Gunfighters Highwaymen And Vigilantes

Author : Roger D. McGrath
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 1987-03-23
Category : History
ISBN : 9780520060265

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Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes by Roger D. McGrath Pdf

From the Preface:On the frontier, says conventional wisdom, a structured society did not exist and social control was largely absent; law enforcement and the criminal justice system had limited, if any, influence; and danger--both from man and from the elements--was ever present. This view of the frontier is projected by motion pictures, television, popular literature, and most scholarly histories. But was the frontier really all that violent? What was the nature of the violence that did occur? Were frontier towns more violent that cities in the East? Has America inherited a violent way of life from the frontier? Was the frontier more violent than the United States is today? This book attempts to answer these questions and others about violence and lawlessness on the frontier and do so in a new way. Whereas most authors have drawn their conclusions about frontier violence from the exploits of a few notorious badmen and outlaws and from some of the more famous incidents and conflicts, I have chosen to focus on two towns that I think were typical of the frontier--the mining frontier specifically--and to investigate all forms of violence and lawlessness that occurred in and around those towns.

Author : Roger McGrath
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1984
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:608862785

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Gunfighters Highwaymen & Vigilantes by Roger McGrath Pdf

Author : Roger D. McGrath
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2023-11-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780520341739

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Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes by Roger D. McGrath Pdf

From the Preface:On the frontier, says conventional wisdom, a structured society did not exist and social control was largely absent; law enforcement and the criminal justice system had limited, if any, influence; and danger--both from man and from the elements--was ever present. This view of the frontier is projected by motion pictures, television, popular literature, and most scholarly histories. But was the frontier really all that violent? What was the nature of the violence that did occur? Were frontier towns more violent that cities in the East? Has America inherited a violent way of life from the frontier? Was the frontier more violent than the United States is today? This book attempts to answer these questions and others about violence and lawlessness on the frontier and do so in a new way. Whereas most authors have drawn their conclusions about frontier violence from the exploits of a few notorious badmen and outlaws and from some of the more famous incidents and conflicts, I have chosen to focus on two towns that I think were typical of the frontier--the mining frontier specifically--and to investigate all forms of violence and lawlessness that occurred in and around those towns.

Author : Elmer D. McInnes,Lauretta Ritchie-McInnes
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2022-01-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9781476686318

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Nevada Gunsmoke by Elmer D. McInnes,Lauretta Ritchie-McInnes Pdf

From 1860 to 1900, many towns in Nevada sprang up to serve the mining camps in the area. These towns provided the breeding ground for a unique character known as "the mining camp gunman." This book delves into the violent and gritty lives of various Nevada characters, including gunfighting miner Dick Prentice, lawman and politico Leslie Blackburn, peace officer William McKee, ruthless killer Hank Parrish, outlaw escape artist John Burke and other characters.

Author : Anne M. Butler
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1999-08-15
Category : Female offenders
ISBN : 0252068793

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Gendered Justice in the American West by Anne M. Butler Pdf

In this shocking study, Anne M. Butler shows that the distinct gender disadvantages already faced by women within western society erupted into intense physical and mental violence when they became prisoners in male penitentiaries. Drawing on prison records and the words of the women themselves, Gendered Justice in the American West places the injustices women prisoners endured in the context of the structures of male authority and female powerlessness that pervaded all of American society. Butler's poignant cross-cultural account explores how nineteenth-century criminologists constructed the "criminal woman"; how the women's age, race, class, and gender influenced their court proceedings; and what kinds of violence women inmates encountered. She also examines the prisoners' diet, illnesses, and experiences with pregnancy and child-bearing, as well as their survival strategies.

Author : Kevin Grant
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 229 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2020-01-03
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 9781476638683

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Vigilantes by Kevin Grant Pdf

For many people, the cinematic vigilante has been shaped by Charles Bronson's character in Death Wish and its sequels. But screen vigilantes have taken many guises, from Old West lynch mobs and rogue police officers to rape-avengers and military-trained equalizers. This book recounts the varied representations of such characters in films like The Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, and Taxi Driver, Falling Down and You Were Never Really Here, in which the vigilante impulse was symptomatic of mental instability. Also considered is the extent to which fictional vigilantism functions as social commentary and to what degree it is simply stoking popular fears.

