From our earliest history, Americans have had an uneasy affection for our outlaws, especially those from the romantic period of the Old West. Whether it is the fearlessness and freedom they represent or some other psychological need, we often overlook the misdeeds of these people in our fascination with them. This book is about their photographs. Some of the mythology is perpetuated in the captions and some new truths put forth as well. Viewing these photographs allows us to look these fellows in the eye and assess their character—something we probably wouldn’t have been allowed to do in real life and live to tell about it. Historic Photos of Outlaws of the Old West includes nearly 200 photographs, reproduced in vivid black-and-white, with captions and introductions by writer and historian Larry Johnson. Here are the most legendary outlaws and many of the less infamous characters whose lives found a place in the story of the American West.

From our earliest history, Americans have had an uneasy affection for our outlaws, especially those from the romantic period of the Old West. Whether it is the fearlessness and freedom they represent or some other psychological need, we often overlook the misdeeds of these people in our fascination with them. This book is about their photographs. Some of the mythology is perpetuated in the captions and some new truths put forth as well. Viewing these photographs allows us to look these fellows in the eye and assess their character--something we probably wouldn't have been allowed to do in real life and live to tell about it. Historic Photos of Outlaws of the Old West includes nearly 200 photographs, reproduced in vivid black-and-white, with captions and introductions by writer and historian Larry Johnson. Here are the most legendary outlaws and many of the less infamous characters whose lives found a place in the story of the American West.

No story in United States history is more compelling than the exploration and settlement of the American West, and the tales of those who blazed the trails will forever enthrall Americans yet unborn. In Historic Photos of Heroes of the Old West, the dauntless adventurers who gave us the legend come alive together in profile. Herein are the early pathfinders Zebulon Pike and Lewis and Clark, James Marshall and men of the gold rush, the lawmen Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok. George Armstrong Custer returns to the Little Big Horn and John Wesley Powell revisits the Colorado River. And Mark Twain, Buffalo Bill, and Charles Russell breathe the legend to life. A sagely written brush with the lore and romance of the Old West, this roundup of the most famous frontiersmen includes nearly 200 photographs, reproduced vividly in black-and-white, with captions and introductions by author and historian Mike Cox. Here are the fables and the faces of Americans double-tough, for every adventurer seeking an encounter with the great American West.

A state-by-state review of the history of outlaws and outlaw activity in the Old West.

This true crime history of the American Frontier separates fact from fiction with in-depth profiles of thirty-eight career criminals and infamous outlaw gangs. In the years following the American Civil War, the country’s western frontier was home to a prodigious number of myth-making cowboys, infamous gunslingers, saloon madams, and not always law-abiding lawmen. But the romantic mystique of these individuals and the time in which they lives is largely the product of novelists and filmmakers. In Outlaws of the Wild West, Terry Treadwell presents the real stories behind such legends as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, the Dalton Brothers, and others—as well as their lesser-known but equally criminal peers. Here are the stories of William Clark Quantrill and his Confederate Army unit, Quantrill’s Raiders, who turned hit-and-run raids into a way of life; Henry Starr, the Native American career criminal who went on to play himself in the movie of his life; Ann and Josie Bassett, the sisters who defended their ranch from cattle barons with the help of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; and many more.

The history of law enforcement in the Lone Star State goes back well before photography, dating to Texas’s days as part of the Spanish empire. After that Texas became a province of Mexico and for nearly a decade stood among the nations as an independent republic before becoming the 28th state in the Union in 1845. Beyond the contribution to law and order made by constables, sheriffs, town marshals, city police officers, and federal lawmen, Texas is the birthplace of a law enforcement institution unique in the world, the legendary Texas Rangers. Historic Photos of Texas Lawmen features close to 200 images of Texas lawmen, bad men (and a few bad women), assorted characters with a law enforcement connection like the legendary Judge Roy Bean, and shots of the places they did their work—for good or bad. Each photograph has a story to tell. Some of the images in this volume, coming from the author’s personal collection, are published here for the first time. But all of the images command attention, many as attention-getting as the business end of a Texas Ranger’s .45.

Oklahoma has an excellent photographic record, largely because the twin territories developed along the same general timeline as modern photography itself. Historic Photos of Oklahoma is not an illustrated history of Oklahoma, nor is it an attempt at a visual chronology of the state. Rather, the photographs included here tell the story of this diverse group of people called Oklahomans as witnessed in their faces, the homes they cherished, and the streets they traveled. Just as viewing a succession of school photos reveals the periods of beauty and awkwardness, innocence and maturity, and hardship and joy in a child’s life, the reader of this book will see the tragedy of Indian removal, the exuberance of land runs, the shame of segregation, the anguish of the Depression, and the optimism for the future in Oklahoma. In between are glimpses of how we used to live, work, and play in the forty-sixth state of the Union.