{"product_id":"the-gunfighters-how-texas-made-the-west-wild-hardcover","title":"The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eBryan Burrough\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"One hell of a good read.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"One of the most important books written on the American West in many years.\" --\u003ci\u003eTrue West Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Big Rich\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eForget the Alamo\u003c\/i\u003e comes an epic reconsideration of the time and place that spawned America's most legendary gunfighters, from Jesse James and Billy the Kid to Butch and Sundance \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe \"Wild West\" gunfighter is such a stock figure in our popular culture that some dismiss it all as a corny myth, more a product of dime novels and B movies than a genuinely important American history. In fact, as Bryan Burrough shows us in his dazzling and fast-paced new book, there's much more below the surface. For three decades at the end of the 1800s, a big swath of the American West was a crucible of change, with the highest murder rate per capita in American history. The reasons behind this boil down to one word: Texas. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTexas was born in violence, on two fronts, with Mexico to the south and the Comanche to the north. The Colt revolver first caught on with the Texas Rangers. Southern dueling culture transformed into something wilder and less organized in the Lone Star State. The collapse of the Confederacy and the presence of a thin veneer of Northern occupiers turned the heat up further. And the explosion in the cattle business after the war took that violence and pumped it out from Texas across the whole of the West. The stampede of longhorn cattle brought with it an assortment of rustlers, hustlers, gamblers, and freelance lawmen who carried a trigger-happy honor culture into a widening gyre, a veritable blood meridian. When the first newspapermen and audiences discovered what good copy this all was, the flywheel of mythmaking started spinning. It's never stopped. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Gunfighters\u003c\/i\u003e brilliantly sifts the lies from the truth, giving both elements their due. And the truth is sufficiently wild for any but the most unhinged tastes. All the legendary figures are here, and their escapades are told with great flair--good, bad, and ugly. Like all great stories, this one has a rousing end--as the railroads and the settlers close off the open spaces for good, the last of the breed, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, really do get on a boat for South America, ending their era in a blaze of glory. Burrough knits these histories together into something much deeper and more provocative than simply the sum of its parts. To understand the truth of the Wild West is to understand a crucial dimension of the American story.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBryan Burrough\u003c\/b\u003e is the author or coauthor of seven books, four of them \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestsellers, including the Wall Street classic \u003ci\u003eBarbarians at the Gate \u003c\/i\u003eand, most recently, \u003ci\u003eForget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth\u003c\/i\u003e. A longtime correspondent at \u003ci\u003eVanity Fair\u003c\/i\u003e and now editor at large at \u003ci\u003eTexas Monthly\u003c\/i\u003e, he lives in Austin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 448\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.52 x 9.45 x 6.59 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 03, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52636755329331,"sku":"9781984878908","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/XEOzLIhKhm9781984878908.webp?v=1762278820","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/products\/the-gunfighters-how-texas-made-the-west-wild-hardcover","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}