The Ways of the West

As early as the 1840s, this version of the West was forming in America's popular consciousness. From the "captivity narratives" in women's magazines to the sensationalized accounts of the Donner Party's disastrous journey to California, it seemed that America preferred a fictionalized version of the West to the real thing. The writers of dime novels -- many of whom had never been west of the Mississippi -- presented many of their stories as fact, though they often did not contain a shred of truth. The dime novels laid the foundation for hundreds of western writers who followed and presented a similar view of the West that persists to this day. Join me in discovering the truth about various aspects of the Old West, and learn about new characters that should share the same glamour and respect as the Old West icons that we hear too often about.