“The best all-around study of the American cowboy ever written. Every page crackles with keen analysis and vivid prose about the Old West. A must-read!” —Douglas Brinkley, The New York Times–bestselling author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America The open-range cattle era lasted barely a quarter century, but it left America irrevocably changed. Cattle Kingdom reveals how the West rose and fell, and how its legacy defines us today. The tale takes us from dust-choked cattle drives to the unlikely splendors of boomtowns like Abilene, Kansas, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. We meet a diverse cast, from cowboy Teddy Blue to failed rancher and future president Teddy Roosevelt. This is a revolutionary new appraisal of the Old West and the America it made. “Cattle Kingdom is the smartly told account of rampant capitalism making its home—however destructive and decidedly unromantic—on the range. . . . [A] fresh and winning perspective.” —The Dallas Morning News “Knowlton writes well about all the fun stuff: trail drives, rambunctious cow towns, gunfights and range wars . . . [He] enlists all of these tropes in support of an intriguing thesis: that the romance of the Old West arose upon the swelling surface of a giant economic bubble . . . Cattle Kingdom is The Great Plains by way of The Big Short.” —Wall Street Journal “Knowlton deftly balances close-ups and bird’s-eye views. We learn countless details . . . More important, we learn why the story played out as it did.” —The New York Times Book Review “The best one-volume history of the legendary era of the cowboy and cattle empires in thirty years.” —True West “Vastly informative.” —Library Journal “Absorbing.” —Publishers Weekly

The mountain-top volleys from any scholarly set-to among social historians concerning the elusive roots of American democracy do reach our ears from time to time, and this rather formidable cannonade just may strike off some sparks, although it is hardly leisure reading. The author's efforts seem to have been spurred on by academics past and present (including historians Elkins and McKitrick) who have examined frontier communities and others more current and have concluded that democracy is a process of peaceful decision-making in a self-contained, homogeneous community. Dr. Dykstra, taking umbrage, has moved through the years 1867-1885 in five ""frankly ambitious frontier settlements,"" and has plowed up enough evidence in the social, political, economic, etc. areas to state with confidence that instead of the traditional view of conflict hindering progress, one should brace conflict with cooperation on an equal basis. Conflict, Dykstra insists was ""normal . . . inevitable . . . a format for community decision . . . change."" A shift in focus that just might--in an undoubtedly popular interpretation--cheer our chaotic days. A thorny, difficult book but worthy.

Young Ben Logan, his family lost in the Civil War, sells his Texas ranch and heads West. In search of copper, Ben scales Mount Baldy in Moreno Valley and finds a Ponderosa pine with the word "DISCOVERY" carved in its bark, just before he makes a startling find.

What? Los Angeles was the original wine country of California, leading the state's wine production for more than a century? Los Angeles County was the agricultural center of North America until the 1950s? And where today's freeways soar, cows calmly chewed their cud? How could that be? Los Angeles, the capital of asphalt and Klieg lights, was once a paradise filled with grapevines and bovines, so abundant with Nature's gifts that no one could imagine a more pastoral place? Los Angeles County was the center of an agricultural empire. Today, it is the nation's most populous urban metropolis. What happened? Where did the green go? As Americans connect with gardens, farmers markets, and urban farms, most are unaware that each of these activities have deep roots in Los Angeles, and that the healthy food they savor literally had its roots in L.A. This book is for all who treasure the country's agrarian history.