The history behind such endlessly fascinating real-life characters of the Old West as Crazy Horse and Geronimo, Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok, and Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill is described here in short, easy-to-read overviews, each introducing a chapter of the American West.

The author skillfully sets these and other familiar figures in the larger context of historical events such as the Pony Express, the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the transition from stagecoach to railroad, and even Hickok's Wild West Show. Dee Brown, an expert on the American West and author of the renowned Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, lends his credentials as consultant to this galloping account of a wild, unbridled period in US history.

From the 1803 purchase of the Louisiana Territory to the California gold rush to the advent of the railroad, the author briefly outlines the impact of events and people, as well as describing daily life on a ranch, a trail, a mining town, and a prairie. Short captions (with an occasional typo) under bold headings reveal details such as collecting buffalo dung for fuel, outfitting a Conestoga wagon, or building a "soddy," or sod house. Each page spread is well designed, offering plenty of information in visual form. This is an easy-to-read, browser-friendly portrait of the Old West that the author hopes will dispel misunderstandings about the era.