The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Old West

by Mike Flanagan

Book Overview

Examines the good, the bad and the ugly of the untamed West, with accounts of the earliest North American peoples, the legendary frontiersmen, the homesteaders, the gun fighters and the scouts who... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0028629450
• ISBN13: 9780028629452
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Alpha Books
• Length: 450 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Owlhoots,Gunslingers,and Doves are a thing of the past but the History,Legends and Action lives

I am a fan of Old West Westerns and read and review about one a week.There are not a lot of people posting reviews on them nowadays;maybe it's a generational thing.I grew up in the days of the Saturday "cowboy" movies, when Roy Rogers,The Durango Kid (my favorite),Gene Autry,etc entertained us. Lots of shoot-outs,the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black,rustlers ,Indians,stagecoach and train robberies,Roy and Dale,and Gene sang to us;and after the movie was over, we got out our cap pistols(That's right,before we had Political Correctness)and played Cowboys and Indians. Over the years the B & W movies appeared on TV in the 50's and 60's;then we got the serials like The Rifleman,Paladin,The Big Country,Gunsmoke etc.They faded out, and we got the big western blockbusters like Silverado and The Magnificent Seven,High Noon,etc. Things got slow for a few years till Clint Eastwood brought us the Spaghetti Westerns such as A Fistful of Dollars.Even today, we get an occasional big screen western. However ,through it all, there was alyays the paperback,or pulp westerns or 'Dime Novels" as was the name given to them by the one who made them popular,Ned Buntline.Yeah,he started it all,and was even there while it happened. The fascination of the West has remained ever since the europeans came to America.There was something for everyone,Action,Horses,Buffalo Hunts,Indians,US Calvary,Daniel Boone,Wide Open Spaces,Songs and Music,Riding the Range,Settlers,Trains,Stagecoaches,Pistols & Rifles,Gunfights,Saloons,Hangings,Judges,Marshalls,Sherrifs,;there was no end to it. The greatest amount of interest came at the end of the Civil War with a raft of stories ,both real and legendary.And oh the colorful characters,Kit Carson,Billy the Kid,The Jesse James Gang,The Earps,Doc Holliday,Wild Bill Hickock,Calamity Jane,Lily Langtree,Buffalo Bill,and the great legendary Old West towns like Deadwood,Tombstone,Laramie,Silver City,Larado,El Paso,Leadville,Dodge City,Cheyenne, and on and on. As one reads the novels,the history, or watches the movies or documentaries;the names,places,events, keep coming up. That's where this excellent book comes in handy. It is a super resource to have nearby.It covers the complete history of all the people and places.There is in Appendix A ,a Timeline of the West that places everything into perspective,starting with the Paleo-Siberian migration to North America via the Bering Strait,to what is considered the end of the Old West,roughly 1890.Although it was pretty much over by then,many of the characters continued to live out their lives in relative peace well into the 20th Century.Also included is an extensive Bibliography for Further Reading.Appendix C provides a good Western Lingo Glossary;and to complete the picture ,there is an excellent Index provided. Any fan of The Old West will find this an excellent resource .No matter what you run across;names,places,events,dates,and you want to learn more;this is a goldmin

Complete Idiot's Guide to The Old West

The title is misleading. This broad survey extends from the first arrival of people to North America, to the empires of Mexico, the coming of the Spanish, the frontier days of Daniel Boone, the explorations of Lewis and Clark, the mountain men, the westward settlement of the pioneers, the Gold Rush, the Indian Wars, and the late 19th century post Civil War era in which fictional "Westerns" usually take place. Being an "Idiot's Guide" the book has its annoying moments where the writing is shallow and glib or where the humor seems motivated by the need to pun just for the sake of the grin it gives the writer. The first half of the book suffers from this more than the second half, although it's there in some measure throughout the entire book. I nearly gave this a rank of one star less because of it. I excuse it only because this is an "Idiot's Guide" and the format to some degree demands it. Any history of a culture over time will include mention of the battles and wars which that culture has fought for defense, survival, or conquest. It is no different in the histories of the several cultures that have existed within North America. This book is fairly neutral, not using the text as a podium to preach against the actions of one past culture towards another, but to briefly report some of the events in the major clash between races (and hence cultures, although it involved more than two cultures even if, broadly, only two races) that occured in the period from the coming of Europeans until the end of the 19th century. Because this book is about the American West, i.e. the exploration and settlement of the United States Frontier, and is therefore a history of United States American culture during a period of its development, there are no histories within it of any of the particular cultures (notice the plural) that reacted to that exploration and settlement. Without those histories (again, the plural is important) the non-European derived cultures tend to appear undifferentiated apart from surface differences and to not have any significant oppositions (battles or wars) among themselves. This can lead to the Noble Savage view of American history, but the author here fairly well avoids that. I'd been looking for a good, elementary overview of the American West, and was happy to find this one. It appears to be out of print and should be made available again in a second edition that removes some of the glib writing that detracts from the enjoyment of the current text.

A Overview of the West and it's Development: Great Detail

If you are looking for an extensive overview of the west then this is your book. The surprise is that the book starts with the Bering Strait theory and the early Indian civilizations in North America. The book does not just start in the west but also the east since what occurred in the east affected the Indians all across our nation. Indian tribes moved from the east either through self migration to the west or forceful removal under Jackson's presidency. This forced move crowded other tribes such as the Sioux and Cheyenne into the plains plus created further tribal conflicts as land and game became competitive. Covers conflicts with the Indians from Cortez and Coronado's heavy and violent domination of the Indian tribes to Grant, Sheridan and Sherman's plan to subjugate the Plains Indians, the Apache, Nez Perce and northwestern tribes. Covers everything from the early mountain men, explorers, trails west, Indian conflicts, telegraph, stagecoaches, miners, gold, conquest of the black hills, James Gang, Quantrill, Tombstone and right up to the turn of the century. The best part of the book are the detail of occurrences that may not be well known to many but are fascinating such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre of a wagon train by Indians with Brigham Young's Mormons orchestrating and actually participating in the horrible event. Jackson's forced removal of Native Americans is very sad particularly the civilized tribes who suffered great adversity and death. Its very well laid out and covers it all and it's written with some cheeky comments. It's quite a history that includes all that happened in the west and events that impacted it. This so called Idiot's Guide is 400 pages of facts with excellent straightforward readable descriptions. Written with a sense of humor but with respect for tragedy. Love the western expression "Dunks sober up. Fools remain fools."

A really fun, informative,well-written read,

As a transplant to the west, I felt the need to catch up on the local history. Wow! This book was an unexpected delight. Not only did I learn a LOT, I had a great time learning it. Mike Flanagan is outstanding. I recommend this to other Yankees and smart but uninitiated people everywhere. Can you imagine the French and Japanese editions? Stetsons will cover the globe, pardner.

Excellent and engaging overview

Upfront confession: I've never been all that interested in this particular area of history (can't relate to all the testosterone-poisoning and bloodshed). But as such, I *am* that "complete idiot" for whom this book is designed! And it really works for me. The writing is informed by the same clarity and wit that Mr. Flanagan brought his listeners on Colorado Public Radio. As an overview of the American West, it's a terrific introduction. Only minor quibble is the book's layout, which tries too hard for a "reader friendly" look. I assume the intent was to clarify things by dividing into hundreds of subheadings, but it's too cluttered. But don't let that keep you from an enjoyable book, which rewards both browsing or cover-to-cover reading.