Lively, entertaining U.S. history.
The invention of the Wild West.
Journalist and historian Wiegand grew up in the 1950s watching Westerns on TV and in the movies, enraptured by cowboys. Not surprisingly, he wanted to be one. That youthful enthusiasm infuses his project of separating fact from the rousing fictions that have been perpetrated about the West and about men such as dapper outlaw Bat Masterson; unlikely law enforcement agent Wyatt Earp; horse thief and actor–turned–Army scout Bill Cody; James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok; Army Col. George Armstrong Custer, brutally massacred; and bank and stagecoach robbers Frank and Jesse James. Focusing on events that occurred in 1876, America’s centennial, Wiegand draws on contemporary newspapers and magazines to create a sense of immediacy and color for his portrayals of the ramshackle towns—Sweetwater, Texas; Dodge City, Kansas; Deadwood, South Dakota—where these men gambled and drank and where their conflicts sometimes erupted into infamous gunfights. But the Wild West, though contributing mightily to America’s hunger for its own mythology, did not define the nation. Wiegand sets his protagonists’ lives in the context of a country peopled by inventors, industrialists, writers, politicians, and entertainers, including Alexander Graham Bell, recent inventor of the telephone; pharmaceutical entrepreneur Eli Lilly; Henry Heinz, promoter of his new product, “catsup”; shameless showman P.T. Barnum; poet Walt Whitman, who eulogized Custer; and Mark Twain, whose Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published at the end of the year. A centennial exhibition in Philadelphia highlighted achievements of the striving nation, but the extravaganza could not hide festering problems, including a protracted economic recession, labor unrest, political corruption, violence against Blacks, and an increasingly strident women’s suffrage movement. Besides offering a historical overview, Wiegand examines the books, movies, and TV shows that turned cowboys and outlaws into legends and the Wild West into “a ‘reality’ that persists, no matter how far removed it is from the facts.”
Lively, entertaining U.S. history.Pub Date: July 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-61088-580-5
Page Count: 442
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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