Thunder in the West by Richard W Etulain

Thunder in the West by Richard W Etulain

Even before he was shot and killed in 1881, Billy the Kid's charisma and murderous career were generating stories that belied his brief life - and that only multiplied, growing to legendary proportions after his death at age twenty-one. In Thunder in the West, Richard W. Etulain takes the true measure of Billy, the man and the legend, and presents the clearest picture yet of his life and his ever-shifting place and presence in the cultural landscape of the Old West. Billy the Kid - born Henry McCarty in 1859, and also known as William H. Bonney - emerges from these pages in all his complexity, at once a gentleman and gregarious companion, and a thief and violent murderer. Tapping new depths of research, Etulain traces Billy's short life from his mysterious origins in the East through his wanderings in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. As we move from his peripatetic early years through the wild West to his fatal involvement in the Lincoln County Wars, we see the impressionable boy give way to the conflicted young man and, finally, to the opportunistic and often amoral outlaw who was out for himself, for revenge, and for whatever he could steal along the way. Against this deftly drawn portrait, Etulain considers the stories and myths spawned by Billy's life and death. Beginning with the dime novels featuring Billy the Kid, even during his lifetime, and ranging across the myriad newspaper accounts, novels, and movies that alternately celebrated his outlaw life and condemned his exploits, Etulain offers a uniquely informed view of the changing interpretations that have shaped and reshaped the reputation of this enduring icon of the Old West. In his portrayal, Billy the Kid lives on, not as a cut-throat desperado or a young charmer but as both - hero and villain, myth and man, fully realized in this twenty-first-century interpretation.

In this well-written, carefully researched, and thoughtfully presented account, Richard WEtulain offers the gold standard in the fields of history and lore on Lincoln County, New Mexico, and Billy the Kid."—David V. Holtby, author of Forty-Seventh Star: New Mexico’s Struggle for Statehood

"Thunder in the West is not just a biography of America’s most famous outlaw but also a study in how the young killer has been viewed against the background of a changing America."—Sunday Denver Post

"Richard W. Etulain is one of the best known writers of the Wild West. His latest, Thunder in the West, deals with not only the biographical aspects of Kid’s life but also delves into aspects of how the Kid has been treated in the century plus since his death in 1881. Of significant importance is Etulain’s treatment of the many writers and researchers who have been fascinated with the Kid’s story, producing a mountain of books and articles as well as films dealing with some aspect of the Kid’s life. Many readers will be familiar with some of these but Etulain has somehow dug deeper than others. Highly recommend!"—Tombstone Epitaph

Richard W. Etulain was professor of history and director of the Center for the American West at the University of New Mexico from 1979 to 2001. He is now a full-time researcher and writer residing in Portland, Oregon, specializing in the history and literature of the American West. He has written or edited forty books, including The American West: A Twentieth-Century History (1989, coauthored with Michael P. Malone); Re-Imagining the Modern American West (1996); Researching Western History (1997, coedited with Gerald D. Nash); Telling Western Stories (1999); The Hollywood West (2001, coedited with Glenda Riley); and New Mexico Lives: A Biographical History (editor, 2002). He is also editor of Does the Frontier Experience Make America Exceptional? ( Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999). He has served as president of both the Western Literature and Western History associations.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780806166254
ISBN 10	0806166258
Titel	Thunder in the West
Autor	Richard W Etulain
Serie	The Oklahoma Western Biographies
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Hardback
Verlag	University of Oklahoma Press
Erscheinungsjahr	2020-07-30
Seitenanzahl	448
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.
Hinweis	Nicht verfügbar