The Wild West on 5 Bits a Day

Thames Hudson 5... a Day

by Joan Tapper

Board a stagecoach, meet Wyatt Earp, and raise the roof in a cow-town saloon―your guide to traveling, eating, drinking, and surviving in frontier America. Enjoy time-travel through the Old West . . . and enter a world of cowboys, Indians, and cavalry officers, legendary lawmen and gunslingers, gamblers, working girls with hearts of gold, and pioneers building a life on the frontier.

The time is 1880. Railroad travel to California is relatively easy, and you can ride a spur line to towns like Santa Fe, but getting to many places in the mountains and plains calls for a sense of adventure. Cowboys drive huge herds of cattle from Texas ranches to raucous Kansas railheads. The Earps and Doc Holliday are in Tombstone; Jesse James and Billy the Kid are still at large. Booming Leadville has just opened its famous opera house, while Virginia City reigns as Queen of the Comstock.

This rollicking guide to the Wild West draws on contemporary newspapers, memoirs, diaries, dime novels, and guidebooks as it invites you to . . . Complete with practical advice on where to stay, what to wear, and what to safely eat, here is the perfect introduction to the exciting days before the West was tamed. 15 color and 65 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Westerns, Travel

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

Reviews

[H (no longer expecting notifications) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

If "Friendly Planet Guides" had been around 130 years ago, they might have written something like this.
An eclectic collection of observations about towns, means of travel and culture west of the Mississippi set in the 1880s.

Warning: This "real West" guide may cause some mental anguish in reconciling it with preconceptions based on novels and movies.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book written from letters, publications and gives a perspective of the American West. It is a travel guide with information about different cities and regions. All written with a focus on the year 1880. Towns like Deadwood, Tombstone, Leadville and Dodge City are covered.

The book gives you practical advice on travel, accommodation, sights such us Yellowstone and people you could meet. It gives information on costs of food, entertainment and areas to visit and avoid. It is a great book for getting a picture of the Wild West around the 1880s.

[Ron]

Very enjoyable, using it primarily for research.

[Jewlsbookblog · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book essentially reads as an 1880’s travel guide to the relatively new frontier-the Wild West. There’s mentions of food and accommodations-or lack of-as well as highlights of important town establishments, (future) national parks, and few big (and notorious) mentions to round out this odd little read.

[Manolo González · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit ambiguous, a lot of important things are missed (such as the end of some of the most famous characters of the wild west), the way is wirtten it's maybe be not the best for someone looking for an introduction to the subject.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a bit repetitive in parts and lacking in desired detail in others, this book is an enjoyable 'travel guide' to the Wild West. Featuring hotel reviews, route recommendations and prices, as well as famous faces, it's an easy but fun read that isn't taxing in the slightest.

[Amber Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "travel guide" written as if it was set in the frontier. Cute, but could have had a bit more meat to it and a bit more interesting trivia. I'd hand this to someone without a lot of knowledge of this era as an introduction to the history.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice book about the wild west!