Lawmen of the Wild West by Terry C. Treadwell are minibiographies of some well known and not as well known lawmen. The introduction has a lot of information about the background of the jobs, from the 14th century up until the time of the men in this book. It also describes what the western lawmen, from Sheriffs to US Marshals, did in their day to day and what they had to deal with. There are a ton of pictures, not only of the famous lawmen, but different types of badges, images of the outlaws that have been killed, and much more.
The book starts with Robert Forsyth, who was an early US Marshal and the first to be killed in the line of duty. Luckily, the biographies get longer after the first one. There are thirty-five chapters about individual lawmen talked about in the book including; Judge Isaac Parker, Wild Bill Hickock, Wyatt Earp, Bass Reeves, Pat Garrett, and Seth Bullock. Many of the biographies have some historical background about the times, the range wars, and the outlaws these men chased. The book also shows that the Wild West wasn't like the old westerns have shown us, black and white, good versus bad. A lot of the lawmen had an outlaw past or used their badges to gain for themselves.
I enjoyed the book, but at times found it slow, especially when the stories diverted away from the men being written about. I understood why the author had to add in the extra details, it just ruined the flow for me a bit. I was also thrown whenever the author talked about the Earps and their exploits. He doesn't seem to like the family at all. I did like how some biographies mentioned a man that the next biography was about. I also enjoyed how many of the men popped up in the others stories, showing that they all knew and maybe respected each other. There is a companion book about the outlaws of the west, which I will have to check out
ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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