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Westerners International 100 Outstanding 20th Century Non-fiction Books on the American West, 1901-2000 by Year

Printable Version

1901
The Transition Period of California from a Province of Mexico to a State of the American Union in 1850 – Samuel H. Willey

1902
A History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West (3 Vols.) – Hiram M. Chittenden

1908
Vanished Arizona: Recollections of My Army Life – Martha Summerhayes

1915
The Fighting Cheyennes – George Bird Grinnell

1916
Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706 – Herbert Bolton, Editor

1921
Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881 – James B. Gillette

1924
Rainbow Bridge: Circling Navajo Mountain and Explorations in the "Bad Lands" of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona – Charles L. Bernheimer

1925
Handbook of the Indians of California – A. L. Kroeber

1926
Mississippi Steamboatin': A History of Steamboating on the Mississippi and its Tributaries – Herbert and Edward Quick

1929
The Overland Trail: The Epic Path of the Pioneers to Oregon – Agnes C. Laut

1930
The Santa Fe Trail – Robert L. Duffus

1931
Outpost of Empire: The Story of the Founding of San Francisco - Herbert E. Bolton
Schliemann: The Story of a Gold-seeker – Emil Ludwig (Translated from the German by D. F. Tait)
The Great Plains – Walter Prescott Webb

1934
Triggernometry: A Gallery of Gunfighters – Eugene Cunningham

1935
Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party – George R. Stewart

1936
Rim of Christendom: A Biography of Eusebio Francisco Kino, Pacific Coast Pioneer – Herbert Eugene Bolton
Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman – J. Evetts Haley
Interwoven: A Pioneer Chronicle – Sallie Reynolds Matthews

1937
Old Jules – Mari Sandoz

1938
The Outlaw Trail: A History of Butch Cassidy and the “Wild Bunch” – Charles Kelly

1939
Carbine and Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill – Wilbur S. Nye

1941
No Life for a Lady – Agnes Morley Cleaveland
The Longhorns – J. Frank Dobie
War Chief Joseph – Helen A. Howard and Dan L. McGrath

1942
Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas – Mari Sandoz

1947
Across the Wide Missouri – Bernard DeVoto

1949
Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier – Ray Allen Billington

1950
The Reckless Breed of Men: The Trappers and Fur Traders of the Southwest – Robert Glass Cleland

1951
A Treasury of Western Folklore – B. A. Botkin, Editor

1952
Wagon Roads West: A Study of Federal Road Surveys and Construction in the Trans-Mississippi West 1846-1869 – W. Turrentine Jackson

1953
Journals of Lewis and Clark – Bernard DeVoto, Editor
Mostly Alkali – Stephen P. Jocelyn
Cheyenne Autumn – Mari Sandoz

1954
Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History
(2 Vols.) – Paul Horgan
Bent's Fort – David Lavender

1955
The Look of the Old West – William Foster-Harris

1956
Before Barbed Wire: L. A. Huffman, Photographer on Horseback - Mark Brown and W. R. Felton
My Confession: Recollections of a Rogue – Samuel Chamberlain
Men to Match My Mountains: The Opening of the Far West, 1840-1900 – Irving Stone
The Indian Wars of the West – Paul I. Wellman

1957
The Age of Steam: A Classic Album of American Railroading – Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg
The King Ranch (2 Vols.) – Tom Lea

1958
Klondike Fever: Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush – Pierre Berton

1960
The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill – Don Russell
Tularosa: Last of the Frontier West – C. L. Sonnichsen

1961
The Forgotten Peninsula: A Naturalist in Baja California – Joseph Wood Krutch
The March of the Montana Column: A Prelude to the Custer Disaster, Lt. J. H. Bradley - E. I. Stewart, Editor

1963
Why the West Was Wild – Joseph Snell and Nyle Miller
The Last Days of the Sioux Nation – Robert M. Utley

1964
They Called Him Wild Bill: The Life and Adventures of James Butler Hickok – Joseph Rosa
The Gathering of Zion: The Story of the Mormon Trail – Wallace Stegner

1965
The Nez Perce and the Opening of the Northwest – Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.

1966
Sutter's Fort: Gateway to the Gold Fields – Oscar Lewis
Jesse James Was His Name; or, Fact and Fiction Concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri – William Settle, Jr.

