The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends

The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends PDF

Author: Jim Motavalli

Publisher: GibbsSmith.ORM

Published: 2019-08-13

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1423654595

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Learn the truth behind the famous characters of the Wild West—and how the legends got it wrong—in this lively history that separates fact from fiction. The historic figures of the Western frontier have fascinated us for generations. But in many cases, the stories we know about them are little more than inventions. Popular legend won’t tell you, for instance, that David Crockett was a congressman, or that Daniel Boone was a Virginia legislator. Thanks to penny dreadfuls, Wild West shows, sensationalist newspaper stories, and tall tales told by the explorers themselves, what we know of these men and women is often more fiction than fact. The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Legends separates fact from fiction, showing the legends and the evidence side-by-side to give readers the real story of the old West. Here you’ll discover the fascinating truth about Lewis and Clark, Daniel Boone, “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Calamity Jane, Kit Carson, Davy Crocket, and many others.

The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Outlaws

The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Outlaws PDF

Author: Jim Motavalli

Publisher: Gibbs Smith

Published: 2020-06-23

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1423652614

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Learn the real stories behind the infamous renegades of the West with “Motavalli’s entertaining treatment of this bunch of baddies” (HistoryNet.com). The rebels and bandits of the American West—like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid—have always made for thrilling tales of gunfights, heists, and outlaws. From the beginning, penny dreadfuls, Wild West shows, dime novels, and urban legends romanticized and magnified these renegades and their wild American spirits. These tales, however, don’t capture the truth of the West’s outlaws—nor do we hear about other lawless individuals, such as Pearl Hart, Belle Starr, or the Bloody Espinosas. Jim Motavalli returns with The Real Dirt on America’s Frontier Outlaws to give a real and more inclusive look at the old West and the dangerous figures that immortalized it.

Real Dirt on America's Frontier Outlaws

Real Dirt on America's Frontier Outlaws PDF

Author: James Motavalli

Publisher: Gibbs Smith

Published: 2020-04-21

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 1423654587

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"The vicious bad guys and bandits of the American West have always made for thrilling tales of gunfights, heists, and outlaws. From the beginning, penny dreadfuls, Wild West shows, dime novels, and urban legends romanticized and magnified these renegades and their wild frontier spirits. We still get chills down our spines from these tales, which are more fiction than fact. The Real Dirt on America's Frontier Outlaws separates myth from truth, showing the legends and the evidence side by side to give readers the real story of the Wild West and the dangerous figures who immortalized it. Learn the facts about Billy the Kid, Black Bart, John Wesley Hardin, Jesse James, and Butch Cassidy as well as some lesser known evildoers such as Isom Dart, Cherokee Bill, The Bloody Espinosas, and Hoodoo Brown among others."--from cover.

The Making of Legends

The Making of Legends PDF

Author: Mark Dugan

Publisher: Swallow Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13:

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Drawing mainly from unpublished materials on frontier history and people, the author recounts legendary law-breaking figures from Pennsylvania to California. Each of the 11 chapters is devoted to an outlaw or outlaw family in a specific U.S. state. In addition to the lesser known legends, he includes the story of Wyatt Earp (and the Earp family), in his post OK Corral years in Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Mountains. Paper edition (unseen), $19.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Groundless

Groundless PDF

Author: Gregory Evans Dowd

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2016-01-15

Total Pages: 405

ISBN-13: 1421418665

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The fascinating—and troubling—story of powerful rumors that circulated and influential legends that arose in early America. Why did Elizabethan adventurers believe that the interior of America hid vast caches of gold? Who started the rumor that British officers purchased revolutionary white women’s scalps, packed them by the bale, and shipped them to their superiors? And why are people today still convinced that white settlers—hardly immune as a group to the disease—routinely distributed smallpox-tainted blankets to the natives? Rumor—spread by colonists and Native Americans alike—ran rampant in early America. In Groundless, historian Gregory Evans Dowd explores why half-truths, deliberate lies, and outrageous legends emerged in the first place, how they grew, and why they were given such credence throughout the New World. Arguing that rumors are part of the objective reality left to us by the past—a kind of fragmentary archival record—he examines how uncertain news became powerful enough to cascade through the centuries. Drawing on specific case studies and tracing recurring rumors over many generations, Dowd explains the seductive power of unreliable stories in the eastern North American frontiers from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. The rumors studied here—some alluring, some frightening—commanded attention and demanded action. They were all, by definition, groundless, but they were not all false, and they influenced the classic issues of historical inquiry: the formation of alliances, the making of revolutions, the expropriation of labor and resources, and the origins of war.

