Historians of the frontier and American West

"First published in 1921, this classic monograph is the cornerstone of Spanish Borderlands historical research. Bolton argues that Anglophilic American history should give equal weight to Spain, which occupied North America longer than any other European colonial power and whose social and cultural legacy was firmly imprinted on the continent. In beautiful narrative prose, Bolton recounts the Spanish exploration and the permanent settlement of Old Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and California. Albert L. Hurtado tells the fascinating story of the writing and editing of The Spanish Borderlands and places the volume in historiographical context."--BOOK JACKET.

"Born in 1849, Earp grew up on the Missouri-Kansas frontier and first came to notice as a no-nonsense town marshal in rip-roaring Dodge City, Kansas. Moving to wide-open Tombstone, Arizona, in 1879, he became a businessman and deputy United States marshal and was soon joined by four brothers. In Burns's narrative, the Earp clan represents law and order in the lawless chaotic Old West. These antagonistic forces explode in the bloody and legendary gunfight at the OK Corral between the Earps and the Clanton-McLowery gang. The Earps prevailed, but the subsequent shootings of two Earp brothers drove the calm, courageous, and somewhat emotionless Wyatt to take the law into his own hands. In a personal vendetta, he hunted and killed the treacherous "assassins." Wyatt Earp's most recent biographer, Casey Tefertiller, discusses the influence of Tombstone on the history and legend of Wyatt Earp and the Old West."--Jacket.

"First published in 1926, this entertaining and dramatic biography forever installed outlaw Billy the Kid in the pantheon of mythic heroes from the Old West and is still considered the single most influential portrait of Billy in this century. Saga focuses on the Kid's life and experiences in the bloody war between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween gangs in and around Lincoln, New Mexico, between 1878 and 1881. Burns paints the Kid as a boyish Robin Hood or romantic knight galvanized into a life of crime and killing by the war's violence and bloodshed. Billy represented the romantic and anarchic Old West that the march of civilization was rapidly displacing. His destroyer was Pat Garrett, the courageous sheriff of Lincoln County. Garrett's shooting of Billy in 1881 hastened the closing of the American frontier. Richard W. Etulain's introduction discusses the singular place of Saga in the historical literature on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War."--BOOK JACKET.

"Born in Texas in 1855, Siringo was a cowboy, Pinkerton detective, western writer, and Hollywood advisor until his death in 1928, and crossed the Kid's path once or twice in the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico. His account incorporates some inaccuracies but offers genuine historical nuggets such as cowboy Jim East's eyewitness account of the Kid's capture by Pat Garrett at Stinking Spring. Enormously popular at the turn of the century, Siringo single-handedly kept Billy the Kid's flame alive until the 1920s. Historian Frederick Nolan discusses the place of Siringo's account in Billy the Kid literature."--BOOK JACKET.

"First published in 1932 and never reprinted since, this historical drama re-creates the life and adventures of Joaquin Murrieta, a Hispanic social rebel in California during the tumultuous Gold Rush. Published during the Great Depression at a time of mass deportations of Hispanos to Mexico, this sympathetic portrait of Murrieta and Mexican Americans was unique for its time in voicing social protest. The author romanticizes the pastoral society of Mexican California and introduces the protagonist as a quiet, honest, and unpretentious resident of Saw Mill Flat, California. But the rape and murder of his wife, Rosita, by racist Anglo miners unleashes his vengeful rage. Strapping on his pistols, Murrieta tracks and kills Rosita's murderers and defends Hispanos against violence and dispossession by rampaging gold rush miners. Richard Griswold del Castillo discusses the significance of Murrieta to twentieth-century Mexican Americans and Chicanos, and of Burns's History to contemporary understanding of the mysterious social bandit."--BOOK JACKET.