American Western History

A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorfully portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors' Legends of the West series, listeners can get up to speed on the lives of America's most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.

Lew Sherry and Pete Lang accept an offer they simply can't resist. Oliver Wilton is willing to pay the cowboys $1,000 a day for ten days to protect him from danger that has him living in a state of terror. A seafaring man has arrived at the inn in town and has made no secret of the fact that he's come to settle a score with Wilton.

How could Annie Oakley, a woman of barely 110 pounds with a childlike beauty, beat so many of the greatest sharpshooters with her skill and talent? The name is probably familiar to most people, but not many know about her early life or her great love for her husband, who was also a sharpshooter. We are taking you back more than a century to meet one of the greatest American folklore heroines who ever existed.

"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.

Rob Finn is joined by William Cody and Lonnie Walters as they begin their journey into the gold country of the west in 1862. Rob meets desperate and unscrupulous men such as Henry Plummer, as well as gentle and generous natives who heal and help the strangers in their land. We learn that the treasures of the earth are sought by greedy men on both sides of the Civil War, while lasting friendships are the goal of and reward for precious few hearty souls.

Do you want to learn about Martha Washington but don’t have the time or patience to read a thick book? Then the short and concise book “Martha Washington: First Lady of the United States” is for you!! During Martha Washington’s long and productive life, she had many interesting adventures and made many contributions to the young American republic, including the following: • She successfully took over the massive Custis estate after the death of her first husband, showing her skills as a businesswoman. • During the American Revolutionary War, she spent around five years in total ...

Our American West, Volume 2 begins with America’s first colonizers, the prairie dogs, and how out on the ranges they were so hated by ranchers that they were almost made extinct. Conestoga Wagons were once called “prairie schooners” crossing America long before the famed Pony Express. The indomitable courage of Sarah Winnemucca, the “Prairie Princess” rivals that of a tall Swede named Showshoe Thompson who skied the snowy river passes of the Sierra Nevadas.

An epic struggle over land, water, and power is erupting in the American West and the halls of Washington, DC. It began when a 4,000-square-mile area of Arizona desert called Black Mesa was divided between the Hopi and Navajo tribes. To the outside world, it was a land struggle between two fractious Indian tribes; to political insiders and energy corporations, it was a divide-and-conquer play for the 21 billion tons of coal beneath Black Mesa. Today, that coal powers cheap electricity for Los Angeles, a new water aqueduct into Phoenix, and the neon dazzle of Las Vegas.

Young men who dream of heroes look to West Point and to a career of serving their country. The class of 1966 was no exception, but these cadets faced greater challenges than any earlier generation could have imagined. Thirty of them would be killed in Vietnam, but for those who did return, they resigned from the Army in records numbers—returning to a society that paid no honor to their military careers. In The Long Gray Line, Rick Atkinson eloquently tells the stories of the class of '66, a class that represented the innocence and patriotism of a generation.

A wayward journey. A war-torn frontier. Can she protect her family through tragedy to claim their paradise? New York, 1855. Jane Bennett misses her husband terribly. But as war encroaches on land and cholera wreaks havoc on the next ship out of port, she fears that she may never see Thomas again. Caught between two evils, Jane fears the decision she makes could seal her family’s fate. With her husband forced to protect their future home against raids, Jane must lead her children on a grueling voyage to lawless San Francisco. As their money runs low and the dangers of roving kidnappers ...

Granbury's Texas Brigade explores the motivations behind the unit's decision to continue to fight, even as it faced demoralizing defeats and Confederate collapse. Using a vast array of letters, diaries, and regimental documents, Lundberg offers provocative insight into the minds of the unit's men and commanders. The caliber of that leadership, he concludes, led to the group's overall high morale.

Edward Zane Carroll Judson aka Ned Buntline (1821-1886) was responsible for creating a highly romantic and often misleading image of the American West, albeit one that the masses found irresistible in the mid-to-late 19th century. Some scholars estimate that he wrote at least 400 dime novels over his lifetime and perhaps as many as 600. The Notorious Life of Ned Buntline is an open-eyed look at the man who sparked an American legend but whose own scandalous life somehow escaped history's limelight.

In early November 1834, an aristocratic young couple from Savannah and South Carolina sailed from New York and began a seventeen-year odyssey in West Africa. Leighton and Jane Wilson sailed along what was for them an exotic coastline, visited cities and villages, and sometimes ventured up great rivers and followed ancient paths.

Welcome to the journey of a lifetime through the Discovering the Southern Riches eBook! Explore the vibrant and storied history of America's beloved South, from the origins of Southern cuisine to the colorful world of Southern festivals and traditions. This truly comprehensive guide offers a unique perspective on the rich and diverse culture of the Southern United States. With 32 captivating chapters, Discovering the Southern Riches provides a deep dive into the history, traditions, and culture of this unique region. Take a step back in time to Antebellum society and the birth of Southern ...

David Forsyth recounts the life of Eben Smith, an integral but little-known figure in Colorado mining history. From Smith’s early years and his labor in the mines, to his rise to prominence as an investor and developer, Forsyth shows how Smith used the mining and milling knowledge he acquired in California to become a leader in technological innovation in Colorado’s mining industry.

A gripping work of reportage that, for the first time, tells the story of "Chucky" Taylor, a young American who lost his soul in Liberia, the country where his African father was a ruthless warlord and dictator.

Francis is found. Beyond Francis, a family is found—in archival material that barely deigned to notice their existence. This is the story of Francis Sistrunk and her children, from enslavement into forced migration across South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It spans decades before the Civil War and continues into post-emancipation America. A family story full of twists and turns, Finding Francis reclaims and honors those women who played an essential role in the historical survival and triumph of Black people during and after American slavery.

William F. Cody was an iconic showman whose “Wild West” thrilled audiences throughout North America and Europe from 1883 into the early 20th Century. Tall and handsome, legends of Cody the scout, Pony Express rider, and hunter populate his popular history chronicled in pulp fiction, biographies, autobiographies, and even in cinema. But in a series of letters between Cody and his Denver, Colorado doctor, emerges another side of Cody. In a fictionalized account catalyzed by a series of letter written between 1899 and Cody’s death in 1917, Scoggin crafts a relationship that becomes a ...

Eight-year-old Benjamin Franklin “B .F.” Windes decides to abandon home and trail his father’s path. Thus begins a trip of constant struggle with disease, severe weather, hardship, Indian attack, and death on his lone journey across much of what is now the United States. B. F. spends the next 11 years in gold rush towns in California - first as a barber, then as a physician’s assistant - before departing for the Caribbean at age 19, where he becomes a blockade runner during the American Civil War.

Twenty-six African tribal cultures, their respective ceremonies, celebrations, and day-to-day customs are pictorially described here, with some attributes shared by all peoples and some unique to a few.