Best Little Stories from the Wild West

Best Little Stories From...

by C. Brian Kelly

2010 Fall River Press hardcover, C. Brian Kelly. Best Little Stories of the Wild West uncovers the fascinating tales that make up this inimitable century. The era of the Wild West was a century-long period characterized by ceaseless exploration, wagon trains, straining westward, cattle drives, Indian wars, gunfights, wandering trappers and mountain men, cowboys, rustlers, stagecoaches, and gold. - Google Books

Genres: History

416 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

C. BRIAN KELLY, a prize-winning journalist, is president and founder of Montpelier Publishing and a columnist and editor emeritus for Military History magazine. He also is a lecturer in newswriting at the University of Virginia. Kelly's articles have appeared in Reader's Digest, Friends, Yankee, Rod Serling's Twilight Zone, and other magazines, and he is the author of several books on American history.

Reviews

[Margaret Carmel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a new resident of the Mountain West, I was really excited to get this book as a Christmas gift so I could learn more about the region. Or, at least jog my memory from things I forgot I learned in school...

Best Little Stories of the Wild West is a fun read for history lovers because it is made up of short vignettes of western history that are easily breezed through and sharable. The stories, often only a few pages long, walk you through western history from the Louisiana purchase through the 1906 fire in San Francisco with tales of mountain men, shoot outs, the Texas revolution, the Gold Rush and dangerous tales from those trying to make a life in the new territories. It almost feels like a collection of bed time stories, which I know would have been a big hit for me as a kid.

HOWEVER, I was a little frustrated with this books huge focus on white mean and the general perspective on the settlement of the west from the colonizers point of view. I'd have loved to read more about the Native Americans and the huge decline in their numbers or even their resettlement in the west onto reservations, but it was completely skipped. Where were the Mexicans who lived in the west? I know there was a section about women at the back, but it paled in comparison to the pages of macho man history in the pages before.

This is a fun overview, but there's so much more that could have been done to tell a multi-faceted history of the region.

[Matthew J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad sampling of various stories of the American West. Much of it is the sort of info you could pull off the internet. But it's nice having it in one place, and packaged in an easy to digest way. There are plenty of interesting anecdotes and context. A good starting point, if not especially impressive or captivating.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little book of old west stories. A little odd how the citations are done inline instead of at the back of the book, but overall I liked it.

[Mal Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read. This book is filled with vignettes of little known, if not unknown, stories of our nation's push westward. It is a book that you can pick up and put down at your leisure, as the stories are not necessarily interrelated. The latter part of the book features stories of the women of the west, and how they not only coped with the harshness of western life, but how they excelled in their environment.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a very good book for someone who is starting to read about American History.

[Eric Molicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful short stories telling the history of the west from many different perspectives.

[B.W. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Got this one from the B&N bargain area. Not disappointed in the slightest. Stories about the Wild West really take us back to a special place.