Have done several deep dives in recent years (Pirates, Napoleon, WW2...)
Now I want to do several books on The Frontier (Billy the Kid, Wells Fargo...) Does anyone have good books on this subject ?

This is a really good one on Wells Fargo.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/stagecoach-wells-fargo-and-the-american-west_philip-l-fradkin_andy-anderson/394099/item/5592987/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=high_vol_midlist_standard_shopping_customer_acquisition&utm_adgroup=&utm_term=&utm_content=666157863328&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwzN-vBhAkEiwAYiO7oOs2dDWKSerzjGT9rruzTo_FIjn4BS0pskaIErejFEyjHX-DT7TJKBoCBwYQAvD_BwE#idiq=5592987&edition=5969714

Haven't read all of them yet but they're in a big stack on my desk....

Empire of the Summer Moon

Lonesome Dove series (fiction - but so, so good)

Not Between Brothers - Wilkinson

Lone Star Nation - Brands

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Hanson

Texian Illiad - Hardin

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay - Rickey

A Homesteaders Story - Big Bend - Langford

Life and the Hunting Trail - Theodore Roosevelt (frontier)

American Buffalo - Steven Rinella (story of American Buffalo)

Empire of Shadows - George Black (history of Yellowstone)

Dreams of El Dorado - HW Brands (frontier)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown (Frontier)

The Lakota and the Black Hills - Jeffrey Ostler

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat - Gregory F. Michno (Frontier)

Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (Frontier)

Crazy Horse: A Life - Larry McMurtry

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West - James Donovan (Frontier)

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick (Frontier)

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, & the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (Frontier)

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West - Wallace Stegner (Frontier)

Oregon Trail - Rinker Buck (Frontier)

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides (Frontier)

Nine Years Among the Indians - Herman Lehmann (Frontier)

Life Among the Apaches - Cremony (Frontier)

The Mescalero Apaches - Sonnichsen (Frontier)

5 Years a Cavalryman - H.H. McConnel (Frontier)

The Boy Captives - Smith (Frontier)

The Heart of Everything That Is - Bob Drury (Frontier re: Sioux)

Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas - Red Cloud, Charles Wesley Allen, R. Eli Paul

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt (Frontier)

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions - John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes (Frontier)

Comanches: The History of a People - TR Fehrenbach (Frontier)

The Comanche Empire - Pekka Hamalainen (Frontier)

The Searchers - Glenn Frankel (Frontier)

The Captured - Scott Zesch (Frontier)

Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman - J. Evetts Haley (Frontier/Texas)

Jim Bridger - Jerry Enzler (Frontier)

Beneath the Window - Patricia Wilson Clothier (Big Bend)

Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America - Jim Rasenberger (Frontier)

Three Roads to the Alamo - William C. Davis (Texas Revolution)

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution - Stephen L. Hardin (Texas Revolution)

Lonestar Nation - HW Brands (Texas history)

Texas Ranger: Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest - James Greer

Anything by Tom Clavin. Tombstone, Dodge City and The Last Outlaws.

John Ringo: King of the Cowboys

I like two Pulitzer prize winners about the American west in the 1800s.

Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto and Exploration and Empire.by William Goetzmann.

sounds like empire of a summer moon is getting a lot of play, I think i will start there

Bag said:

---

sounds like empire of a summer moon is getting a lot of play, I think i will start there

---

Have you watched the movie…. Old Henry ?

Indian deparadations of texas

AgRyan04 said:

---

Haven't read all of them yet but they're in a big stack on my desk....

Empire of the Summer Moon

Lonesome Dove series (fiction - but so, so good)

Not Between Brothers - Wilkinson

Lone Star Nation - Brands

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Hanson

Texian Illiad - Hardin

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay - Rickey

A Homesteaders Story - Big Bend - Langford

Life and the Hunting Trail - Theodore Roosevelt (frontier)

American Buffalo - Steven Rinella (story of American Buffalo)

Empire of Shadows - George Black (history of Yellowstone)

Dreams of El Dorado - HW Brands (frontier)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown (Frontier)

The Lakota and the Black Hills - Jeffrey Ostler

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat - Gregory F. Michno (Frontier)

Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (Frontier)

Crazy Horse: A Life - Larry McMurtry

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West - James Donovan (Frontier)

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick (Frontier)

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, & the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (Frontier)

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West - Wallace Stegner (Frontier)

Oregon Trail - Rinker Buck (Frontier)

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides (Frontier)

Nine Years Among the Indians - Herman Lehmann (Frontier)

Life Among the Apaches - Cremony (Frontier)

The Mescalero Apaches - Sonnichsen (Frontier)

