Download or read book The Last Cowboys written by John Branch and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A can't-put-it-down modern Western." —Kirk Siegler, NPR Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The Last Cowboys is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Branch’s epic tale of one American family struggling to hold on to the fading vestiges of the Old West. For generations, the Wrights of southern Utah have raised cattle and world-champion saddle-bronc riders—many call them the most successful rodeo family in history. Now they find themselves fighting to save their land and livelihood as the West is transformed by urbanization, battered by drought, and rearranged by public-land disputes. Could rodeo, of all things, be the answer? Written with great lyricism and filled with vivid scenes of heartache and broken bones, The Last Cowboys is a powerful testament to the grit and integrity that fuel the American Dream.
Download or read book Sidecountry Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports written by John Branch and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breathtaking tales of climbers and hunters, runners and racers, winners and losers by the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. New York Times reporter John Branch’s riveting, humane pieces about ordinary people doing extraordinary things at the edges of the sporting world have won nearly every major journalism prize. Sidecountry gathers the best of Branch’s work for the first time, featuring 20 of his favorites from the more than 2,000 pieces he has published in the paper. Branch is renowned for covering the offbeat in the sporting world, from alligator hunting to wingsuit flying. Sidecountry features such classic Branch pieces, including “Snow Fall,” about downhill skiers caught in an avalanche in Washington state, and “Dawn Wall,” about rock climbers trying to scale Yosemite’s famed El Capitan. In other articles, Branch introduces people whose dedication and decency transcend their sporting lives, including a revered football coach rebuilding his tornado-devastated town in Iowa and a girls’ basketball team in Tennessee that plays on despite never winning a game. The book culminates with his moving personal pieces, including “Children of the Cube,” about the surprising drama of Rubik’s Cube competitions as seen through the eyes of Branch’s own sports-hating son, and “The Girl in the No. 8 Jersey,” about a mother killed in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting whose daughter happens to play on Branch’s daughter’s soccer team. John Branch has been hailed for writing “American portraiture at its best” (Susan Orlean) and for covering sports “the way Lyle Lovett writes country music—a fresh turn on a time-honored pleasure” (Nicholas Dawidoff). Sidecountry is the work of a master reporter at the top of his game.
Download or read book Boy on Ice The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard written by John Branch and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-10-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Shows us, in tender detail, a life consumed by our unholy appetites.”—Steve Almond, New York Times Book Review The tragic death of hockey star Derek Boogaard at twenty-eight was front-page news across the country in 2011 and helped shatter the silence about violence and concussions in professional sports. Now, in a gripping work of narrative nonfiction, acclaimed reporter John Branch tells the shocking story of Boogaard's life and heartbreaking death. Boy on Ice is the richly told story of a mountain of a man who made it to the absolute pinnacle of his sport. Widely regarded as the toughest man in the NHL, Boogaard was a gentle man off the ice but a merciless fighter on it. With great narrative drive, Branch recounts Boogaard's unlikely journey from lumbering kid playing pond-hockey on the prairies of Saskatchewan, so big his skates would routinely break beneath his feet; to his teenaged junior hockey days, when one brutal outburst of violence brought Boogaard to the attention of professional scouts; to his days and nights as a star enforcer with the Minnesota Wild and the storied New York Rangers, capable of delivering career-ending punches and intimidating entire teams. But, as Branch reveals, behind the scenes Boogaard's injuries and concussions were mounting and his mental state was deteriorating, culminating in his early death from an overdose of alcohol and painkillers. Based on months of investigation and hundreds of interviews with Boogaard's family, friends, teammates, and coaches, Boy on Ice is a brilliant work for fans of Michael Lewis's The Blind Side or Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights. This is a book that raises deep and disturbing questions about the systemic brutality of contact sports—from peewees to professionals—and the damage that reaches far beyond the game.