Author : Rebecca Stefoff
Publisher : Marshall Cavendish
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 076142170X

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The Wild West by Rebecca Stefoff Pdf

Presents the history of the Wild West through a variety of primary source images and documents, such as diary entries, newspaper accounts, public speeches, popular literature, and personal letters.

Author : Michael L. Johnson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 562 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2007
Category : History
ISBN : UVA:X030112643

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Hunger for the Wild by Michael L. Johnson Pdf

Americans have had an enduring yet ambivalent obsession with the West as both a place and a state of mind. Michael L. Johnson considers how that obsession originated, how it has determined attitudes toward and activities in the West, and how it has changed over the centuries.

Author : Bruce L. Benson
Publisher : Independent Institute
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2013-03-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781598130690

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The Enterprise of Law by Bruce L. Benson Pdf

In the minds of many, the provision of justice and security has long been linked to the state. To ask whether non-state institutions could deliver those services on their own, without the aid of coercive taxation and a monopoly franchise, runs the risk of being branded as naive anarchism or dangerous radicalism. Defenders of the state's monopoly on lawmaking and law enforcement typically assume that any alternative arrangement would favor the rich at the expense of the poor—or would lead to the collapse of social order and ignite a war. Questioning how well these beliefs hold up to scrutiny, this book offers a powerful rebuttal of the received view of the relationship between law and government. The book argues not only that the state is unnecessary for the establishment and enforcement of law, but also that non-state institutions would fight crime, resolve disputes, and render justice more effectively than the state, based on their stronger incentives.

Author : Al Cimino
Publisher : Chartwell Books
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2016-08-24
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780785833765

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Gunfighters by Al Cimino Pdf

Delve into the world of the Wild West and the gunslingers that populated its dusty towns and saloons.

Author : Lawrence M. Friedman
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2015-05-04
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780700620777

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The Big Trial by Lawrence M. Friedman Pdf

The trial of O. J. Simpson was a sensation, avidly followed by millions of people, but it was also, in a sense, nothing new. One hundred years earlier the Lizzie Borden trial had held the nation in thrall. The names (and the crimes) may change, but the appeal is enduring—and why this is, how it works, and what it means are what Lawrence Friedman investigates in The Big Trial. What is it about these cases that captures the public imagination? Are the “headline trials” of our period different from those of a century or two ago? And what do we learn from them, about the nature of our society, past and present? To get a clearer picture, Friedman first identifies what certain headline trials have in common, then considers particular cases within each grouping. The political trial, for instance, embraces treason and spying, dissenters and radicals, and, to varying degrees, corruption and fraud. Celebrity trials involve the famous—whether victims, as in the case of Charles Manson, or defendants as disparate as Fatty Arbuckle and William Kennedy Smith—but certain high-profile cases, such as those Friedman categorizes as tabloid trials, can also create celebrities. The fascination of whodunit trials can be found in the mystery surrounding the case: Are we sure about O. J. Simpson? What about Claus von Bulow—tried, in another sensational case, for sending his wife into a coma.? An especially interesting type of case Friedman groups under the rubric worm in the bud. These are cases, such as that of Lizzie Borden, that seem to put society itself on trial; they raise fundamental social questions and often suggest hidden and secret pathologies. And finally, a small but important group of cases proceed from moral panic, the Salem witchcraft trials being the classic instance, though Friedman also considers recent examples. Though they might differ in significant ways, these types of trials also have important similarities. Most notably, they invariably raise questions about identity (Who is this defendant? A villain? An innocent unfairly accused?). And in this respect, The Big Trial shows us, the headline trial reflects a critical aspect of modern society. Reaching across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the latest outrage, from congressional hearings to lynching and vigilante justice to public punishment, from Dr. Sam Sheppard (the “fugitive”) to Jeffrey Dahmer (the “cannibal”), The Rosenbergs to Timothy McVeigh, the book presents a complex picture of headline trials as displays of power—moments of “didactic theater”" that demonstrate in one way or another whether a society is fair, whom it protects, and whose interest it serves.

