Deadwood: Gold, Guns and Greed in the American West

(Hardback, Main)

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Sifting through layers and layers of myth and legend, Peter Cozzens - the award-winning author of The Earth is Weeping - unveils the true face of Deadwood, South Dakota, the storied mining town that sprang up in early 1876, and was made famous by the HBO series of the same name.

Built on land brazenly stolen from the Lakotas, Deadwood was not merely a place where outlaws lurked, but was itself an outlaw enterprise, not part of any US territory or subject to its laws or governance. This gave rise to the gunslinging, stage-coach robbing, whiskey-guzzling, rampant prostitution and gambling that has come to epitomise the town through the legendary figures of 'Wild Bill' Hickok and Calamity Jane. But this foundation also bred a self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation unique on the frontier, which made it an exceptionally welcoming place for Black Americans and Chinese immigrants at a time of deep-seated discrimination.

The first book to tell this complex story in full, Deadwood reveals how one frontier town came to embody the best and worst of the West-enduring truths about humanity's eternal quest for creating order from chaos, a greater good from individual greed, and security from violence.

Reviews

How did such a small, remote speck of a place come to loom so large in American lore and myth With Peter Cozzens' artful book, we get the answer. In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals. And you start to see Deadwood as something more, as a node of raw avarice and frank ambition reflecting larger American impulses that are still alive today. Deadwood isn't dead. It lives on in legend, in pulp Westerns, films, and television shows, and now, in the pages of a fine non-fiction narrative that's as alluring as its subject. * Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of The Wide Wide Sea *
What a perfect marriage-one of the most exquisite chroniclers of America's Wild West exploring the most notorious town of the era. Throughout Deadwood, Cozzens brings fresh drama and absorbing detail to paint a vivid portrait of the colorful characters who in just three short years etched this tiny if hellraising South Dakota mining community into the lore of our collective history. Exemplary in all respects, thanks to the author's storytelling skills, Deadwood lives again. * Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, bestselling authors of Blood and Treasure *
There is no western town more steeped in myth, legend, and fairy tale than Deadwood, South Dakota-not even Tombstone, Leadville, or Dodge City. It was the Wild West of dime novels, of breathless, not-quite-exactly-true accounts in the newspapers. What Peter Cozzens has done with this remarkable book is to show us that the truth about Deadwood is, in fact, even more interesting than the myth. * S. C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon *
Peter Cozzens' Deadwood is a sweeping saga of greed, stolen Indigenous land, and legendary westerners such as Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock, and Lakota leader Crazy Horse. With the in-depth research Cozzens is known for, thought-provoking new insights, and a narrative that moves along at a fast clip, readers of Deadwood are guaranteed to hit pay dirt on every page. * Mark Lee Gardner, author of Brothers of the Gun *

Author Bio

Peter Cozzens is the author of over eighteen books on the Civil War and the American West. He recently retired after thirty years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. Department of State. His previous book, The Earth Is Weeping, was awarded the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History and the Caroline Bancroft History Prize. The Warrior and the Prophet was the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Biography.