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Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome
In these pages you will come to fall in love with a ruggedly diverse and strikingly beautiful state, a land that takes hold and won’t let go. Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome is widely recognized as a classic history and delightful ode to the idiosyncratic personalities, restless landscape, unforgettable peoples, and lively history of the Treasure State. William Kittredge provides a new introduction for this edition.
349 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 4, 2016
One of the best books out there (if you are interested in Montana history). The chapter on the copper kings, especially, is just awesome.
December 22, 2014
Howard was a newspaperman and he does a great job with this little volume. He railed against the Anaconda company and extolled the virtues of the common man. Many people consider this the best book written about Montana history, even though it's more than 50 years old and wasn't written by a professional historian.
I do wish it included a bit more of the large events, but like I said, here's a common man of history approach.
First read was October 2006 or so.
Read 2
I finished this again on December 21, 2014...although I'd been reading it a bit all year as I wrote my own history volumes.
You can tell that the war had just started when Howard was wrapping this up, so probably in early '42. There's a sense of unknown, dread, foreboding. Lots of young men were leaving the state at that time, both to head overseas and to head to the plants on the coast to work for the war machine.
Good stats and stories on moving dryland farmers to areas where they could make a living too, something I'll include in my next book, since it's a good example of early federal subsidies.
I do wish it included a bit more of the large events, but like I said, here's a common man of history approach.
First read was October 2006 or so.
Read 2
I finished this again on December 21, 2014...although I'd been reading it a bit all year as I wrote my own history volumes.
You can tell that the war had just started when Howard was wrapping this up, so probably in early '42. There's a sense of unknown, dread, foreboding. Lots of young men were leaving the state at that time, both to head overseas and to head to the plants on the coast to work for the war machine.
Good stats and stories on moving dryland farmers to areas where they could make a living too, something I'll include in my next book, since it's a good example of early federal subsidies.
September 3, 2012
A sprawling economic history of the state, spanning the period roughly between the Civil War and World War 2. This is a story we've seen played out in nearly every part of the country: an initial boom fueled by seemingly limitless natural resources (in this case, copper and other metals to be mined); followed by hype and waves of new arrivals (cattlemen, farmers) dashed on the rocks of hard reality (drought, punishing winters); subsiding to a hopeful time of consolidation and rational management of scarce resources. In Joseph Kinsey Howard's time, economics in Montana was still skewed by the cost of a freight train back to Chicago—this is the time of "prices slightly higher in the south and west."
May 29, 2020
An interest in the craft of literary nonfiction on the Great Plains led me to a slow read of Howard's 1943 work on Montana. Summative: the work starts and ends badly, but is redeemed by valuable content assertively related through the middle sections. Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome is commonly referred to as a history. I would say it is as much a work of old-fashioned political economy of the prairie variety, with a potent admixture of grievance along with some local color. It is pertinent that Howard was a journalist - unlike, say, his contemporary in Oklahoma, Angie Debo, who was a historian. His history, it seems to me, dwells upon the things that he got worked up about as a newspaperman.
The beginning is weak. Howard does not know much about natural history or native cultures, and he doesn't care to educate himself for purposes of this work. He regards this background material as obligatory, whereas other persons of regional letters regard it as central. Howard, however, wants to get on the the matters of money and power.
To get there he has to traverse the traditional successive frontiers of the region. He admires the big cattlemen, accepting their prejudices and rationales, with lynchings as an acceptable cost of doing business. He has a sort of sympathy for homesteaders, honyockers in his vocabulary, but sketches them as dupes. Much of his middle narrative has to do with getting back to the original vision of J. Wesley Powell for larger, more workable landholdings.
Most readers love Howard's treatment of mining and the copper kings, which constitutes a toxicology of Montana public affairs, the capture of government by the interests. Jim Hill comes across as a false profit, leading settlers to inevitable failure in the early twentieth century. Private power companies are hidebound villains holding back progress, as Howard advocates for Missouri River development in the public interest, specifically the Montana interest. Howard reserves his magnum loads, however, to let loose on the Federal Reserve, which suckered Montana farmers and ranchers into over-expansion and then, in the 1920s. pulled the rug of credit out from under them.
There is intriguing material later in the book as Howard details the ventures in planning and conservation peculiar to Montana, beginning with cooperative grazing. He succeeds in making Teton County the center of systems thought and rural innovation for a generation.
The weak ending is the chapter, "The Old North Trail," wherein Howard, observing the construction of the Alaska Highway, sees a future for Montana as the jumping-off point for a future frontier. The problem his, he has spent the previous chapters describing a Montana coming to grips with the realities of its situation, and then he fritters that grounding away with his escapist conclusion.
Howard's work is a fascinating fit into the genre of regional literary nonfiction because although he nods toward social and cultural aspects, he makes political economy the defining feature of regional life.
The beginning is weak. Howard does not know much about natural history or native cultures, and he doesn't care to educate himself for purposes of this work. He regards this background material as obligatory, whereas other persons of regional letters regard it as central. Howard, however, wants to get on the the matters of money and power.
To get there he has to traverse the traditional successive frontiers of the region. He admires the big cattlemen, accepting their prejudices and rationales, with lynchings as an acceptable cost of doing business. He has a sort of sympathy for homesteaders, honyockers in his vocabulary, but sketches them as dupes. Much of his middle narrative has to do with getting back to the original vision of J. Wesley Powell for larger, more workable landholdings.
Most readers love Howard's treatment of mining and the copper kings, which constitutes a toxicology of Montana public affairs, the capture of government by the interests. Jim Hill comes across as a false profit, leading settlers to inevitable failure in the early twentieth century. Private power companies are hidebound villains holding back progress, as Howard advocates for Missouri River development in the public interest, specifically the Montana interest. Howard reserves his magnum loads, however, to let loose on the Federal Reserve, which suckered Montana farmers and ranchers into over-expansion and then, in the 1920s. pulled the rug of credit out from under them.
There is intriguing material later in the book as Howard details the ventures in planning and conservation peculiar to Montana, beginning with cooperative grazing. He succeeds in making Teton County the center of systems thought and rural innovation for a generation.
The weak ending is the chapter, "The Old North Trail," wherein Howard, observing the construction of the Alaska Highway, sees a future for Montana as the jumping-off point for a future frontier. The problem his, he has spent the previous chapters describing a Montana coming to grips with the realities of its situation, and then he fritters that grounding away with his escapist conclusion.
Howard's work is a fascinating fit into the genre of regional literary nonfiction because although he nods toward social and cultural aspects, he makes political economy the defining feature of regional life.
September 12, 2017
This is the most thorough, most practical Montana history lesson I've ever read. Every Montanan of working age should read this book. It is one of my favorites.
December 16, 2019
A comprehensive history of the early years of history on Montana. From the homesteaders to the Copper Kings, the booms and the busts.
January 15, 2026
Project Read-a-History-of-Every-State-in-Order-of-Statehood #41
November 26, 2023
This book is nicely researched and written and overall very good for what it is, I just personally found it a bit too dry and statistical for my tastes. I guess I was hoping more for a Loren Eiseley feel based off the excellent quotes I've seen from it. Great for folks interested in Montana's more land-and-economy-based history.
June 15, 2023
Very interesting book on Montana history, but it took a long time to get through.
It covers MT settler history from territory to almost WW II. It was recommended to me shortly after moving to MT but was very hard to find a copy, finally found one at a used book store.
The descriptions of the grazing history and the range wars between the Sheep and Cattle ranches is interesting. It focuses on the situation in Central MT and has really good references to local news articles of that time.
He covers the territorial Vigilantes in SW MT during the gold rush, Upper Missouri River shipping to Ft. Benton, the Bozeman trail, the increase in mining during WW I and the returning soldiers, and the most fascinating to me, the droughts and especially in relation to the one that impacted the Great Depression. It has a great description of the banking system that was unregulated and very corrupt, and how it supported large land owners in acquiring neighboring land by bankrupting the smaller owners. There is also focus on the corruption in politics and state government.
There is some Indian Wars history, but only told from the settlers point of view. It describes the forts built around the state based on increased fighting with tribes in different region of the state.
It covers MT settler history from territory to almost WW II. It was recommended to me shortly after moving to MT but was very hard to find a copy, finally found one at a used book store.
The descriptions of the grazing history and the range wars between the Sheep and Cattle ranches is interesting. It focuses on the situation in Central MT and has really good references to local news articles of that time.
He covers the territorial Vigilantes in SW MT during the gold rush, Upper Missouri River shipping to Ft. Benton, the Bozeman trail, the increase in mining during WW I and the returning soldiers, and the most fascinating to me, the droughts and especially in relation to the one that impacted the Great Depression. It has a great description of the banking system that was unregulated and very corrupt, and how it supported large land owners in acquiring neighboring land by bankrupting the smaller owners. There is also focus on the corruption in politics and state government.
There is some Indian Wars history, but only told from the settlers point of view. It describes the forts built around the state based on increased fighting with tribes in different region of the state.
December 11, 2025
This is an excellent book. It covers many facets of Montana history and culture that are rarely mentioned in other histories of the state. Do not be put off by the age of the book. It is still relevant.
One aspect that I really enjoyed was the book’s age. It was written and published in the nineteen-forties. For me this added additional interest as the author’s viewpoint was clearly affected by World War II.
One aspect that I really enjoyed was the book’s age. It was written and published in the nineteen-forties. For me this added additional interest as the author’s viewpoint was clearly affected by World War II.
September 29, 2016
It had some really interesting facts and stories. I enjoyed reading about Judith Basin County where I grew up, and about some of the people who lived there whose families I knew growing up. However it does read like a history book in some parts, so was a little hard to get through. It was worth it, though, to find the nuggets.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews