Edward Dolnick Books

"Carved in ancient Egypt, the Rosetta Stone carried the same message in different languages--in Greek using Greek letters, and in Egyptian using picture-writing called hieroglyphs. Until its discovery, no one in the world knew how to read the hieroglyphs that covered every temple and text and statue in Egypt. Dominating the world for thirty centuries, ancient Egypt was the mightiest empire the world had ever known, yet everything about it--the pyramids, mummies, the Sphinx--was shrouded in mystery. Whoever was able to decipher the Rosetta Stone, and learn how to read hieroglyphs, would solve that mystery and fling open a door that had been locked for two thousand years. Two brilliant rivals set out to win that prize"--

A riveting portrait of the Gold Rush, by the award-winning author of Down the Great Unknown and The Forger's Spell. In the spring of 1848, rumors began to spread that gold had been discovered in a remote spot in the Sacramento Valley. A year later, newspaper headlines declared "Gold Fever!" as hundreds of thousands of men and women borrowed money, quit their jobs, and allowed themselves- for the first time ever-to imagine a future of ease and splendor. In The Rush, Edward Dolnick brilliantly recounts their treacherous westward journeys by wagon and on foot, and takes us to the frenzied gold fields and the rowdy cities that sprang from nothing to jam-packed chaos. With an enthralling cast of characters and scenes of unimaginable wealth and desperate ruin, The Rush is a fascinating-and rollicking-account of the greatest treasure hunt the world has ever seen.

»Mit Witz und gutem Gespür für Vergleiche, mit lebendigen Beschreibungen, akribisch und detailverliebt, aber auch mit dem Blick für große historische Zeiträume – die 2000-jährige Geschichte des Alten Ägypten – beschreibt Dolnick den Wettlauf der beiden Gelehrten. Er berichtet von hoffnungsfrohen Ansätzen und klugen Vermutungen, von Irrtümern und Sackgassen und schweift immer wieder kenntnis- und lehrreich ab: Zur Entschlüsselung anderer Schriften und Codes wie der kretischen Linear B oder der sumerischen Keilschrift, zur Entstehung und Entwicklung unterschiedlicher Schriftsysteme, aber auch zu Forschungsexpeditionen und kolonial-räuberischen Grabungen in Ägypten. ... Meisterhaft.« Günther Wessel, Deutschlandfunk, 22.07.2022