Publisher's Synopsis
I don't think that it would be out of place to note that when talking about the "Old West", the discussion is primarily about men - Jesse James, Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, Pat Garrett, etc. And when women are mentioned, it usually doesn't go much further than Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley and Belle Starr. But just as the phrase "go West young man" was liberating for men, it was also liberating for women, too. While not necessarily typical, I've focused on 35 women in this study who almost all exhibited one overriding feature - independence. And in the 19th century, this was pretty unusual for the average woman.
