The magazine articles collected here have all won Wrangler Awards, presented annually by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. Their authors include historians,
investigative reporters, a novelist, and a screenwriter. Selection is based on content, style, and length, with essays chosen to reflect varied approaches used in interpreting frontier history
and selected to appeal to general readers. The pieces focus on the 19th and early 20th century, and are grouped in sections on the native West, cowboys and cattle country, and battles lost and
won. The articles tell of clashes over race, religion, ethnicity, and commerce, as well as challenges to the establishment of law and order. Highlights include a novelistic rendering of the
Lakota perspective of the Battle of Little Bighorn, the art of Charles Russell, the death of Crazy Horse, the demise of the buffalo herds, and the history of the Texas Rangers. The book
includes three b&w maps and a list of Western Heritage Magazine Article Award winners 1961-2010. Hutton (history, U. of New Mexico) directs the Western Writers of America. Annotation 穢2011
Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
