Customer Reviews

The American West

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This collection of chapters on the American West is an entertaining and informative glimpse into the history of our nation's most misunderstood and glamorized region, but the book seems to try and do too much, and thus ultimately accomplishes little. Dee Brown writes about Indian wars, life in a great cattle drive, and then shifts to such topics as the reading habits and wardrobes of gents and housewives in the old west. There is a noticeable lack of continuity in many of the chapters, but overall almost all of them were enjoyable and educational on their own. There are also some very unique photographs, such as a shot of Big Foot frozen dead in the snow. Brown has done his research, and while not all of his topics will fascinate you, it is easy enough to skip through the chapters you care little about, and to savor the excellent discussions of Wounded Knee, Dodge City, Geronimo, etc.

Brown's American West book can be difficult to follow at times. But it was worth wading through to read the in-depth details of folks who lived back then. I believe this was such a fascinating era in our history that reading new details is worth the price of the book (which was very nominal). If you like the Old West, you will find more than enough to satisfy you.

"The American West" provides readers with an excellent overview of the colorful history of its namesake. Brown exposes the myths behind western legends like Geronimo, Billy the Kid, Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickock and many others. Perhaps most interesting are the chapters on the trailblazing of the cowboys and the perils they faced on their long cattle drives. Photographs are interspersed throughout the book and add to the story. I highly recommend this book to readers who are not terribly familiar with our western history and would like a nice primer.

This book is really a good of short articles and stories (I am assuming here) pulled from other publications. Because of this there is not a consistent theme that runs through the full book other then all the articles do have something to do with the American West - from ranch hands, cattle drivers and Indian's this book has it all. What I found with this lack of consistent theme is that many of the articles just wet you appetite for more information on the given subject.

The book does provide a good overall view of the American west during the settlement days. The book is well written and is easy to get through. If you have just a general interested in the topic or want a refresher course this is probably the book for you. If you are looking for something more in depth you will probably come away disappointed.

Dee Brown is best known for his paradigm shifting best-seller, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," first published in 1972, written with such intensity and emotion that it is hard for a white American to read it without at least once the eyes watering up, in shame. Prior to that book, I, and many other Americans saw the settling of the West by the white man as one glorious enterprise. We had seen all too many "Westerners" on TV, with the wagon train filled with "innocent" white settlers being attacked by "savages," for no apparent reason. As is now revealed in narratives about the coming-of-age experience of many real Indians, the propaganda was so effective that EVEN the Indians who watched these shows would root for the cowboys. After his book, and much too late (and perhaps that is the real reason) many Americans realized there were numerous flaws in this mythology, which include a long string of broken treaties.

For no other than the above reasons, Brown's "The American West" deserves much consideration. The book is not "scholarly," which could be a recommendation for many, since that particular genre has its own flaws. Does it have an Indian "bias," as one reviewer charged, without giving a specific example? Well, if raising the issue of shredded treaties is "bias," Brown is guilty. And there is no unifying theme; it is a series of vignettes that focus on portions of the settlement experience, and include `whites only' stories, such as "The Saga of Dodge City" and "The Myth and its Makers."

Simply the pictures and the maps make the book a worthwhile purchase. The maps clearly show the various territories allocated to the Indians, with their changes over time. Many of the significant Indian-US Army battles are represented with their own maps. As for the pictures, they range from an evocative one of Sarah Bernhardt in the Opera House in St. Joseph, Missouri, to the baseball team in eastern Oregon in the late 1880's to the twisted corpse of Big Foot, the Sioux leader, frozen in the snow.

As one might suspect, it is the stories about the Indians in which Brown excels. There are a couple on the Sioux, there is one on the "Lords of the Plain," the Comanche, as well as the Kiowa and the Cheyennes. There is also one on Geronimo, and his surrender and life thereafter selling buttons from his coat. Naturally there is Sitting Bull, and most deserving of his fate, General Custer, and the battle at the Little Bighorn. The author also briefly covers the essence of his more famous book, which was the Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee. But of all the stories, the most heart-breaking is the story of Joseph of the Nez Percés, and his eventual submission to the authority of the white man. "The earth is our mother," said Joseph. We cannot sell you our mother." "When he fell suddenly dead on autumn day in 1904, his friends said that he had died of a broken heart."

The book also includes an excellent time line of the major event in the West, primarily after the Civil War, as well as a fine bibliography, since so many stories serve as a catalyst to learn more. Overall, a solid 5-star read.

The American West was a mess of disorganized, bad writing, full of typos, no source citations, and odd facts listed without any explanation or citations. The book jumps over thousands of miles and many decades, and is often repetetive. It is extremely superficial. I recommend in its place One Vast Winter Count by Calloway, which looks in-depth at Native American history. For all its faults, The American West was nevertheless entertaining, and a very quick read, likely to satisfy readers of Louis L'Amour--but not anyone looking for a scholarly account.

Bestselling historian Dee Brown (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee) chronicles an easily misunderstood era with sympathetic essays on prominent Indian leaders, cowboys, miners, and settlers. The turbulent transistion from buffalo and red men to cattle and white men becames more understandable in 29 brief chapters focusing on the pivotal events, fascinating individuals, and social forces. Vivid profiles include Sitting Bull, Billy the Kid, Cochise, Crazy Horse, Wyatt Earp, Captian Jack, and Chief Joseph. "Let us be wise enough to learn true history so that we can recognize a myth when we see one," writes Brown.

Should have read this BEFORE our trip throught the West this past summer. Puts a lot of the sites we visited in context.

Dee Brown's non-fiction has always stood a Stetson-hat above his fiction, and this is proof. Brown has a good deal of sympathy for the Native Americans and also seems more interested in the settlers, homesteaders and locals just trying to make a living in a new land than the lawman and the rustler.

All of them get a look in, but this is a particularly low key and even handed approach to the west. You get just as much as life on the prairie or in a western town as you do rustling steer. Brown is a terrific story teller and his knowledge is masterful - he rarely resorts to having to oversell his story (even though it does jump around like a bronco at times).

I have new found respect for those who journeyed to the west and, while Dee does like to constantly remind us about the treatment meted out to the Native Americans, he rarely uses this as an opportunity to complain about how unfair it all was. Instead he conveys the hardships, the tenuous hold on life and the toughness exhibited by its inhabitants.

The audio set of Dee Brown's The American West brings to life the characters and personalities that made the wild west an exciting and at times dangerous place to live.

Although the book is very good there is nothing like listening to Mitchell Ryan's rich voice as he almost waxes rhapsodically about the adventures of Wild Bill Hickok or Big Nose Kate or Billy the Kid.