1967
Fool's Gold: The Decline and Fall of Captain John Sutter of California - Richard Dillon

1969
The Geronimo Campaign – Odie B. Faulk
Sweet Medicine: Continuing Role of the Sacred Arrows, the Sun Dance, and the Sacred Buffalo Hat in Northern Cheyenne History (2 Vols.) – Peter J. Powell

1970
Shotgun for Hire: The Story of "Deacon" Jim Miller, Killer of Pat Garrett – Glenn Shirley

1971
The Genesis of the Frontier Thesis: A Study in Historical Creativity – Ray Allen Billington

1973
Dog Soldiers, Bear Men, and Buffalo Women: A Study of the Societies and Cults of the Plains Indians – Thomas E. Mails
Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indians, 1866-1890 – Robert M. Utley

1974
The Buffalo Book: The Full Saga of the American Animal – David Dary
Pat Garrett: The Story of a Western Lawman – Leon Metz

1975
Fifty Great Western Illustrators: A Bibliographic Check List – Jeff Dykes
Moon of Popping Trees – Rex Alan Smith

1979
Bat Masterson: The Man and the Legend – Robert DeArment
Buffalo Bill, His Family, Friends, Fame, Failures, and Fortunes – Nellie Snyder Yost

1980
The Southwest – David Lavender

1981
Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries – David Dary
Custer Legends – Lawrence A. Frost
Deadwood: The Golden Years – Watson Parker

1982
El Paso Lawman: G. W. Campbell – Fred Egloff
The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience – J. S. Holiday
Westering Women and the Frontier Experience 1800-1915 – Sandra L. Myres

1983
Westering Man: The Life of Joseph Walker – Bil Gilbert

1986
Adobe Walls: The History and Archeology of the 1874 Trading Post – T. Lindsay Baker and Billy R. Harrison
Trails South: The Wagon-Road Economy in Dodge City-Panhandle Region – C. Robert Haywood
Death Valley & the Amargosa: A Land of Illusion – Richard Lingenfelter

1987
Sacramento, Excursions into its History and Natural World – William M. Holden

1988
Platte River Road Narratives: A Descriptive Bibliography of Travel over the Great Central Overland Route – Merrill J. Mattes
The Donner Party Rescue Site: Johnson's Ranch on Bear River – Jack and Richard Steed

1991
Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed – John S. Gray
The West as America: Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920 – Will H. Truettner, Editor

1992
The Custer Reader – Paul Andrew Hutton, Editor
Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America – Theodora Kroeber
Goldfield: The Last Gold Rush on the Western Frontier – Sally Zanjani
The Spanish Frontier in North America – David Weber

1993
Dictionary of the American West – Win Blevins
Hokahey! A Good Day to Die!: The Indian Casualties of the Custer Fight – Richard G. Hardorff
Buffalo Soldiers, Braves and the Brass: – F. N. Schubert

1995
The Last Gunfighter: John Wesley Hardin – Richard Marohn
A Good Year to Die: The Story of the Great Sioux War – Charles M. Robinson III

1996
Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West – Stephen Ambrose

1998
The Plains Indians – Paul H. Carlson
The New Encyclopedia of the American West – Howard R. Lamar, Editor
The West of Billy the Kid – Frederick Nolan

1999
Bear Flag Rising: The Conquest of California, 1846 – Dale L. Walker
Long Day's Journey: The Steamboat and Stagecoach Era in the Northern West – Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes

2000
Nothing Like it in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863 -1869 – Stephen Ambrose




Outstanding Books