History West United States

The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality - in hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here, she interprets the stories and the characters in a new way: The trappers, traders, Indians, farmers, oilmen, cowboys, and sheriffs of the Old West "meant business" in more ways than one, and their descendants mean business today.

Popular culture has taught us to picture the Old West as a land of men, whether it's the lone hero on horseback or crowds of card players in a rough-and-tumble saloon. But the taming of the frontier involved plenty of women, too - and this book tells their stories. At first, female pioneers were indeed rare - when the town of Denver was founded in 1859, there were only five women among a population of almost a thousand. But the adventurers arrived, slowly but surely.

Big Sugar: The Other White Powder peels back the shiny facade of an everyday staple to reveal a history marked by exploitation, political intrigue, and global impact. From sugar’s beginnings as a rare delicacy in Southeast Asia to its role in shaping empires, economies, and entire societies, this book explores how a simple sweetener fueled colonial expansion, financed wars, and entrenched forced labor.

Prairie Gothic is full of Texas lore. Erickson tells the story of people in the context of a specific place. This place, instrumental in shaping their lives, is the flatland prairie of northwestern Texas that has gone by various names (High Plains, South Plains, Staked Plains, and Llano Estacado). One branch of Erickson's family arrived in Texas in 1858. Erickson's family interacts with significant historical figures, such as Cynthia Ann Parker, and includes members of the Estacado Quaker colony.

Black Bart is widely regarded today as not only the most notorious stage robber of the Old West but also the best behaved. Over his lifetime, Black Bart held up at least twenty-nine stagecoaches in California and Oregon with mild, polite commands, stealing from Wells Fargo and the US mail but never robbing a passenger. Such behavior earned him the title of a true “gentleman bandit.”

In a tragic tale of heroism and perservereance, follow the Sager orphans as they take the Oregon Trail in the hopes of finding a new life. When the seven children's parents perish on the journey, how will they survive? This account remains one of the most authentic firsthand accounts of the journeys and hardships of the pioneers in the early West.

Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the "Wild West," which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind.

Bass Reeves was a man who forged his own destiny and wrote his own life story as he went along. Born into slavery, Reeves rose above all challenges to become one of the most legendary lawmen of the American West. As a deputy US marshal, he held himself to a personal code of conduct that went beyond the badge he wore. For Bass, the line between right and wrong was clear, and he never hesitated to enforce the law—even when it meant pursuing his own friends or family. Justice wasn’t just his duty; it was his calling.

Everyone's favorite folk song, written by Woody Guthrie and sung by his son, Arlo, is brought to glorious, toe-tapping life in this rich production. Includes a biographical segment about Woody Guthrie narrated by his daughter Nora Guthrie.

Beginning with a skirmish involving inexperienced British officer George Washington, the Iroquois chief, and the ill-fated French emissary in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, a chain of events culminated in what would effectively become the First World War. The French and Indian War, as it is known in North America, was part of a larger conflict called the Seven Years' War, which involved nations on three continents.

"No women need apply." These four discouraging words of admonition often greeted female physicians looking for jobs in the frontier-era West. Despite the dire need for medical help, it seemed most trappers, miners, and emigrants would rather suffer and die than be treated by a female doctor. Nevertheless dozens of highly trained women headed West, where they endured hardship and prejudice as they set broken limbs, performed operations, delivered generations of babies - and solidified a place for women in the medical field.

The Wild West was a troublesome area for a long, long time. Hard conditions brought hard people - not everyone was suited to live there, but those who did had a choice - the boring everyday life or a life of an outlaw, filled with daring escapes, adventures, and thievery. If it was you, which one would you choose?

San Francisco’s history precedes its name by several thousands of years. Though Europeans had settled in other parts of California much earlier, it wasn’t until 1769 that they stumbled upon the bay area. When the Spanish first arrived, they were floored by its natural beauty, which had been carefully maintained by its longtime residents, the Ohlone Indians.

From the Trail of Tears to Wounded Knee and Little Bighorn, the narrative of American history is incomplete without the inclusion of the Native Americans that lived on the continent before European settlers arrived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the first contact between natives and settlers, tribes like the Sioux, Cherokee, and Navajo have both fascinated and perplexed outsiders with their history, language, and culture.

The Wild West has made legends out of many men, but it also forged a lasting legacy for a few of the West's most legendary towns, and alongside the city of Tombstone, Arizona, perhaps the most famous of them was Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Deadwood owes its notoriety to some of the colorful people who called it home, and a recent critically acclaimed television series about the town that brought it to life for millions of modern viewers.

Tom Horn: The Controversial Life and Legacy of One of the Wild West’s Most Famous Gunslingers chronicles Horn’s time as a scout, cowboy, Pinkerton agent, and writer, and how he became one of the most famous folk legends.

On America's 100th birthday, the people of France built a giant gift! It was one of the largest statues the world had ever seen—and she weighed as much as 40 elephants! And when she arrived on our shores in 250 pieces, she needed a pedestal to hold her up. Few of America's millionaires were willing to foot the bill. Then, Joseph Pulitzer (a poor Hungarian immigrant-cum-newspaper mogul) appealed to his fellow citizens. He invited them to contribute whatever they could, no matter how small an amount, to raise funds to mount this statue.