|
Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Wallis
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $9.21
You Save: $6.74 (42%)
New (26) Used (9) from $5.66
Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 93534
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 039333063X
Dewey Decimal Number: 364
EAN: 9780393330632
ASIN: 039333063X
Publication Date: March 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: 100% Brand New! - Ships Today! Identical to Amazon's book in every way. Flawless! Not a cheap Remainder or Book Club Copy! *We recommend Expedited Shipping option for much faster mail delivery
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"Countless books have been written about the infamous outlaw...this is surely one of the best."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
In this revisionist biography, award-winning historian Michael Wallis re-creates the rich anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), a young man who became a legend in his time and remains an enigma to this day. In an extraordinary evocation of the legendary Old West, Wallis demonstrates why the Kid has remained one of our most popular folk heroes. Filled with dozens of rare images and period photographs, Billy the Kid separates myth from reality and presents an unforgettable portrait of this brief and violent life. 60 illustrations.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Billy Deserves Better April 9, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
If you want to read the politically correct version of the story of Billy the Kid, this is your book. Starting with his tortured, self-consciously folksy writing style, the author does everything but call his readers "podner" to show he is a real buckaroo, podner, who's "miiiighty familiar with the story told him by his grandpappy and reckons he kin share it wif you". It is ridiculous and not even done well enough to bring sufficient entertainment to the project to cover his almost complete lack of original research.
Mr. Wallis appears to have read a number of books on the subject, communicated with the living authors and considered that sufficient research to enable him to write this less than engaging book. In the fashion of modern historians, the book is suffused with his liberal, "I hate America and its history" views clearly there so he can have some credibility with academics who will endorse anything that judges the past by present standards. The settlement of America was not carried out by pipe smoking professors, tut tuting about the morals of their betters. It was conducted by men and women of strength and toughness and the ability to fend for themselves in wild places without institutions to protect them.
But Mr. Wallis will have none of that. To him, the frontier is a dark and threatening place only because those darned white people from the east came out for the sole purpose of killing Indians and oppressing all other non-white people so they could steal from them for their own part. The pioneers, to Mr. Wallis, were gratuitously violent; apparently stupid and just plain evil. And life in the west was poor, nasty, brutish and short. It had no further significance to the author, such as, oh, I don't know, the creation of a great nation.
Mr. Wallis finally gets to the story of Billy sometime around page 150 of his 250 page book. The first 150 pages are contemplations on American history, speculations about what might have happened (as opposed to renditions of what did happen) in various parts of the West, listing of theories as to who Billy's mother was and where she came from, quotes from famous authors with whom he has corresponded all spiced up with his silly opinions on race relations, gun control and pretty much every other political issue never relevant or addressed in the context of the 19th Century western United States.
The worst aspect of this silly book is that it adds absolutely nothing new. If you read Utley's book, you got all the information you would get in this one (without the political diatribes). If you read any good book on the Lincoln County War you get more information about Billy than you get in this one. Readers who read newer books on subjects about which they have previously read expect that the author would have taken the time to do more research than earlier authors and that there will be new information to be had. Not so this one. This one is basically a compilation of what has been written before jumbled into one badly written, worthless book. In reading this book, I lost hours I will never get back. Don't waste your $17.13 on it. Mr. Wallis should retire and do something for which he might have more talent. Say, writing letters to the editor of his local paper.
 Informative read. January 25, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a very good book by Michael Wallis. Even though I love western history, I never thought I would read a book about the Kid, but an NPR interview with Mr. Wallis changed my mind. The book is well researched and entertaining. It is very enlightening and does not play on violence, but deals with the person and world of Billy the Kid in as much as it is possible to know him.
Some reviewers have complained about the fact that book gets off subject and wanders at times. Mr. Wallis writes biographies from a social history point of view. He admittedly does get off the subject to give the reader a broader view of the environment an individual was living through. I feel this is a strength of the book.
Highly recommended.
Facts and Speculation of a life December 21, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found the book a good read of Billy the Kid. Mr. Wallis explores the different alleys of speculation about the Kid.
Although it has its dry spots I still found that he put Billy the Kid in the context of his times and not ours.
The reason for the four stars is some of the PC statements at the beginning of the book and the dry spots.
good book October 16, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A great story with not a lot of facts to bore it down. A easy read.
Billy the Kid October 11, 2007
This book was a well written examination of Billy the Kid. It clarified much of the myth that still surrounds the man. I appreciated the author addressing some areas of the Kid's life where there is just not enough information to come to a definite conclusion about.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
