Hunting the American West: The Pursuit of Big Game for Life, Profit, and Sport, 1800-1900

by Richard C. Rattenbury

Hunting the American West is a thoroughly illustrated, narrative history of big-game hunting in the nineteenth-century American West. The engaging narrative draws extensively on the writings of original participants and observers of the subject and — along with an abundance of pictorial material — affords unusual insight into the diverse methods and motives for hunting big game in the Old West. No other work on the subject conveys the feeling and character of the hunt in its various eras and styles, or its profound consequences, as convincingly.





This book covers the principal big-game species; subsistence, commerce, and sport hunting; the variety of methods used over time and among different peoples in the harvest; the evolving weaponry involved; the artistic expression engendered by the western chase; and the rise of the hunter-conservation movement, which led to the founding of the Boone and Crockett Club.






While it presumes solid scholarship, Hunting the American West is intended for a broad popular audience, including those interested in hunting, western history, firearms, sporting art, and conservation.





Winner — 2009 Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Non-Fiction Historical Book


Winner — 2009 Independent Book Publishers Association Ippy Gold Award for Best Regional (Western) Non-Fiction


Winner — 2009 ForeWord Magazine Silver Award for History Book of the Year


Finalist — 2009 Oklahoma Book Awards for Non-Fiction


Finalist — 2009 Independent Book Publishers Association BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AWARD for Large Format Cover Design

Genres: History, Nonfiction

396 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2008

Reviews

[CW · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very comprehensive book about the history of hunting in the American West. I was really excited to read this book because it combined my top two interest areas: history and hunting. In my opinion, the writing got bogged down at times and would describe the exact same thing from the perspectives of various people. Although I liked some chapters more than others, the photographs and paintings included in the book were the best part of the book.