of humanity, internationally, more than anything else.
It says that like everyone on Earth, if there's a huge gold strike, many will go and take a chance to get rich, or at least try to better themselves--life was tough back then, and only tough men made the trek--What's even more impressive was the 1898 Gold Strike in Alaska, amazing fortitude of those gold-seekers to climb those mountainous snows in that truly bitter cold