FRONTIER VIOLENCE Another Look

Hardback. From the days when Leif Eriksen's half sister Freydis seized an axe and personally hacked to pieces five of her fellow colonists, to 'present' day when an American is 35 times more likely to be murdered with a hand gun than is a Briton, Dane, German, or Swede, violence has been very much a part of American life. This has been especially true under frontier conditions. The author presents the first general study of this important and curiously compelling subject. He points out that there was more violence in American cities during the 19th-century than on the Western frontier; yet the Western outlaw's deeds have served as a culturally valid metaphor of how Americans have viewed themselves. The book deals with the misdeeds of claim jumpers and cattle rustlers, maniacs, racial bigots of various colours, and also with the violence of the so-called "gentlemen of property and standing" - ranchers, bankers, railroad owners, and others who sometimes took the law into their own hands. Several chapters deal with the injustices perpetrated on minority groups - specifically Indians, Mexicans, Negroes, and Chinese. In addition the book offers a new look at such famous incidents as the Gunfight at the OK Corral and such legendary figures as the Earps, Bat Masterson, Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, and "the Wild Bunch." In a final chapter, the author deals with the other side of the coin: the way the West was won through cooperation, fellowship, and non-violence. A famous example was the Oklahoma Land Run, conducted quickly, successfully, and with hardly any violence. Illus., Notes, Bibliog. and Index. 279pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Lightly browned pp. o/w Vg+ in Nr. F. dw.