Western America

Just as the big trees of the Pacific Northwest inspired the legend of Paul Bunyan, so did the Palouse Hills of southeastern Washington--where fantastic fields of wheat were raised on incredibly steep slopes--spawn tall tales about farmers, steamboat men, and the ingenious methods they used to get their grain to market. Though thirty-three-mule hitches and headers (whose downhill wheels were three times larger than the uphill ones) solved the harvesting problems, transporting the sacked grain two thousand vertical feet down to the steamboat landings took sheer genius.

In 1980, Exxon U.S.A., the world's largest corporation, began development of a five-billion-dollar oil shale industry in the pristine Colorado River Valley. Within eighteen months, Exxon had canceled its elaborate Colony project and 2,100 workers were immediately laid off. Boomtown Blues chronicles the social, environmental, and economic havoc created by one of the most expensive boom and bust cycles in the history of the American West.

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.

Nat Love: The Life and Legacy of the Former Slave Who Became the Wild West’s Most Famous Black Cowboy chronicles the colorful life of Nat Love and the legends that sprung up around him over time. You will learn about Nat Love like never before.

Benjamin Franklin was first and foremost a public servant, but he was also a prolific writer, humorist, musician, inventor, businessman, and scientist. He was always working to improve civic society. Among many other things, he organized the first volunteer fire department and established the first lending library in America. In the 18th century, he was celebrated as a scientist, inventor, and innovator who somehow emerged from the obscurity of his modest birth to prominence.

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.

Need a room for the night in the Old West? No problem. Hotels had sprung up everywhere, from forgotten cow towns to the bustling city of San Francisco. Hotels of the Old West reveals the fascinating story of the hotels and hospitality houses - the grand, the deplorable, and the just plain dependable - that flourished and failed in the 19th century.

Belle Gunness and the Bender’s were a different breed of criminal, more deadly, and harder to detect. While bank and train robbers rarely harmed their victims, Belle Gunness and the Bender’s took a gruesome pleasure in killing their victims before they robbed them. The Banditti of the Prairie was a loose-knit band of thieves that came together during the 1830s and 1840s. Their field of operations covered a multi-state area, including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, and Arkansas.

Walking to Hell is the story of Ezekial McNair, a description of his Tom Sawyer-like upbringing and his life in the Confederate infantry, fighting in a war he didn’t understand, for a cause he didn’t know, but confident it was his path to heroism and glory. He did become a hero, but only by accident, in a battle that would haunt him his entire life.

Settler ranching in southern Alberta conjures the image of a lone cowboy riding through the foothills or a stoic ranch hand roping errant cattle. But women have always played an integral part in the cattle industry, often working without recognition or support to meet the challenge of the frontier. Ranching Women in Southern Alberta examines the rhythms, routines, and realities of women’s lives on family ranches.

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take four years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought.

The 16th and 17th centuries saw the emergence of a new threat to government and organized society. Privateers and pirates raided along the coast of powerful countries and were, at times, at war with England, France, and Spain. They developed their own system of rules, a code of morality, and a very rough form of government. Pirates were eventually able to organize behind a captain who eventually would become like a governor with judicial power over all the pirates and control over settlements taken by the pirates in raids.

Unquestionably, Spain and Great Britain would have been engaged in an unequal controversy for possession of the richest portion of North America, but for the intervention of a new claimant. The young Republic....

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.

The policy of manifest destiny increased tensions with Mexico in the 1840s. Mexico's northern half formed the western border of the territory bought in the Louisiana Purchase. Naturally, notions of the United States expanding to the Pacific Ocean alarmed Mexico, which held what is today the west coast of the United States. However, Mexico first came to regard American expansion as a serious problem with the immigration of Americans into its northeastern territory.

Esta es una historia mínima de un fenómeno complejo y cambiante, en un periodo de dos décadas, llamado Revolución cubana. Mínima historia, en el sentido que dio a estos términos el historiador mexicano Daniel Cosío Villegas, allá por los años setenta. El autor de esta obra repasa las líneas maestras del cambio económico, social, político y cultural que vivió la isla entre los años cincuenta y setenta del pasado siglo.

First published in 1918, this new Raging Bull Edition contains the original text as well as background articles. What is, or was, the frontier? Where was it? Under what stars did it lie? The tales of our own old frontier are sometimes hazy, an unreality, which makes them seem less history than folklore.

Award-winning travel journalists and Santa Fe residents Judith Fein and Paul Ross crisscross New Mexico, finding unforgettable adventures listeners can personally experience such as painting with an abstract artist on the Navajo Reservation, visiting a wolf refuge, cruising in a lowrider, hiking in a volcano, gourmet dining at Zuni Pueblo, seeing a ghost, tracking the true Billy the Kid . . . and so much more.

In July 1882, the steamboat Red Cloud hit a snag near Fort Peck, Montana, and settled into the bed of the Missouri River with a full cargo. The Red Cloud was a symbol-and a source-of the trading company's success. Bought for $25,000 in 1877, it was one of three boats that I. G. Baker employed on the Missouri. A stern-wheeled, wooden-hulled packet boat, the Red Cloud carried both cargo and passengers on a floating palace.

Born of humble beginnings, Ronald Reagan came into the world as the son of working class parents in Illinois. During his youth, he wasn't a particularly gifted student, but he did graduate from college. A Hollywood actor and union leader turned politician, he served as the 33rd governor of California during the tumultuous period from 1967 to 1975. Though his hard work, determination, and a bit of good luck, Ronald Reagan became the 40th president of the United States, in office between 1981 and 1989.