Sixguns and Society

Sixguns and Society PDF Author: Will Wright
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520340787
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
From the Preface: The purpose of this book is to explain the Western's popularity. While the Western itself may seem simple (it isn't quite), an explanation of its popularity cannot be; for the Western, like any myth, stands between individual human consciousness and society. If a myth is popular, it must somehow appeal to or reinforce the individuals who view it by communicating a symbolic meaning to them. This meaning must, in turn, reflect the particular social institutions and attitudes that have created and continue to nourish the myth. Thus, a myth must tell its viewers about themselves and their society. This study, which takes up the question of the Western as an American myth, will lead us into abstract structural theory as well as economic and political history. Mostly, however, it will take us into the movies, the spectacular and not-so-spectacular sagebrush of the cinema. Unlike most works of social science, the data on which my analysis is based is available to all of my readers, either at the local theater or, more likely, on the late, late show. I hope you will take the opportunity, whenever it is offered, to check my findings and test my interpretations; the effort is small and the rewards are many. And if your wife, husband, mother, or child asks you why you are wasting your time staring at Westerns on TV in the middle of the night, tell them firmly—as I often did—that you are doing research in social science. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977. From the Preface: The purpose of this book is to explain the Western's popularity. While the Western itself may seem simple (it isn't quite), an explanation of its popularity cannot be; for the Western, like any myth, stands between individual human consc

Sixguns and Society

Sixguns and Society PDF Author: Will Wright
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520340787
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
From the Preface: The purpose of this book is to explain the Western's popularity. While the Western itself may seem simple (it isn't quite), an explanation of its popularity cannot be; for the Western, like any myth, stands between individual human consciousness and society. If a myth is popular, it must somehow appeal to or reinforce the individuals who view it by communicating a symbolic meaning to them. This meaning must, in turn, reflect the particular social institutions and attitudes that have created and continue to nourish the myth. Thus, a myth must tell its viewers about themselves and their society. This study, which takes up the question of the Western as an American myth, will lead us into abstract structural theory as well as economic and political history. Mostly, however, it will take us into the movies, the spectacular and not-so-spectacular sagebrush of the cinema. Unlike most works of social science, the data on which my analysis is based is available to all of my readers, either at the local theater or, more likely, on the late, late show. I hope you will take the opportunity, whenever it is offered, to check my findings and test my interpretations; the effort is small and the rewards are many. And if your wife, husband, mother, or child asks you why you are wasting your time staring at Westerns on TV in the middle of the night, tell them firmly—as I often did—that you are doing research in social science. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977. From the Preface: The purpose of this book is to explain the Western's popularity. While the Western itself may seem simple (it isn't quite), an explanation of its popularity cannot be; for the Western, like any myth, stands between individual human consc

The Water Hole

The Water Hole PDF Author: Zane Grey
Publisher: Blackstone Audio Inc.
ISBN: 1481528491
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
It would seem that the end of every war has been followed in the United States by social and moral changes, mostly for the worse. Zane Grey certainly felt that way about the effects of the Great War, and to show these changes and how to cope with them became the impulse behind what he called The Water Hole. However, before magazine publication, changes were made in his text, including the names of all the characters. Fortunately Grey's original handwritten manuscript has survived, so now this story can be told with his characters named and presented as he intended them to be. In 1925 widowed businessman Elijah Winters brings his daughter, Cherry, from Long Island to stay at a trading post in a remote area some distance from Flagstaff, Arizona. Removed from the country clubs and speakeasies, Cherry is at first bored with simple ranch life, and to entertain herself she flirts with several of the cowboys, not realizing they are very different from the young men she knew back east. Also very different is Stephen Heftral, a young archaeologist who is searching for an ancient and lost kiva of a primitive Indian tribe that disappeared centuries before in what became the land of the Navajos. Heftral believes that this lost kiva is most probably in a desert fastness called Beckyshibeta, the Navajo word for water hole. Elijah colludes with Heftral to awaken Cherry to a new and healthier way of life by taking her, by force if necessary, to the site. Cherry resents being kidnapped but comes to forget the luxury of her past in the beauty and dangers of the canyons—and in the thrill of making an important archaeological discovery.

Hard Winter

Hard Winter PDF Author: Johnny D. Boggs
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781410423535
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Weather and creaking joints permitting, Jim Hawkins could be found every weekend sitting in the rocker outside the Manix store, whittling and spitting. Jim said hardly anything. Ever. That's how Henry Lancaster felt. Sure, he'd hear his grandfather talk to his grandmother fairly often -- But Jim hardly said anything to anybody else. That all changed when he took Henry along on a scouting trip, and told his grandson how it was that winter of 1886 -- a really hard winter.

In the Distance

In the Distance PDF Author: Hernan Diaz
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 0593850572
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD WINNER OF THE WHITING AWARD WINNER OF THE SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING WINNTER OF THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD WINNER OF THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR The first novel by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Trust, an exquisite and blisteringly intelligent story of a young Swedish boy, separated from his brother, who becomes a legend and an outlaw A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels east in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing west. Driven back again and again, he meets criminals, naturalists, religious fanatics, swindlers, American Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.

