1876: Year of the Gun
The Year Bat, Wyatt, Custer, Jesse, and the Two Bills (Buffalo and Wild) Created the Wild West, and Why It's Still with Us
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Narrated by:
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Fred Filbrich
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By:
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Steve Wiegand
About this listen
Veteran journalist, prolific author, and much-lauded historian Steve Wiegand takes listeners across the post-Civil War Wild West in his 1876: The Year of the Gun. Wiegand introduces—or reintroduces—us to lawmen such as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp and outlaws such as the Younger and James Brothers, as well as larger-than-life figures such as Buffalo Bill and George Custer.
He details the stories of these real-life legends, their legacies, and the innumerable myths frequently attributed to them. Juxtaposing their real lives with the often-outlandish accounts of their exploits, 1876 swings from lighthearted humor to cliff-hanger suspense. It also portrays how the Wild West’s initial, tantalizing promise of fame and glamour often disintegrated.
But 1876: The Year of the Gun also offers listeners a unique element noticeably absent from most Wild West books: historical context. Wiegand expands his contemporary spotlight on America’s 100th birthday year to encompass what was going on in the rest of the country. On the very same day George Armstrong Custer was dying on a parched hill in Southeastern Montana and immortalizing himself as both hero and villain, for example, Alexander Graham Bell was at America’s first World’s Fair in Philadelphia, demonstrating his new invention—the telephone.
At the same time Wyatt Earp was moseying into Dodge City to join the town’s police force, Albert Goodwill Spalding was on a pitcher’s mound in Chicago, establishing baseball as the national pastime and creating a sporting goods empire.
And even as the James Boys and Younger Brothers were robbing banks, Democrats and Republicans were conspiring to steal the White House from the American voter. This book brings all this together in one place.
Fueled by the author’s childhood interest in cowboys, train and bank robberies, and high noon shootouts, and their portrayal in iconic TV shows, 1876 is not only a well-researched, highly listenable account of a pivotal centennial year in America’s history, but also a delightful homage to famous Wild West figures who, with media help, helped shape the American character.
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Story
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - as leaders of the Wild Bunch, they planned and executed the most daring bank and train robberies of the day, with a professionalism never before seen by authorities. For several years at the end of the 1890s, the two friends, along with a revolving cast who made up their band of thieves, eluded local law enforcement and bounty hunters, all while stealing from the rich bankers and eastern railroad corporations who exploited western land. The close calls were many, but Butch and Sundance always managed to escape to rob again another day - that is, until they rode headlong into the 20th century.
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EXELLENT LISTENING<br />
- By Warren Taylor on 08-13-17
By: Thom Hatch
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West Like Lightning
- The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express
- By: Jim DeFelice
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The thrilling narrative history of one of the most enduring icons of the American West, the Pony Express, from the number-one New York Times bestselling co-author of American Sniper - an exciting tale of daring young men pushing limits to the extremes across the vast, rugged, and unsettled American West.
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A Picture of Wild West Life and the Pony
- By Pierre C. on 08-07-18
By: Jim DeFelice
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Texas Ranger
- The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde
- By: John Boessenecker
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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From the horseback days of the Old West through the gangster days of the 1930s, Hamer stood on the front lines of some of the most important and exciting periods in American history. He participated in the Bandit War of 1915, survived the climactic gunfight in the last blood feud of the Old West, battled the Mexican Revolution's spillover across the border, protected African Americans from lynch mobs and the Ku Klux Klan, and ran down gangsters, bootleggers, and Communists.
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I love Frank Hamer, but Boessenecker's left leanin
- By A. Taylor on 04-06-19
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The Searchers
- The Making of an American Legend
- By: Glenn Frankel
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1836 in East Texas, nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by Comanches. She was raised by the tribe and eventually became the wife of a warrior. Twenty-four years after her capture, she was reclaimed by the U.S. cavalry and Texas Rangers and restored to her white family, to die in misery and obscurity. Cynthia Ann's story has been told and re-told over generations to become a foundational American tale.