Download or read book Empire written by Jefferson Glass and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-11-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collage of characters shaped the west of the nineteenth century. Large and powerful cattlemen, backed by eastern and European investors, flooded the prairie with herds often numbering 50-80 thousand head. They had visions of doubling or tripling their money quickly while their cattle grazed on the free grass of the open range. Others, like Martin Gothberg wisely invested in the future of the young frontier. Starting with a humble 160-acre homestead in 1885, he continued to expand and develop a modest ranch that eventually included tens of thousands of acres of deeded land. Gothberg’s story parallels the history of open range cattle ranches, cowboys, roundups, homesteaders, rustlers, sheep men and range wars. It does not end there. As the Second Industrial Revolution escalated in the late 1800s, so did the demand for petroleum products. What began with a demand for beef to feed the hungry cities of the eastern United States fostered the demand for wool to clothe them and graduated into a demand for oil to warm them in winter and fuel the mechanized age of the twentieth century. All were a critical part of shaping American history. Through the lens of this family saga—a part of the history of the West comes to life in the hands of this storyteller and historian.
Download or read book Pioneer Jews written by Harriet Rochlin and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contributions of the Jewish men and women who helped shape the American frontier.
Download or read book Comanches in the New West written by Stanley Noyes and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Novelist Larry McMurtry loaned a collection of glass plate negatives to the University of Texas Press for investigation. "Most appear to be the work of pioneer woman photographer Alice Snearly and her brother-in-law Lon Kelly, who worked in the heart of Comanche territory on the Texas-Oklahoma border. These images preserve the "interim" generation of Comanches ... who endured reservation life and forced moves to individual allotments of farm and ranch land .. A few images of Anglo settlers and towns complete the picture of life in Indian Territory at this moment of change."--Publisher description.
Download or read book Women s Diaries of the Westward Journey written by Lillian Schlissel and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2011-08-03 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An expanded edition of one of the most original and provocative works of American history of the last decade, which documents the pioneering experiences and grit of American frontier women.
Download or read book Hidden History of South Jersey written by Gordon Bond and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Jersey is perhaps best known for its beachside boardwalks, glitzy Atlantic City hotels and blueberry farms, but behind these iconic symbols are the overlooked tales that are unique to New Jersey. While much of Harriet Tubman's life is well known, her time in Cape May is usually overlooked by biographers. Few know that the classic American drive-in movie theaters were born in South Jersey. Even the famous Wildwood, with its distinctive Doo-Wop architecture, hides forgotten stories: at the height of its popularity, this shore town was hosting some of the country's first rock-and-roll acts. Often overshadowed by its more urban northern counterpart, South Jersey nonetheless has a hidden past. In this collection, author Gordon Bond uncovers the most intriguing of these tales.
Download or read book King of the Cowboys written by Ty Murray and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-07-06 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most famous rodeo champion of all time tells his amazing true story -- and opens a fascinating window into the world of the professional cowboy. Ty Murray was born to be a rodeo star -- in fact, his first words were "I'm a bull rider." Before he was even out of diapers, he was climbing atop his mother's Singer sewing machine case, which just so happened to be the perfect mechanical bull for a 13-month-old. Before long, Ty was winning peewee events by the hatful, and his special talent was obvious...obvious even to a man called Larry Mahan. At the time the greatest living rodeo legend, six-time champion Mahan invited a teenaged Ty Murray to spend a summer on his ranch learning not just rodeoing but also some life lessons. Those lessons prepared Ty for a career that eventually surpassed even Mahan's own -- Ty's seven All-Around Championships. In King of the Cowboys, Ty Murray invites us into the daredevil world of rodeo and the life of the cowboy. Along the way, he details a life spent constantly on the road, heading to the next event; the tragic death of his friend and fellow rodeo star Lane Frost; and the years of debilitating injuries that led some to say Ty Murray was finished. He wasn't. In fact, Ty Murray has brought the world of rodeo into the twenty-first century, through his unparalleled achievements in the ring, through advancing the case for the sport as a television color-commentator, and through the Professional Bull Riders, an organization he helped to build. In the end, though, Ty Murray is first and foremost a cowboy, and now that he's retired from competition, he takes this chance to reflect on his remarkable life and career. In King of the Cowboys, Ty Murray opens up his world as never before.