Legends of the Frontier

Legends of the Frontier PDF

Author: Charles River Charles River Editors

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-12-30

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 9781983426162

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*Discusses some of the legends and controversies surrounding the lives and deaths of the three frontier legends. *Includes the story about Crockett's famous Not Yours To Give speech, and the debate over whether he actually gave it. *Includes pictures of Boone, Bowie, Crockett and other important people and places in their lives. *Includes a Bibliography on each man for further reading. The Wild West and the frontier have long held a special place in the narrative of American history, and all of the legends and folk heroes who lived in the 19th century owe their reputation to the original American frontier folk hero, Daniel Boone. Boone was literally a trailblazer: the legendary pioneer established his Wilderness Road by striking west into present-day Kentucky and establishing Boonesborough, one of the earliest white settlements west of the Appalachians. Hundreds of thousands of settlers would follow his path by the end of the 18th century. While that was an important and proud legacy for the former Revolutionary War militiaman and Virginia State Assemblyman, Boone became known for the outsized tales and adventures associated with his foray into the frontier. Far and wide, people spoke of Boone's expert marksmanship, his encounters with wild bears, and his hardscrabble frontier life, making him a living legend and the prototypical Western frontier folk hero in America. Following right in Boone's path was "The King of the Wild Frontier," Davy Crockett. Also a living legend in his own life. Crockett was a hardscrabble frontiersman who could spin a good yarn but who also took a no-nonsense approach that brought him from the backwoods of Tennessee to the halls of Congress. Though he served during the presidency of another Westerner, Andrew Jackson, Crockett was very much his own man, and he was distrustful of other politicians, a sentiment that has only endeared him further to subsequent generations of Americans. Jim Bowie he was known across America in his lifetime for a controversy other than the Battle of the Alamo. In what became known as the notorious Sandbar Fight of 1827, a duel between two men turned into a large fight that included Bowie, who was shot and stabbed during the melee but still managed to stab to death the sheriff of Rapides Parish in Louisiana with a large knife that has since become universally known as the Bowie knife. Jim Bowie was famous in his lifetime, but like Crockett it was his death in Texas that made him an American legend. Though there is still some mystery and controversy surrounding exactly what transpired at the Battle of the Alamo, the deaths of Crockett, Bowie, William B. Travis and the rest of the defenders at the hands of Santa Anna's Mexican soldiers became a symbol of sacrifice and defiance, and the battle itself became a rallying cry throughout the rest of Texas' War for Independence. Naturally, it also cemented the legacies of both Bowie and Crockett as well. Legends of the Frontier chronicles the life, myths and legends of the three frontier legends, examining the known and unknown in an attempt to separate fact from fiction. Along with pictures of important people and places, you will learn about Boone, Crockett and Bowie like you never have before, in no time at all.

The Way West

The Way West PDF

Author: James A. Crutchfield

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2006-05-16

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 076530452X

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The history of America is, at its core, the story of the American West. In this new volume from the Western Writers of America, readers are taken deep into the true stories that helped America form its identity, and the people that embodied its essence. James A. Crutchfield, a long-time WWA Secretary-Treasurer and seasoned historian, has assembled a remarkable cadre of contributors in The Way West. Included are winners of the Owen Wister Award, given for lifetime achievement in literature on the West: * David Dary explores the network of trails that lead explorers West * Bill Gulick recalls the Steamboat days of the Pacific Northwest * Leon Claire Metz goes deep into John Wesley Hardin's world * Robert M. Utley shows us the true faces of the Texas Rangers * Dale L. Walker takes us on a tour of the final resting places of forty of the West's most celebrated figures. The Way West covers many of the now obscure individuals and long-lost tales of our storied past and gives new insights into famous characters and events of this legendary era. So join the Western Writers of America on a journey back in time and lose yourself in the colorful history of the American West.

The Frontier in American Culture

The Frontier in American Culture PDF

Author: Richard White

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1994-10-17

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 0520915321

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Log cabins and wagon trains, cowboys and Indians, Buffalo Bill and General Custer. These and other frontier images pervade our lives, from fiction to films to advertising, where they attach themselves to products from pancake syrup to cologne, blue jeans to banks. Richard White and Patricia Limerick join their inimitable talents to explore our national preoccupation with this uniquely American image. Richard White examines the two most enduring stories of the frontier, both told in Chicago in 1893, the year of the Columbian Exposition. One was Frederick Jackson Turner's remarkably influential lecture, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"; the other took place in William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's flamboyant extravaganza, "The Wild West." Turner recounted the peaceful settlement of an empty continent, a tale that placed Indians at the margins. Cody's story put Indians—and bloody battles—at center stage, and culminated with the Battle of the Little Bighorn, popularly known as "Custer's Last Stand." Seemingly contradictory, these two stories together reveal a complicated national identity. Patricia Limerick shows how the stories took on a life of their own in the twentieth century and were then reshaped by additional voices—those of Indians, Mexicans, African-Americans, and others, whose versions revisit the question of what it means to be an American. Generously illustrated, engagingly written, and peopled with such unforgettable characters as Sitting Bull, Captain Jack Crawford, and Annie Oakley, The Frontier in American Culture reminds us that despite the divisions and denials the western movement sparked, the image of the frontier unites us in surprising ways.

Regeneration Through Violence

Regeneration Through Violence PDF

Author: Richard Slotkin

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2024-01-23

Total Pages: 816

ISBN-13: 1504090357

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National Book Award Finalist: A study of national myths, lore, and identity that “will interest all those concerned with American cultural history” (American Political Science Review). Winner of the American Historical Association’s Albert J. Beveridge Award for Best Book in American History In Regeneration Through Violence, the first of his trilogy on the mythology of the American West, historian and cultural critic Richard Slotkin demonstrates how the attitudes and traditions that shape American culture evolved from the social and psychological anxieties of European settlers struggling in a strange new world to claim the land and displace Native Americans. Using the popular literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth centuries—including captivity narratives, the Daniel Boone tales, and the writings of Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Melville—Slotkin traces the full development of this myth. “Deserves the careful attention of everyone concerned with the history of American culture or literature. ”—Comparative Literature “Slotkin’s large aim is to understand what kind of national myths emerged from the American frontier experience. . . . [He] discusses at length the newcomers’ search for an understanding of their first years in the New World [and] emphasizes the myths that arose from the experiences of whites with Indians and with the land.” —Western American Literature