1. Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley follows the Ohio-born sharpshooter whose extraordinary skill made her an international entertainment celebrity. It traces her difficult childhood, shooting contests and marriage to fellow marksman Frank Butler before her recruitment into Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. The biography examines the carefully managed stage persona that…
2. Bass Reeves
Bass Reeves recounts the career of the formerly enslaved man who became a deputy United States marshal in Indian Territory. It follows his life through the Civil War and his recruitment by Judge Isaac Parker’s federal court, where his knowledge of languages, terrain and local communities…
3. Brigham Young
Brigham Young traces the religious leader who succeeded Joseph Smith and directed the Latter-day Saint migration to the Great Basin. It follows his conversion, rise within the church and organisation of the overland movement that established a new centre in the Salt Lake Valley. The biography…
4. Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill follows William F. Cody from frontier work and service as an army scout to the creation of the travelling spectacle that made him a global celebrity. It examines how hunting, military campaigning and dime-novel publicity were transformed into a marketable personal legend. The biography…
5. Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy traces Robert LeRoy Parker from his early life in the West to leadership of the loosely connected outlaw group remembered as the Wild Bunch. It follows cattle theft, bank and train robberies and the pursuit by private detectives and law officers. The biography examines…
6. Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane examines the life and self-created legend of Martha Canary, a frontier worker and performer associated with the Black Hills and Deadwood. It follows her varied employment, travel and public claims of scouting and military adventure, many of which are difficult to verify. The biography…
7. California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush recounts the mass migration that followed the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. It traces the arrival of prospectors from the United States and around the world, the explosive growth of towns and the rapid creation of commercial and political…
8. Deadwood
Deadwood traces the rise of the illegal mining settlement established in the Black Hills after the discovery of gold in the 1870s. It follows the rapid growth of claims, saloons, businesses and improvised government within territory guaranteed to the Lakota by treaty. The book examines epidemic,…
9. Doc Holliday
Doc Holliday follows the Georgia-born dentist whose illness, gambling and movement through western towns brought him into the violent world of frontier law and feuds. It traces his friendship with Wyatt Earp and his reputation as a dangerous but loyal gunman. The biography places Holliday within…
10. Jesse James
Jesse James traces the Missouri guerrilla who became one of the most famous outlaws of the post-Civil War United States. It follows his wartime experience with pro-Confederate irregulars and the bank, train and stagecoach robberies associated with the James-Younger gang. The biography examines the political sympathies…
11. John Wesley Hardin
John Wesley Hardin examines the Texas gunman whose violent life unfolded during Reconstruction and the cattle-driving era. It follows his early killings, flight from law officers and movement through the social networks of former Confederates, gamblers and drovers. The biography assesses Hardin’s own memoir against court…
12. Josephine Earp
Josephine Earp follows the woman who shared Wyatt Earp’s later life and helped shape the public memory of his frontier career. It traces her early years, movement to Arizona and relationship with Earp during and after the violent conflicts associated with Tombstone. The biography examines the…
13. Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition recounts the Corps of Discovery’s journey from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific and back between 1804 and 1806. It explains Thomas Jefferson’s aims, the leadership of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and the crucial assistance of Sacagawea and many Indigenous…
14. The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail examines the overland migration route used by hundreds of thousands of settlers travelling west during the nineteenth century. It follows the preparation, wagon organisation, river crossings, disease and difficult decisions that shaped the journey from the Missouri frontier. The book distinguishes common experience…
15. The Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad recounts the construction of the rail link completed at Promontory Summit in 1869. It traces federal land grants and finance, the competing Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies and the engineering challenges of plains, deserts and the Sierra Nevada. The book gives attention…
16. The Wild West
The Wild West surveys the people, economies and conflicts associated with United States expansion across the nineteenth-century West. It examines migration, ranching, mining, railroads, federal forts and the growth of towns, placing famous gunfighters and outlaws within broader systems of work and law. The book gives…
17. Wild Bill Hickok
Wild Bill Hickok follows James Butler Hickok from wartime scout and law officer to gambler and western celebrity. It examines the shootings and newspaper stories that established his reputation in Kansas cattle towns and the wider frontier. The biography separates documented gunfights from exaggerated claims and…
18. Wyatt Earp
Wyatt Earp traces the law officer, gambler and entrepreneur whose varied career became inseparable from the mythology of Tombstone. It follows his work in Kansas cattle towns, movement to Arizona and alliance with his brothers and Doc Holliday. The biography reconstructs the political and personal conflict…