Author : Richard F. Selcer
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
Page : 359 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 1991-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780875655116

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Hell's Half Acre by Richard F. Selcer Pdf

Texas is a place where legends are made, die, and are revived. Fort Worth, Texas, claims its own legend – Hell’s Half Acre – a wild ’n woolly accumulation of bordellos, cribs, dance houses, saloons, and gambling parlors. Tenderloin districts were a fact of life in every major town in the American West, but Hell’s Half Acre – its myth and its reality – can be said to be a microcosm of them all. The most famous and infamous westerners visited the Acre: Timothy (“Longhair Jim”) Courtright, Luke Short, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Sam Bass, Mary Porter, Etta Place, along with Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch, and many more. For civic leaders and reformers, the Acre presented a dilemma – the very establishments they sought to close down or regulate were major contributors to the local economy. Controversial in its heyday and receiving new attention by such movies as Lonesome Dove, Hell’s Half Acre remains the subject of debate among historians and researchers today. Richard Selcer successfully separates fact from fiction, myth from reality, in this vibrant study of the men and women of Cowtown’s notorious Acre.

Author : Marilynn S. Johnson
Publisher : Waveland Press
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2014-06-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781478623045

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Violence in the West by Marilynn S. Johnson Pdf

Generations of Americans have developed an image of violence in the “Wild West” through books and films. But what conditions really resulted in violence on the American frontier between the 1880s and 1910s? How frequently did violence occur, and what forms did it take? Johnson explores these questions through the lens of the mining and range wars that plagued the region during this period. The author opens with an introductory essay that situates violence within social, political, and economic circumstances of the time, considering smaller cases of interpersonal violence and larger conflicts. Documents are then presented to illuminate two case studies of collective violence—the Johnson County range war in northern Wyoming and the 1913–1914 coal strike in southern Colorado resulting in the Ludlow Massacre. The closing epilogue examines the role both incidents played in shaping the collective memory and cultural history of the American West. The book’s format provides readers with both a general understanding of the history of western violence and the context of specific historical cases that allow for more in-depth study and comparison.

Author : John F. Burns
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2003-04-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780520234130

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Taming the Elephant by John F. Burns Pdf

The final of four volumes in the 'California History Sesquicentennial Series', this text compiles original essays which treat the consequential role of post-Gold Rush California government, politics and law in the building of a dynamic state with lasting impact to the present day.

Author : Leland H. Gentry,Todd M. Compton
Publisher : Greg Kofford Books
Page : 642 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2009-10-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 8210379456XXX

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Fire and Sword by Leland H. Gentry,Todd M. Compton Pdf

Many Mormon dreams flourished in Missouri. So did many Mormon nightmares. The Missouri period--especially from the summer of 1838 when Joseph took over vigorous, personal direction of this new Zion until the spring of 1839 when he escaped after five months of imprisonment--represents a moment of intense crisis in Mormon history. Representing the greatest extremes of devotion and violence, commitment and intolerance, physical suffering and terror--mobbings, battles, massacres, and political “knockdowns”--it shadowed the Mormon psyche for a century. Leland Gentry was the first to step beyond this disturbing period as a one-sided symbol of religious persecution and move toward understanding it with careful documentation and evenhanded analysis. In Fire and Sword, Todd Compton collaborates with Gentry to update this foundational work with four decades of new scholarship, more insightful critical theory, and the wealth of resources that have become electronically available in the last few years. Compton gives full credit to Leland Gentry's extraordinary achievement, particularly in documenting the existence of Danites and in attempting to tell the Missourians’ side of the story; but he also goes far beyond it, gracefully drawing into the dialogue signal interpretations written since Gentry and introducing the raw urgency of personal writings, eyewitness journalists, and bemused politicians seesawing between human compassion and partisan harshness. In the lush Missouri landscape of the Mormon imagination where Adam and Eve had walked out of the garden and where Adam would return to preside over his posterity, the towering religious creativity of Joseph Smith and clash of religious stereotypes created a swift and traumatic frontier drama that changed the Church.