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This edition is sponsored by Christianity Today’s Christian College Guide.
Last weekend, I celebrated some church friends’ birthday with a Wild West–themed murder mystery party. Receiving these reviews from historian Thomas S. Kidd was a great way to get into the genre, as they all center on America’s journeys out West in the 19th century. While some focus on the California gold rush or the story of pioneers’ westward expansion, I was particularly taken by a biography of early missionaries to the Cayuse tribe.
Happy Reading,
Taylor Berglund
Senior Features Editor, Christianity Today
A portion of this newsletter appeared as a column at Christianity Today. Join CT for full access to all our journalism.
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Three Books on History
Nathaniel Philbrick, The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World (Viking, October 2026)
Nathaniel Philbrick is one of the most engaging history writers today. In my courses, I sometimes assign his riveting In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, if only so students will read at least one history book they’ll like during college. Philbrick’s latest book, The Rush, does not disappoint. Like all great popularizers, Philbrick has read the academic literature on the Gold Rush. From that dense body of work he extracts wonderful stories and vivid characters and weaves them into a riveting narrative.
One of the most engaging figures is the lapsed Mormon and Gold Rush instigator Sam Brannan. Mormon leader Brigham Young sent Brannan in 1846 to scout California as a possible western home for the persecuted Latter-day Saints. When Young chose the Great Salt Lake instead of California as the Mormon refuge, Brannan apostatized and became a servant of Mammon. Brigham Young heard about California’s gold discoveries and demanded that Brannan send the Mormon church $20,000 in the precious metal. Brannan replied tartly, “Tell Brigham I’ll give up the Lord’s money when he sends me a receipt signed by the Lord.”
Brannan is just one of dozens of characters through whom Philbrick vibrantly narrates the frenzied, gritty, and classically American Gold Rush.