1876: Year of the Gun : The Year Bat, Wyatt, Custer, Jesse, and the Two Bills (Buffalo and Wild) Created the Wild West, and Why It's Still With Us Spiral-Bound |
Steve Wiegand
★★★★☆+ from Up to 30 ratings
1876: Year of the Gun : The Year Bat, Wyatt, Custer, Jesse, and the Two Bills (Buffalo and Wild) Created the Wild West, and Why It's Still With Us
Veteran journalist and historian Steve Wiegand takes readers across the post-Civil War Wild West. Wiegand introduces—or re-introduces—us to lawmen such as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp and outlaws such as the Younger and James Brothers, as well as larger-than-life figures such as Buffalo Bill and George Custer. He details the stories of these real-life legends, the aftermath and legacies they left behind, and the innumerable myths frequently attributed to them. Juxtaposing their real lives with the often-outlandish accounts of their exploits, 1876 swings from lighthearted humor to cliff-hanger suspense. It also portrays how the Wild West's initial, tantalizing promise of fame and glamour often disintegrated.
But 1876 also offers readers a unique element noticeably absent from most Wild West books: historical context. Wiegand expands his contemporary spotlight on America's 100th birthday year to encompass what was going on in the rest of the country. On the very same day George Armstrong Custer was dying on a parched hill in southeastern Montana and immortalizing himself as both hero and villain, Alexander Graham Bell was at America's first World's Fair in Philadelphia, demonstrating his new invention—the telephone. At the same time Wyatt Earp was moseying into Dodge City to join the town's police force, Albert Goodwill Spalding was on a pitcher's mound in Chicago, establishing baseball as the national pastime and creating a sporting goods empire. And even as the James Boys and Younger Brothers were robbing banks, Democrats and Republicans were conspiring to steal the White House from the American voter. This book brings them all together in one place.
Fueled by the author's childhood interest in cowboys, train and bank robberies, and high noon shootouts, and their portrayal in iconic TV shows, 1876 is a delightful homage to famous Wild West figures who, with media help, helped shape the American character.
“The invention of the Wild West … Lively, entertaining U.S. history.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Reading 1876, Year of the Gun, Steve Wiegand's terrific new book, I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would make up myths about Wild West characters. As Wiegand documents, their true stories are compelling and, yes, wild. Wiegand has done a masterful job of ferreting out facts, and he recounts them in style, writing with authority, grace, and wit. You don't need to be a Western buff to enjoy 1876. It's a fun read and a riveting history of important facets of this nation's centennial and iconic figures who helped create America.”
—Dan Morain, Author of Kamala's Way: An American Life
"Steve Wiegand delivers a rollicking look at some legends of the Old West, telling the history with a newspaper journalist's attention to detail, dry wit, and a ton of verve."
—Johnny D. Boggs, Western Writers Hall of Fame author of Northfield, Greasy Grass, and East of the Border
“Veteran journalist Steve Wiegand recognizes 1876 as the year when legends were born that survive to influence today's Western genre. He resurrects the memories of several men and events to support his theme. The familiar names of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill Cody, George Armstrong Custer and Wild Bill Hickok fill these pages to connect with historical events we associate with them. But to make an interesting book more so, he adds ‘Part II: The Aftermath.’ Masterson becomes a journalist and prizefighting expert, Earp locates to California and delves into various business affairs with questionable success, Custer's reputation ebbs and flows as he lies in his grave, and more. Wiegand's interesting presentation with a before-and-after format makes for great reading. It goes on my shelf.” —Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine (Lynn Bueling, Prolific Writer on the History of North Dakota)
“Steve Wiegand's 1876: Year of the Gun races not quite breathlessly through many of the Old West's most famous characters and incidents. Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Custer, Hickok, Buffalo Bill, the James-Younger Gang are all here. Even Eli Lilly, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell get cameos connected with the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition … Paul Harvey-like, the author offers ‘the rest of the story’ for those like Wyatt Earp who lived through to retirement and got to see the fight ‘that didn't last thirty seconds’ made into a legend of mythic proportions. Sources are cited loosely, but there is a bibliography. Sidebars on lawmen, theater, faro, bank robbery, and other topics round out a good read for the armchair afficionado.”— Western Writers of America Roundup Magazine (Charles E. Rankin, Retired Editor-in-Chief of The University of Oklahoma Press)
“1876: The Year of the Gun is a book of a different color. Steve Wiegand has given us a layman’s history of the American West. It is the story of what the entire world has come to believe was the American West. Wiegand deals with both the facts and the myths, with humor and insight into the last years of the nineteenth century. He shows us the influence of 1876 on the American character. Every American should read this book.”
—Dan O’Brien, Award-winning novelist, Non-Fiction Author, Essayist, Wildlife Biologist … and Bison Rancher