The Not So Wild Wild West

Cooperation, not conflict, is emphasized in a study that casts America's frontier history as a place in which local people helped develop the legal framework that tamed the West.

This is the 30th Anniversary reissue (2018) of Susan E. Kesler's definitive book, The Wild Wild West, The Series (1988). Completely re-edited and redesigned, much of the previous book's overall style and content remains. Lots of color has been added, along with cleaner copy and fresh material. There are great photos of the original book's 1988 San Diego Comic-Con launch. This is an absolute MUST for any fan of the series.

"During the 1800s, many settlers moved westward across North America to seek their fortunes as farmers, ranchers, and miners. In the Wild West, there were few towns and few people paid much attention to laws. Readers will take a trip through this thrilling period of American history as they join Louise and Nat for a tale of cowboys in a frontier town. They will find out how people lived, worked, and traveled in the Wild West, and much more."--Publisher's description.

This true crime history of the American Frontier separates fact from fiction with in-depth profiles of thirty-eight career criminals and infamous outlaw gangs. In the years following the American Civil War, the country’s western frontier was home to a prodigious number of myth-making cowboys, infamous gunslingers, saloon madams, and not always law-abiding lawmen. But the romantic mystique of these individuals and the time in which they lives is largely the product of novelists and filmmakers. In Outlaws of the Wild West, Terry Treadwell presents the real stories behind such legends as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, the Dalton Brothers, and others—as well as their lesser-known but equally criminal peers. Here are the stories of William Clark Quantrill and his Confederate Army unit, Quantrill’s Raiders, who turned hit-and-run raids into a way of life; Henry Starr, the Native American career criminal who went on to play himself in the movie of his life; Ann and Josie Bassett, the sisters who defended their ranch from cattle barons with the help of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; and many more.

The aristocratic Rose Pender and her husband, James, were among the thousands of English travelers in the American West during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This is Pender's lively account of a grand tour in 1883 of Texas, California, Salt Lake City, Wyoming, Dakota Territory, and far-flung points. ø A. B. Guthrie Jr. in his foreword writes that "all students and collectors will want" A Lady's Experiences in the Wild West in 1883. "It deals with a West in transition from frontier to the glimmer of modern times, from open range to fenced pastures, from trails to trains, from makeshift and made-do to more convenient and easier ways. We see it through the eyes and from the sensibilities of a gentlewoman and a Britisher to boot. The woman was indeed a Lady. She brought to America her highborn prejudices and standards. . .and with them a sharp eye, a chatty pen, and a game spirit. . . . She adds to our knowledge of a time no one is old enough to remember."

Meet Cowboy Joel and Blackbeard the lizard. Both are missin' some parts, but will that keep 'em from standin' up to El Maton and winnin' the wild wild west?