The American West

By Dee Brown

As the railroads opened up the American West to settlers in the last half of the 19th Century, the Plains Indians made their final stand and cattle ranches spread from Texas to Montana. Eminent Western author Dee Brown here illuminates the struggle between these three groups as they fought for a place in this new landscape. The result is both a spirited national saga and an authoritative historical account of the drive for order in an uncharted wilderness, illustrated throughout with maps, photographs and ephemera from the period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Dec 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781471109331

Dee Brown

Dorris Alexander “Dee” Brown (1908–2002) was a celebrated author of both fiction and nonfiction, whose classic study Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is widely credited with exposing the systematic destruction of American Indian tribes to a world audience. Brown was born in Louisiana and grew up in Arkansas. He worked as a reporter and a printer before enrolling at Arkansas State Teachers College, where he met his future wife, Sally Stroud. He later earned two degrees in library science, and worked as a librarian while beginning his career as a writer. He went on to research and write more than thirty books, often centered on frontier history or overlooked moments of the Civil War. Brown continued writing until his death in 2002.      

Reviews for The American West

[maneekuhi · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While this 410 page book has a pub date of 1994, most of the material comes from three earlier books written in the 50's by the same authors, Dee Brown and Martin Schmitt. These are "Fighting Indians of the West", "Trail Driving Days", and "The Settler's West". The book includes over 50 very interesting photos and about 20 helpful and well illustrated maps. For the most part, the material was interesting, but there were passages when it seemed to slip into the 50's textbook approach of too many names and dates, and not enough big picture. I expected the book to be a lot more interesting and while most of the anecdotes were new to me, they did not seem to be the kind of stories I would entertain friends with over a beer. Overall, not quite up to my expectations and a bit disappointing given Brown's big rep for "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee".

[davidpwhelan_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dee Brown is an exceptional story teller and makes the American West come alive.