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Enjoyable, but not entirely cohesive
- By Buretto on 07-16-17
By: Glenn Frankel
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Shot All to Hell
- Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape
- By: Mark Lee Gardner
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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It was the most famous bank robbery of all time, involving the legendary James-Younger gang's final shocking holdup - the infamous Northfield Raid - and the thrilling two-week chase that followed. Mark Lee Gardner, author of the critically acclaimed To Hell on a Fast Horse, takes us inside Northfield's First National Bank and outside to the streets as Jesse James and his band of outlaws square off against the heroic citizens who risked their lives to defeat America's most daring criminals.
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The old west outlaw comes alive.
- By Dennis on 10-25-13
By: Mark Lee Gardner
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Legends of the West: The Life and Legacy of Doc Holliday
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Michael Gilboe
- Length: 1 hr and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Of all the colorful characters that inhabited the West during the 19th century, the man who has earned an enduring legacy as the region's quirkiest is John Henry "Doc" Holliday (1851-1887), a dentist turned professional gambler who was widely recognized as one of the fastest draws in the West. In fact, the only thing that might have been faster than the deadly gunman's draw was his violent temper, which was easily set off when Holliday was drunk. By the early 1880s, Holliday had been arrested nearly 20 times.
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VERY informative
- By michael on 04-10-16
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Beale Street Dynasty
- Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis
- By: Preston Lauterbach
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the Civil War, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, violence and passion. But out of this turmoil emerged a center of black progress, optimism, and cultural ferment. Preston Lauterbach tells this vivid, fascinating story through the multigenerational saga of a family whose ambition, race pride, and moral complexity indelibly shaped the city that would loom so large in American life.
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Narration Speed...It's Half the Battle
- By B. Westman on 03-21-17
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David Crockett: The Lion of the West
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett", and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories.
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Author is very bias.
- By Michael on 05-31-12
By: Michael Wallis
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The Feud
- The Hatfields and McCoys: The True Story
- By: Dean King
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Filled with bitter quarrels, reckless affairs, treacherous betrayals, relentless mercenaries, and courageous detectives, The Feud is the riveting story of two frontier families struggling for survival within the narrow confines of an unforgiving land. It is a formative American tale, and in it, we see the reflection of our own family bonds and the lengths to which we might go in order to defend our honor, our loyalties, and our livelihood.
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Get out the pad and pencil .....
- By Alan on 10-15-13
By: Dean King
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Buried in the Bitter Waters
- The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America
- By: Elliot Jaspin
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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"Leave now, or die!" From the heart of the Midwest to the Deep South, from the mountains of North Carolina to the Texas frontier, words like these have echoed through more than a century of American history. The call heralded not a tornado or a hurricane, but a very unnatural disaster: a manmade wave of racial cleansing that purged black populations from counties across the nation.
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a compelling read with a disappointing conclusion
- By Gregory on 12-16-07
By: Elliot Jaspin
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Wicked Women
- Notorious, Mischievous, and Wayward Ladies from the Old West
- By: Chris Enss
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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This collection of short, action-filled stories of the Old West's most egregiously badly behaved female outlaws, gamblers, soiled doves, and other wicked women offers a glimpse into the Western women's experience that's less sunbonnets and more six-shooters. During the late 1800s, while men were settling the new frontier and rushing off to the latest boomtowns, women of easy virtue found wicked lives west of the Mississippi when they followed fortune hunters seeking gold and land in an unsettled territory.
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Strong Women Out West
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 09-15-15
By: Chris Enss
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Empire of Sin
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Empire of Sin re-creates the remarkable story of New Orleans' 30-years war against itself, pitting the city's elite "better half" against its powerful and long-entrenched underworld of vice, perversity, and crime. This early-20th-century battle centers on one man: Tom Anderson, the undisputed czar of the city's Storyville vice district, who fights desperately to keep his empire intact as it faces onslaughts from all sides.
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very interesting
- By Claireoline on 02-20-15
By: Gary Krist
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City of Sedition
- The History of New York City During the Civil War
- By: John Strausbaugh
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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No city was more of a help to Abraham Lincoln and the Union war effort - or more of a hindrance. No city raised more men, money, and matériel for the war, and no city raised more hell against it. It was a city of patriots, war heroes, and abolitionists but simultaneously a city of antiwar protest, draft resistance, and sedition. Without his New York supporters, it's highly unlikely Lincoln would have made it to the White House.
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Read twice...post election antidote
- By Pianoman on 12-02-16
By: John Strausbaugh
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Paddy Whacked
- The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster
- By: T. J. English
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In Paddy Whacked, best-selling author and organized crime expert T. J. English brings to life nearly two centuries of Irish American gangsterism, which spawned such unforgettable characters as Mike "King Mike" McDonald, Chicago's subterranean godfather; Big Bill Dwyer, New York's most notorious rumrunner during Prohibition; Mickey Featherstone, troubled Vietnam vet turned Westies gang leader; and James "Whitey" Bulger, the ruthless and seemingly untouchable Southie legend.
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First Half - 4 Stars - Second Half - 2 Stars
- By Lulu on 08-29-16
By: T. J. English
What listeners say about 1876: Year of the Gun
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- DKSTRYKER
- 06-21-23
Awesome!!
Highly details the year 1876. the year of America's Centennial was a very eventful one. Details Frank & Jesse James greatly and they're robbery of the First National Bank. Very detailed accounts of George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry and they're battle with Sitting Bull & Crazy Horse and the Lakota & Sioux nation at the Little Big Horn also known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass. Also in detail is the election of 1876 and the ballot count that took months to tally ultimately leading to Rutherford B. Hayes' election as 19th President of the United States. I loved they went in great detail on Bill Cody's life and career as a wild west hero and actor as he toured with his Wild West Show all around the country. Such a great book I highly enjoyed it and I think you will too!
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- Anonymous User
- 11-07-23
Most informed Cowboy history.
I thoroughly enjoyed the detail, history and how it was written. I felt myself embedded into every part and every section as it moved through time periods. Plan to listen to it several more times. Thank you.
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- Staatzy
- 10-14-22
Great story with robotic narration
Absolutely fantastic 'story' of what lead up to the wild west events of 1876, the aftermath, and how history has chosen to remember them. Any fan of the American West will love this book.
Narration was somewhat choppy and robotic. There were times when I thought I might not be able to finish but the stories were too good to stop.
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- donald s green
- 08-05-23
Great
I enjoyed every moment of the old west as depicted in this book very good!
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- Michelle
- 06-14-24
Fascinating
Very well written and a great listen. Very interesting, I enjoyed learning more about these people and their lives.
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- HouseDrummer
- 12-17-22
Very Enjoyable
Rich with details about iconic characters at a pivot point in history. Read. Repeat. Repeat.
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- Sophianna
- 05-01-24
Five stars on every metric.
I loved everything about this book. The story was well written and the narration was superb.
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- Steven Gerweck
- 04-20-23
fascinating history
The author presents the events that laid the foundation for many legendary figures, working diligently to separate facts from fiction. For example, Wyatt Earp is widely viewed as upstanding lawman from the old west, but he was also a horse theft, bribed public officials, and fled prosecution. One source indicting that he was moody and a generally unlikable individual. Wiegand examines the evidence of what happened to George Custer's corpse after his defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The author takes the reader back to Northfield, Minnesota, and the downfall of the feared James-Younger gang. Wiegand does a brilliant job of telling old west tales in conjunction with 1876 historical events such as the invention of the telephone, the rise of Eli Lilly, and the establishment of baseball's National League. This book proves that the old west is very much alive.
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- Mark Mears
- 03-21-24
The interspersing stories are terrific!
1876: Year of the Gun
Steve Wiegand
I loved this book. It is one I will likely revisit in a couple of years. Mostly because I really enjoy highlighting unexpected connections in history. Mr. Wiegand does so very well in this book.
He covers Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp (and his brothers) George Armstrong Custer, Jesse James and associates, Wild Bill and Buffalo Bill and more.
The fact there legendary incidents culminated in 1876 is amazing enough. The intersections are what I find fascinating. We think of the Wild West as a different time than the industrialization of America. It was not. Custer lay dying as Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone at the World’s Fair. Bat Masterson, one time Dodge City lawman and quasi-criminal, became the US Marshal for NY and a famed sports journalist with the recommendation and help of a cowboy he had met in the badlands… Theodore Roosevelt.
If you are an big fan of any of these people, you may not learn a great deal, but the connections and amazing lives they all led make this book fascinating.
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