Men of the West: Life on the American Frontier

by Cathy Luchetti

Book Overview

The lure of adventure and riches brought men west. Some had dreams of a quick gold strike and an easy retirement. Some were explorers drawn to this vast land. Still others were homesteaders eager to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393059057
• ISBN13: 9780393059052
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 3.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 10.8" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

History Buff of the Old West

If you love reading about the Old West you'll love this book. It's very detailed and gives a very accurate picture of life in the Old West in a very simple to understand method of writing. Adults will enjoy this book immensely, but it could be used to teach children in a school or home setting. I recommend it highly. It's definitely worth it.

This Book Takes You There!

I have always wanted to find a book that really made you feel like you were in back in the Wild West. This book does that. Cathy Luchetti has put together an amazing collection of stories, facts, and pictures to help any reader better understand the people who settled in the West. Luchetti does not limit her work to only include famous Western characters. She tells of stories of ordinary people, through their letters, articles, and historical documents. She covers all aspects of their lives, their struggles, and their accomplishments. The pictures are very interesting and capture Western life very well, and when combined with the written word one almost feels like this book is a time machine to the Western Days of yesteryear. Buy this book! It's worth every penny. See ya next review.

Excellent album of photography and social history

The editorial reviews above sum up the content of this book nicely. The author draws on contemporary documents to characterize the lives of men in the American West, driven by dreams of riches, adventure, opportunity, or by simple restlessness that took them to where lawlessness prevailed and men outnumbered women seven to one. The breadth of her subject means that she can touch only lightly on any area of interest (mountain men, pioneers, miners, gamblers, lawmen, outlaws, cowboys, the military, settlers, and so on), but the details she chooses bring each of these subjects vividly to life for its brief moment in the spotlight. Most vivid and fascinating, however, are the photographs selected for the book. Unlike the often-fuzzy reproduction in books of this type, these are crisply focused with strong contrast, so you can study them at length for the many details captured by the camera. Many are posed shots, and many are wonderfully candid, like a photograph of Texas cowboys bathing outdoors or getting a shave in the bunkhouse. Some of my favorites in the book include pictures of several Army men on horseback surveying a vast Indian encampment (c. 1889); six men tipped back in their chairs in front of a hotel in Nome, Alaska, while several steps down the raised wooden planks of the sidewalk a woman sits with a baby carriage (1905); five Chinese men with open books, perhaps a choir, standing at the back of a softly lighted room identified as the Chinese Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles (1895); men and boys posing with two teams of horses pulling a wagon and a buggy in the prairie grass, while behind them in the distance is a raw cluster of buildings identified as Comstock, Nebraska (1904). The book includes a list of 200+ references, such as Everett Dick's classic "Sod-House Frontier, 1854-1940." I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone wanting an introduction to the social history of the American West, with an emphasis on the roles played by men.