The Gunfighter: Man or Myth?

by Joseph G. Rosa

The gunfighter was a man bred in a lawless and violent era of civil war, range wars, and greed for land and gold. He played a real and deadly part in a period when men were conditioned to settle differences with gunplay. He shot and fought and killed throughout Texas in its struggle with Mexico, along the Kansas-Missouri border, and up and down the cattle trails. Black powder smoke from his guns darkened the Kansas cow towns and the Far West mining camps. 

What part of the gunfighter legend is true, and what part a novelist's or screenwriter's fantasy? What has been the gunfighter's influence on American society-and. for that matter, on world society? For there is no doubt that the shoot-‘em-up gun-totin’ hero of the early West is a figure of interest and sympathy to people all over the world.

Well documented and rich with illustrations of gunfights and gunmen, this book is a real find for "gunfighter buffs," as well as for all readers interested in knowing what the wild West was really like.

Genres: American History, History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1979

About the author

Joseph G. Rosa was a historian of the Wild West, author, and the chief biographer of Wild Bill Hickok as well as several other figures of this period.

Reviews

[Bob Newman · Rating 3 out of 5]

"....when two men meet in a dusty street..."
Only one returns.

At least, that's the way it always used to be on Saturday afternoons at the movies here in Marblehead, Mass. more than half a century ago. Television kept the tradition going a bit longer, and then there was Clint Eastwood. Yup. Nope. Well, it turns out that all this was pure mythology. Joseph Rosa did some excellent research back in the 1960s and came up with the ultimate book on the subject of guns and gunfighting in the Old West. Despite Hollywood, most of those gunfighting heroes, were, not to put too fine a point on it, pathological killers. If they lived, it was because they didn't hesitate to kill in situations where they felt threatened. Men with some qualms about taking human life usually lost their own. Fast draws ? Showdowns in the main street lined with those hitchin' posts and false fronted saloons ? Forget it, that almost never happened. A shot in the back was common enough. Still, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and many others whose names are written in American legend did exist. Perhaps the reality was neither as pretty or as irreproachable as the legend. They often consorted with the bad guys and definitely with ladies of ill-repute. Some of them switched sides somewhere along the line.
If you happen to be interested in the 19th century development and manufacture of various brands of pistol, THE GUNFIGHTER is certainly your book. It's all in here. You can also read countless stories of the many gunfighters, lawmen, and semi-heroes who fought (and usually died) in the bad old days. Gunfighting cowboys or sheriffs over 30 must have been a rarity. Of course, nobody had heard of testosterone in those days. Gunfighters appeared in the cattle towns of Kansas, in mining towns like Tombstone, and wherever cattle barons clashed with settlers. Rosa concentrates on Kansas and Texas, but the phenomenon existed all over. I feel that Rosa got lost in a galaxy of details. He can and does tell you the story of a hundred famous gunfights, of who killed whom, in what part of the body he was shot, and with what weapon. What is missing is a wider view of history, any connection to the rest of the world or the rest of America. He frequently compares the reality to the movies and dime novel fantasies, which I appreciated very much, but he cannot seem to decide whether he is a local historian or one who wants to put the whole subject in the context of American history and culture. THE GUNFIGHTER falls between the cracks. Anyhow, if the topic interests you, I doubt if you can afford to ignore Rosa's work.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only adequately written by an Englishman in thrall with the American West. Entirely too much material on the evolution of pistols and ammunition. Somehow the brief coverage of some of the famous gunfighters and gun battles is never very engaging and despite the violence inherent in the histories, rather bloodless. Should have been much better.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rosa writes about the image and reality of the Western gunman - lawman, badman, average man. What's telling is that conventional wisdom is that the Western cow town was a lawless environment where everyone wore guns and everyone used them.
Not the case, writes Rosa. Most cow towns had local gun laws, and during the period 1870-1895, only 45 men died by violence in Abilene, Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City and Caldwell. Most were cowboys or gamblers shot by town marshals, according to Rosa.
So, it steams me when liberals assail legally owned and carried firearms for personal protection, saying "We don't want this to become the Wild West."

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author debunks many of the persistent myths regarding the gunmen of the old West. He also tackles the guns themselves, gun handling, and the ammunition used. It is dated (1969).

[Roderick Mcgillis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rather ponderous. Rosa wants to debunk the myth of the romantic fast gun, but really he does much to perpetuate the notion of lawlessness confronted by the gun.