"From the creator of the "Legends of the Old West" podcast, a book exploring the overlapping narratives of the biggest legends in frontier mythology. The summer of 1876 was a key time period in the development of the mythology of the Old West. Many individuals who are considered legends by modern readers were involved in events that began their notoriety or turned out to be the most famous - or infamous - moments of their lives. Those individuals...

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth anniversary hardcover edition, Brown has contributed an incisive...

Inspired by the likes of Mark Twain, Sir Richard Burton, and Horace Greeley, a cowboy and journalist takes an epic and authentic horseback journey across the American West as he rides the Pony Express trail from Missouri to California.

A critical examination of traditional American West history asserting that families rather than gunslingers were the key players; discusses explorers, fur trappers, clergy, the Gold Rush, and the building of communities.

Here are the true stories of the West's most terrible massacres -- Sacramento River, Mountain Meadows, Sand Creek, Marias River, Camp Grant, and Wounded Knee, among others. These massacres involved Americans killing Indians, but also Indians killing Americans, and, in the case of the hugely controversial Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, Mormons slaughtering a party of American settlers, including women and children. From letters and diaries, McMurtry...

Each of the Jackals has his own path to follow: Former Texas Ranger Matt McCulloch is trying to protect a young Commanche from scalphunters. Retired cavalry sergeant Sean Keegan is dodging bullets in a prison breakout planned by the notorious Benteen brothers. And bounty hunter Jed Breen is bringing in one of the bank-robbing Kruger twins, while the other one's out for his blood. Three Jackals. Three roads to justice. But when their paths cross near...

"It began with gold that had once belonged to Montezuma. Stolen and cached in a church in Mexico, it was recovered by two army officers who fled north for the French settlements. Along the way one stabbed the other to death. The remaining officer was eventually killed by Plains Indians, but he buried the treasure just before he died. Now Ronan Chantry, a handful of trappers, and an Irish girl whose father was killed after telling her a few vague landmarks...

Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes readers from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. When Napoleon offered to sell French Louisiana, America was launched on a fateful and fraught journey west. Brands takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • Startlingly observed, beautifully written, this book is a contemporary classic of the American West. • "As good a book as I have read about rural America in a very long time." —The New York Times Book Review

In 1909 maps still identified eastern Montana as the Great American Desert.  But in that year Congress, lobbied heavily by railroad...

"San Francisco was once widely viewed as the prettiest city in America. Today it is best known as the epicenter of the homeless zombie apocalypse. What went wrong? Michael Shellenberger has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 30 years, during which time he advocated for the decriminalization of drugs, and for alternatives to jail and prison. But as massive open-air drug markets spread across the state, Shellenberger decided to take a deep dive...