The American West

Dee Brown

• Publisher: Scribner
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780684804415
• eBook ISBN: 9781439125564
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Renowned storyteller Dee Brown, author of the bestselling Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, recreates the struggles of Native Americans, settlers, and ranchers in this stunning volume that illuminates the history of the old West that's filled with maps and vintage photographs. Beginning with the demise of the Native Americans of the Plains, Brown depicts the onrush of the burgeoning cattle trade and the waves of immigrants who ultimately "settled" the land. In the retelling of this oft-told saga, Brown has demonstrated once again his abilities as a master storyteller and an entertaining popular historian.By turns heroic, tragic, and even humorous, The American West brings to life American tragedy and triumph in the years from 1840 to the turn of the century, and a roster of characters both great and small: Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Dull Knife, Crazy Horse, Captain Jack, John H. Tunstall, Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, Wild Bill Hickok, Charles Goodnight, Oliver Loving, Buffalo Bill, and many others. The American West is about cattle and the railroads; it is about settlers who came to claim a land not originally their own and how they slowly imposed law and order on these wild and untamed places; and it is about the wanton destruction of the Native American way of life. This is epic history at its best and popular history at its most readable.This new work is culled from Dee Brown's highly acclaimed writings, which instantly established him as one of America's foremost Western authorities. Fully revised, rewritten, and edited into one seamless account of America's most famous frontier, this epic narrative, along with the introduction and a chronological table of events, etches an unforgettable and poignant portrait. The American West is at once a tribute to the West and a majestic new peak for a writer whose long and successful career has been synonymous with excellence in frontier history.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• List of Photographs
• List of Maps
• CHAPTER 1 Westward March
• CHAPTER 2 Longhorns and Pioneers
• CHAPTER 3 Cattle Horses and Cowboys
• CHAPTER 4 Red Cloud of the Sioux
• CHAPTER 5 Black Kettle of the Cheyennes
• CHAPTER 6 Kiowa and Comnche
• CHAPTER 7 The Conquest of Cochise
• CHAPTER 8 Treaties and the Thieves’ Road
• CHAPTER 9 The Big Rolling Land
• CHAPTER 10 The Story of a Western Town
• CHAPTER 11 The Finer Things in Life
• CHAPTER 12 The Myth and Its Makers
• CHAPTER 13 Rip Roaring Trail Towns
• CHAPTER 14 The Vision of Sitting Bull
• CHAPTER 15 The Warriors Come In
• CHAPTER 16 Dull Knife Marches Home
• CHAPTER 17 Captain Jack and the Modocs
• CHAPTER 18 Joseph of the Nez Percés
• CHAPTER 19 The Peace Seekers
• CHAPTER 20 The Saga of Dodge City
• CHAPTER 21The Beef Bonanza
• CHAPTER 22Billy the Kid
• CHAPTER 23Free Grass in the Northwest
• CHAPTER 24Big Blizzards and Little Wars
• CHAPTER 25Jollification
• CHAPTER 26Geronimo and the Chiricahuas
• CHAPTER 27The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee
• CHAPTER 28Wild West Shows and Rodeos
• CHAPTER 29Law Order and Politics
• A Selected Chronology of Events in the West
• INDEX