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Title: Legends and Lies: Great Mysteries of the American West by Dale L. Walker, John Jakes ISBN: 0312868480 Publisher: Forge Pub. Date: January, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 Amazon Price(USD): $10.47

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Average Customer Rating: 4.66667

Rating: 4
Summary: Great for the history buff
Comment: This book is great for reading as you are driving out West. There are so many stories that saturate our folk history of the Old West, it is hard to know what is true and what is legend. This book systematically takes a look at what is true and what is bogus, and what is grey in the areas of many old legends from the Old West.

My Dad made our family stop at every historical marker in the entire West, well at least that is what it felt like, but in doing this he instilled in me an interest in the West and how it was won, etc. This book gave me a fun, entertaining look at what is true and what is not true, I would recommend it for enjoyable reading.

Rating: 5
Summary: strikes a fine balance, well researched
Comment: What makes _Legends & Lies_ so attractive is that, as the book's foreword points out, it avoids the two traditional pitfalls of Western historical writing. Typically what we get is either fanciful types whose mantra is 'I don't care if it's true or not, that's the way I want it to have been' or cold-hearted sorts who assume that if it's being repeated as a legend, it could not possibly be true. It's hard to find authors who truly love the West and respect both legend and fact, with no desire to tear down either, and Walker is that rare type.

I like the breadth of the sources he considers. He blindly accepts no one, always putting effort into evaluating the source's credibility. The stories in the book (Sacajawea, Billy the Kid, and Custer to name a few) are ones known to anyone with a nodding acquaintance with Western history; in some cases I hadn't even realized there was a question as to what happened. He doesn't pander to political correctness, but he does recognize that it took two genders and a lot of colours to make the history of the West, and writes accordingly.

Highly recommended (by a lifetime Westerner, if it matters) to anyone interested in Western history.

Rating: 5
Summary: A masterful look at some great mysteries
Comment: This is an absolutely fascinating book. Walker brings massive research to his task, which is to look at all facets of some unsolved mysteries. For instance, did Davy Crockett survive the fight at the Alamo, at least for a brief while? Was Meriwether Lewis's death murder or suicide? And whatever became of Ambrose Bierce, the author who ventured into revolutionary Mexico and never returned?

Walker gathers evidence from surprising sources, some of them overlooked by historians, and leaves it to his readers to draw conclusions.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the American West.

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