The Western Wind

The Western Wind PDF Author: Samantha Harvey
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802146538
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Winner of the Staunch Book Prize. “A beautifully written and expertly structured medieval mystery packed with intrigue, drama and shock revelations.” —Minneapolis Star-Tribune An extraordinary new novel by Samantha Harvey—whose books have been nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), and the Guardian First Book Award—The Western Wind is a riveting story of faith, guilt, and the freedom of confession. It’s 1491. In the small village of Oakham, its wealthiest and most industrious resident, Tom Newman, is swept away by the river during the early hours of Shrove Saturday. Was it murder, suicide, or an accident? Narrated from the perspective of local priest John Reve—patient shepherd to his wayward flock—a shadowy portrait of the community comes to light through its residents’ tortured revelations. As some of their darkest secrets are revealed, the intrigue of the unexplained death ripples through the congregation. But will Reve, a man with secrets of his own, discover what happened to Newman? And what will happen if he can’t? Written with timeless eloquence, steeped in the spiritual traditions of the Middle Ages, and brimming with propulsive suspense, The Western Wind finds Samantha Harvey at the pinnacle of her outstanding novelistic power. “Beautifully rendered, deeply affecting, thoroughly thoughtful and surprisingly prescient . . . a story of a community crowded with shadows and secrets.” —The New York Times Book Review “Ms. Harvey has summoned this remote world with writing of the highest quality, conjuring its pungencies and peculiarities.” —The Wall Street Journal “Brings medieval England back to life.” —The Washington Post

History of Western Movies

History of Western Movies PDF Author: Leonard Matthews
Publisher: Hamlyn
ISBN: 9780603036279
Category : Motion picture actors and actresses
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description


Education of a Wandering Man

Education of a Wandering Man PDF Author: Louis L'Amour
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553899082
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
From his decision to leave school at fifteen to roam the world, to his recollections of life as a hobo on the Southern Pacific Railroad, as a cattle skinner in Texas, as a merchant seaman in Singapore and the West Indies, and as an itinerant bare-knuckled prizefighter across small-town America, here is Louis L'Amour's memoir of his lifelong love affair with learning—from books, from yondering, and from some remarkable men and women—that shaped him as a storyteller and as a man. Like classic L'Amour fiction, Education of a Wandering Man mixes authentic frontier drama--such as the author's desperate efforts to survive a sudden two-day trek across the blazing Mojave desert--with true-life characters like Shanghai waterfront toughs, desert prospectors, and cowboys whom Louis L'Amour met while traveling the globe. At last, in his own words, this is a story of a one-of-a-kind life lived to the fullest . . . a life that inspired the books that will forever enable us to relive our glorious frontier heritage.

Legacy of a Lawman

Legacy of a Lawman PDF Author: Johnny D. Boggs
Publisher: Five Star Trade
ISBN: 9781594149405
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Five Star Westerns are standard print, first editions from top Western writers. The majority are brand new manuscripts from the best contemporary writers; a few are serials from magazine publications of many years ago, and -- occasionally -- we find an unpublished manuscript from some of the classic Western writers of a bygone era.Five Star consistently brings you the best quality writing the genre has to offer. Five Star Western authors have won numerous awards including the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's Western Heritage Award, Levi Strauss' Golden Saddleman Award, the Spur Award from Western Writers of America and many regional awards as well.The Western genre is not dead! The Western story is the American story. There's a morality and a certain nobility in Westerns, not consistently found in other genres. Westerns are much more than guns and horses. Strong characters and a strong sense of place and time characterize all our Five Star Western titles.Five Star publishes the best Westerns available today by the top writers of both the present and past. All are published in our durable library edition hardcover format. Actual covers may be different from those shown.

The Western Story

The Western Story PDF Author: Jon Tuska
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803294394
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
The Western Story: A Chronological Treasury consists of twenty Western stories spanning the years 1892 to 1994. For that generation of American writers who saw the frontier in the last century?including Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and Owen Wister?it seemed exotic, strange, wonderful. Others, such as Frederic Remington and John G. Neihardt, reflected the clash between various Indian nations and pioneers. These authors prepared the way for the founders of the first Golden Age of the Western story: Willa Cather, who wrote of pioneer life in Nebraska; Zane Grey, who combined wilderness experiences with romance and the search for spiritual truth; B. M. Bower, who portrayed the cowboys and frontier women she knew growing up in Montana; Max Brand, who created dramas in which the psychological and spiritual meaning of life was more important than the physical terrain; and Ernest Haycox, who combined character and drama with historical accuracy. ø Another generation of writers perpetuated this first Golden Age: Peter Dawson and T. T. Flynn, who began writing Western stories in the 1930s; Walter Van Tilburg Clark, who created a masterpiece in The Ox-Bow Incident; Dorothy M. Johnson and Les Savage Jr., who experimented with making the Western story still more realistic; and Louis L?Amour, whose visibility and popularity won legions of new readers to the genre. ø Humanity, depth, and verisimilitude were already part of the Western story when Will Henry, Elmer Kelton, and T. V. Olsen came on the scene to intensify these qualities in their own stories even as they experimented with new perspectives. And Cynthia Haseloff?s story (written especially for this collection), with its symbolism and its simplicity, may be the harbinger of a second Golden Age.

The Round House

The Round House PDF Author: Louise Erdrich
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062065262
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Winner of the National Book Award • Washington Post Best Book of the Year • A New York Times Notable Book From one of the most revered novelists of our time, an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family. One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared. While his father, a tribal judge, endeavors to wrest justice from a situation that defies his efforts, Joe becomes frustrated with the official investigation and sets out with his trusted friends, Cappy, Zack, and Angus, to get some answers of his own. Their quest takes them first to the Round House, a sacred space and place of worship for the Ojibwe. And this is only the beginning. The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.