Publisher's Synopsis
The American Old West has been immortalized in thousands of books and movies and is an inherently American genre. Although somewhat denigrated by the literati, I would venture to say that to understand truly the American psyche one should delve into Westerns, especially books about the Old West. Books oftentimes are a better medium to wrestle with complexities than movies, and we seem to think a little more deeply as we read. As such, books better capture the nuances of the struggles and conflicts that characterized the Old West that, in turn, had a formative influence on the American character.Rustler of Wind River (1917) by George W. Ogden (1871-1966) describes a main theme of the American Old West. Settlers (or nesters) enter cattle country already controlled and utilized by great cattle barons. These cattle barons did not have legal title to the vast tracts of land on which they free-grazed their large herds of cattle, but they "were there first" and looked upon the land as their own. Their great ranches were the source of their income, social position and power; and power they certainly had, backed up by guns and influence in high political places. Settlers who arrived on that unowned land filed legal claims for their homesteads, built fences to mark and work the land, and to keep out the grazing, trampling cattle.