5 Years a Cavalryman - H.H. McConnel (Frontier)

The Boy Captives - Smith (Frontier)

The Heart of Everything That Is - Bob Drury (Frontier re: Sioux)

Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas - Red Cloud, Charles Wesley Allen, R. Eli Paul

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt (Frontier)

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions - John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes (Frontier)

Comanches: The History of a People - TR Fehrenbach (Frontier)

The Comanche Empire - Pekka Hamalainen (Frontier)

The Searchers - Glenn Frankel (Frontier)

The Captured - Scott Zesch (Frontier)

Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman - J. Evetts Haley (Frontier/Texas)

Jim Bridger - Jerry Enzler (Frontier)

Beneath the Window - Patricia Wilson Clothier (Big Bend)

Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America - Jim Rasenberger (Frontier)

Three Roads to the Alamo - William C. Davis (Texas Revolution)

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution - Stephen L. Hardin (Texas Revolution)

Lonestar Nation - HW Brands (Texas history)

Texas Ranger: Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest - James Greer

---

Must be a big desk!

AgRyan04 said:

---

Haven't read all of them yet but they're in a big stack on my desk....

Empire of the Summer Moon

Lonesome Dove series (fiction - but so, so good)

Not Between Brothers - Wilkinson

Lone Star Nation - Brands

Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Hanson

Texian Illiad - Hardin

Forty Miles a Day on Beans and Hay - Rickey

A Homesteaders Story - Big Bend - Langford

Life and the Hunting Trail - Theodore Roosevelt (frontier)

American Buffalo - Steven Rinella (story of American Buffalo)

Empire of Shadows - George Black (history of Yellowstone)

Dreams of El Dorado - HW Brands (frontier)

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West - Dee Brown (Frontier)

The Lakota and the Black Hills - Jeffrey Ostler

Lakota Noon: The Indian Narrative of Custer's Defeat - Gregory F. Michno (Frontier)

Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (Frontier)

Crazy Horse: A Life - Larry McMurtry

A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn - the Last Great Battle of the American West - James Donovan (Frontier)

The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick (Frontier)

Last Stand: George Bird Grinnel, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, & the Birth of the New West - Michael Punke (Frontier)

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West - Wallace Stegner (Frontier)

Oregon Trail - Rinker Buck (Frontier)

Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Hampton Sides (Frontier)

Nine Years Among the Indians - Herman Lehmann (Frontier)

Life Among the Apaches - Cremony (Frontier)

The Mescalero Apaches - Sonnichsen (Frontier)

5 Years a Cavalryman - H.H. McConnel (Frontier)

The Boy Captives - Smith (Frontier)

The Heart of Everything That Is - Bob Drury (Frontier re: Sioux)

Autobiography of Red Cloud: War Leader of the Oglalas - Red Cloud, Charles Wesley Allen, R. Eli Paul

Black Elk Speaks - John G. Neihardt (Frontier)

Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions - John Fire Lame Deer, Richard Erdoes (Frontier)

Comanches: The History of a People - TR Fehrenbach (Frontier)

The Comanche Empire - Pekka Hamalainen (Frontier)

The Searchers - Glenn Frankel (Frontier)

The Captured - Scott Zesch (Frontier)

Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman - J. Evetts Haley (Frontier/Texas)

Jim Bridger - Jerry Enzler (Frontier)

Beneath the Window - Patricia Wilson Clothier (Big Bend)

Revolver: Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America - Jim Rasenberger (Frontier)

Three Roads to the Alamo - William C. Davis (Texas Revolution)

Texian Iliad: A Military History of the Texas Revolution - Stephen L. Hardin (Texas Revolution)

Lonestar Nation - HW Brands (Texas history)

Texas Ranger: Jack Hays in the Frontier Southwest - James Greer

---

amazing list, cant wait to dig in

I was just in Lincoln, New Mexico touring the town and asked a couple of park rangers questions about billy the kid and all of them referred me to this book below by Frederick Nolan.



I haven't read it yet but if the people on the ground referred it…….

Quote:

---

Exploration and Empire.by William Goetzmann.

---

That's a name I haven't heard in years.

I took two graduate history/American Studies courses from him in the mid 70s. (The classes were listed in both departments.) I have wondered if people were still reading his book.

galveston said:

---

Empire of the Summer Moon: A stunning historical account of the forty-year battle for control of the American West and of one of its most remarkable narratives: the century-spanning saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her half-white son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanche

---

Just finished this one, great book, really enjoyed it, thanks for the tip

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West is up next

Shotgun For Hire
About the hired gun that killed Pat Garrett - the man that killed Billy the Kid

While searching the bookshelf to answer the Waterloo book recommendation I found another Billy the Kid book that iI should have included above:

Wallis, Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride.