High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western FrontierHere is the most detailed and most engaging narrated history to date of the legendary two-year facedown and shootout in Lincoln. Until now, New Mexico's late nineteenth-century Lincoln County War has served primarily as the backdrop for a succession of mythical renderings of Billy the Kid in American popular culture. However, as Robert Utley so convincingly demonstrates, this "war without heroes," the source of scores of books and movies, would have occurred even if Billy Bonney had never existed. Fundamentally, the war was a clash of personalities engaged int eh quest for money and power, involving the employment toward that end of every legal and lethal means available on the southwestern frontier. The Lincoln County Was is a case study in frontier violence. As such it needs to be understood as part of the heritage of Americans as a people inclined to violent pursuit of ambition and violent resolution of problems. Utley recreates the West of the 1870s to pierce the legends spawned by popular culture. In their place, he leaves the reader with a vivid image of the impact upon ordinary people of the code of the West, the cutthroat pursuit of financial fortunes during America's Gilded Age; and the twin harbingers of violence represented by whiskey and guns in the hands of hard-drinking men with hair-trigger tempers. Utley is that rare historian who transforms the past into a compelling , fast-paced, and highly readable story. |
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Angel Report army arrest August Billy Bonney Book Brady Brewer Bristol bullets cattle Chapman charge Chisum civil Collection Colonel command death December deposition deputy District Court Dolan Dudley Court Record Dudley to AAAG Dudley's Ealy Evans Exhibit February fight fire Fort Stanton Frank friends frontier Fulton George Governor Haley Hatch head Henry History horses Independent Indian interview John John Pope Judge July June Justice killed later less letter Lincoln County Long looked March McSween Mesilla Mexican Mexico military Mullin murder Murphy NARS notes November October officers orders peace Pecos Peppin posse Press Purington ranch Rasch Regulators Report Riley Rivers Robert Santa Fe sent served sheriff shot side soldiers Special Stanton territorial Testimony Texas took town Tunstall Tunstall's turned University Valley violence Wallace warrants West Widenmann Wilson wrote