Western Nonfiction

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.

In 1804, John Colter set out with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the first US expedition to traverse the North American continent. During the 28-month ordeal, Colter served as a hunter and scout, and honed his survival skills on the western frontier. But when the journey was over, Colter stayed behind. He spent two more years trekking alone through dangerous and unfamiliar territory, charting some of the West's most treasured landmarks.

Cormac McCarthy, best-selling author of National Book Award winner All the Pretty Horses, delivers his first new novel in seven years. Written in muscular prose, No Country for Old Men is a powerful tale of the West that moves at a blistering pace.

Step back in time and immerse yourself in the rugged landscapes, daring outlaws, fearless lawmen, and untamed frontier spirit that defined an era. Introducing The Greatest Stories of The Old West Ever Told – a captivating journey into the heart of the Wild West's most legendary tales! This book is a treasure trove of the Old West's most thrilling narratives, expertly curated to bring you the very best of this iconic period in American history. You'll meet legendary figures like: George Custer, the proud and overconfident Colonel and Civil War hero who led his army into a slaughter at the ...

A collection of stories capturing what it means to be a cowboy.

While the formal rules of etiquette are not taught the way they once were, good manners are as critical today as they ever were. 50 Things Every Young Lady Should Know provides a modern update on the ageless idea that girls should know appropriate and courteous responses to any given situation.

The religious turn to their faith to find meaning. But what about the many people who lead secular lives and are also hungry for meaning? What guides, what approaches are available to them? Distinguished philosophers Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly explain that a secular life charged with meaning is indeed within reach.

National Park Mysteries: Western United States delves into the intriguing and often unexplained phenomena that pervade the vast wilderness of America's western national parks. From the fog-shrouded coastlines of Olympic National Park to the soaring peaks of Yosemite, this book uncovers a tapestry of historical enigmas, unsolved disappearances, and natural wonders that defy explanation. Each chapter focuses on a different park, weaving together eyewitness accounts, expert interviews, and extensive research to explore the mysteries that linger among the ancient forests, desert landscapes, and...

May 10, 1940. The Netherlands was swarming with Third Reich troops. In seven days it's entirely occupied by Nazi Germany. Joining a small resistance cell in the Dutch city of Haarlem were three teenage girls: Hannie Schaft, and sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, who would soon band together to form a singular female underground squad.

Billionaire Wilderness takes you inside the exclusive world of the ultra-wealthy, showing how today's richest people are using the natural environment to solve the existential dilemmas they face. Justin Farrell spent five years in Teton County, Wyoming, the richest county in the United States and a community where income inequality is the worst in the nation. He conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews, gaining unprecedented access to tech CEOs, Wall Street financiers, oil magnates, and other prominent figures in business and politics.

The Autobiographical Story of the Opening of the Far North There was a time not so very long ago when the Hudson’s Bay Company ruled the north. A time of silky furs, Indian skirmishes, canoes, “jawbone”, dog sleds, traps, and sourdoughs. Adventure came easy in this silent land of the far north. Henry John Moberly surely had plenty of it. Nearly 50 years he spent among the native and white trappers as a fur trader, trapper, hunter, and explorer. Moberly opened many of HBC’s most remote Trading Posts. The struggles of the north, the unbearable cold, the humor of the frontiersmen, the ...

From shootouts on the Upper Frisco, to the Indian Wars and Outlaw hideouts William French experienced it all on his ranch in Western New Mexico. An immigrant from the old country—Ireland—Captain William French reached California in 1883. Nearly penniless he rested his fate and fortune on the flip of a coin; heads California, tails New Mexico. He landed on Alma New Mexico. Little did he know then what fate and fortune held in store for him. Recounting his time on the WS Ranch near Alma New Mexico, Recollections of Western Ranchman reads like a Dime-Store Western, and contains firsthand ...

The Incredible True Account of Leonhard Seppala and Togo's Life of Adventure in Alaska and the Far North. Leonhard Seppala a legend throughout Alaska, got his introduction to the dogsled as a musher for the Pioneer Mining Company during his first winter there. Where he was presented with his first team—a batch of puppies brought back from Siberia for use on an expedition to the North Pole by the arctic explorer Roald Amundsen and presented to Seppala when Amundsen canceled the expedition. It was with this pack of Siberian huskies led by Suggen, that Seppala made history in the All-Alaska ...

With the coming of the railroads, the American cowboy's job changed drastically, as the great trail herds became a thing of the past. Many cowboys faded into history, but there was a place in northwest Colorado and northeast Utah that still prized their skills. Val FitzPatrick's family homesteaded in this region, and Val became a rider for the Two-Bar at the age of 14. In later years, Val wrote many accounts of his life, and The Arbuckle Cafe is a collection of the best of his stories, all classic and authentic insights of what life on the range was really like.

They were the first outlaws to rob a moving train. But from 1864 to 1868, the Reno brothers and their gang of counterfeiters, robbers, burglars, and safecrackers also held the town of Seymour, Indiana, hostage, making a large hotel near the train station their headquarters. When the gang robbed the Adams Express car of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad on the outskirts of Seymour on October 6, 1866, it shocked the world - and made other burgeoning outlaws like Jesse James sit up and take notice. The extraordinary efforts to take them out defined the term "frontier justice".

American Indians remain familiar as icons, yet poorly understood as historical agents. In this ambitious book that ranges across Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and eastern California (a region known as the Great Basin), Ned Blackhawk places Native peoples squarely at the center of a dynamic and complex story as he chronicles two centuries of Indian and imperial history that profoundly shaped the American West.

Imagine Finding Your Roots, Roots Less Traveled and Who Do You Think You Are presented in a book format. The Buster Clan: An American Saga does exactly that. It unfolds a trajectory of United States’ events through a collection of Buster narratives and archives, adding authentic and freshly told stories about the American experience. Buster is an Americanism. It is as good and stereotyped as apple pie. Within these hefty histories are smaller sagas where lives were personally affected by how history played out. The Busters were, like all things American, pioneers. They began as farmers ...

Patrick McDonnell tells the story of the young Jane Goodall and her special childhood toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. As the young Jane observes the natural world around her with wonder, she dreams of "a life living with and helping all animals", until one day she finds that her dream has come true.

The abolitionist legacies of Orville Brown and his son, Spencer, live on in this historic and daring 19th-century account. Journeying apart from each other, but with similar passion, Orville and Spencer's stories span virtually every major abolitionist event: from the battles of Bleeding Kansas and the establishment of the free-soil movement to the river wars of Memphis, Vicksburg, and Shiloh. Listeners will follow Orville west as he strikes out for Kansas Territory to help ensure its entry as a free state.

Mary Prince’s astonishing narrative was the first account of the life of a Black woman to be published in the United Kingdom and was a key work in turning British public opinion against institutionalized enslavement. Born to an enslaved family, Mary was determined to open people’s eyes to the evils of slavery. Authentic and unsparing, her memoir tells of an extraordinary journey.