The Old West: Day by Day - Hardcover

This complete chronology of incidents in western history begins with a 26-page prologue, covering 50,000 B.C. to 1848 in summary form. Then follows the main body of the text, covering 1848 to 1890. An epilogue of some 35 pages carries the detail forward to the disaster in Waco, Texas in April 1993.

A distinctive feature of the main text is that all entries are in the present tense, which gives a feeling of immediacy. Thus, on January 12, 1880, we read, "Sante Fe's first omnibus begins operating." The book is filled with thousands of minor as well as important events--on the twenty-seventh of the same month we read, "Edison patents incandescent bulb." Most entries are somewhat longer, depending on their importance. An added feature is about 100 boxes with more detailed information about important people or events, such as "The Birth of Barbed Wire" (Oct. 27, 1873) or "The Murder of Crazy Horse" (Sept. 5, 1877). There are approximately 125 black-and-white historical prints and photographs, ranging from one-half to about one-eighth of a page.

A few inaccuracies slipped by. On November 27, 1826, Jedediah Smith did not arrive at San Diego, but at San Gabriel, nearly 140 miles away. In February 1858 there is a reference to Folsom, California, as being "in the Comstock Lode country." Actually it is about 110 miles away. And Pinnacles National Monument is in California, not in Utah. In the box featuring the life of dancer Lola Montez, her name should be Landsfeld, not Landsfelt. But in view of the thousands of names, dates, and places in the book, these are insignificant.

The name and subject indexes are excellent, both being subdivided by smaller topic. The bibliography is only three pages; it cannot include all the books that must have been consulted by the editor. There are three books dealing with Billy the Kid, but Dan Thrapp's four-volume Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography is not listed, nor is Jay Nash's Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws. Because of the wide variety of topics covered, this book makes for fascinating reading. It is recommended for all public libraries and for academic libraries with a western-history collection or interest.

Flanagan (Out West, Abrams, 1987) has produced a guidebook to the trans-Mississippi West through 15,000 chronologically arranged and briefly described events, most of which occurred between 1848 and the closing of the frontier in 1890. Throughout the text are dozens of interesting sidebars about particular events (completion of the first transcontinental telegraph, Custer's court-martial, the birth of barbed wire) and characters (Butch Cassidy, Doc Holliday, Calamity Jane), along with nearly 150 illustrations. This labor of love can serve as either a useful reference tool or an entertaining browse for readers interested in a time line of events in the Old West.
Nicholas C. Burckel, Washington Univ. Libs., St. Louis
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.