Download or read book Gold Buckle Dreams written by David Brown and published by Turtleback Books. This book was released on 1987-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A Land Remembered written by Patrick D Smith and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Land Remembered has become Florida's favorite novel. Now this Student Edition in two volumes makes this rich, rugged story of the American pioneer spirit more accessible to young readers. Patrick Smith tells of three generations of the MacIveys, a Florida family battling the hardships of the frontier. The story opens in 1858, when Tobias and Emma MacIvey arrive in the Florida wilderness with their son, Zech, to start a new life, and ends in 1968 with Solomon MacIvey, who realizes that his wealth has not been worth the cost to the land. Between is a sweeping story rich in Florida history with a cast of memorable characters who battle wild animals, rustlers, Confederate deserters, mosquitoes, starvation, hurricanes, and freezes to carve a kingdom out of the Florida swamp. In this volume, meet young Zech MacIvey, who learns to ride like the wind through the Florida scrub on Ishmael, his marshtackie horse, his dogs, Nip and Tuck, at this side. His parents, Tobias and Emma, scratch a living from the land, gathering wild cows from the swamp and herding them across the state to market. Zech learns the ways of the land from the Seminoles, with whom his life becomes entwined as he grows into manhood. Next in series > > See all of the books in this series
Download or read book The Last Cowboys A Pioneer Family in the New West written by John Branch and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A can't-put-it-down modern Western." —Kirk Siegler, NPR Longlisted for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing The Last Cowboys is Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter John Branch’s epic tale of one American family struggling to hold on to the fading vestiges of the Old West. For generations, the Wrights of southern Utah have raised cattle and world-champion saddle-bronc riders—many call them the most successful rodeo family in history. Now they find themselves fighting to save their land and livelihood as the West is transformed by urbanization, battered by drought, and rearranged by public-land disputes. Could rodeo, of all things, be the answer? Written with great lyricism and filled with vivid scenes of heartache and broken bones, The Last Cowboys is a powerful testament to the grit and integrity that fuel the American Dream.
Download or read book Fire and Sword written by Leland Homer Gentry and published by Greg Kofford Books, Incorporated. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Mormon dreams flourished in Missouri. So did many Mormon nightmares. The Missouri period--especially from the summer of 1838 when Joseph took over vigorous, personal direction of this new Zion until the spring of 1839 when he escaped after five months of imprisonment¿represents a moment of intense crisis in Mormon history. Representing the greatest extremes of devotion and violence, commitment and intolerance, physical suffering and terror--mobbings, battles, massacres, and political ¿knockdowns¿--it shadowed the Mormon psyche for a century. In the lush Missouri landscape of the Mormon imagination where Adam and Eve had walked out of the garden and where Adam would return to preside over his posterity, the towering religious creativity of Joseph Smith and clash of religious stereotypes created a swift and traumatic frontier drama that changed the Church.
Download or read book Memorial Ride written by Stephen Graham Jones and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2021-09-30 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Memorial Ride is a high-speed, ragtag chase across the American Southwest. Cooper Town, an American Indian soldier, has returned from the Middle East to attend his father’s funeral, make some quick cash off his father’s old Harley, and spend a whirlwind weekend with his girlfriend, Sheri Mun. However, when Coop runs afoul of the violent John Wayne gang, he and Sheri Mun have no choice but to twist the throttle back on that storied chopper and make tracks. In the spirit of Billy Jean, but fully aware of Billy Jack, Coop and Sheri Mun’s race to survive is full speed ahead with many potholes in their path. Turning the traditional Western on its head, Memorial Ride recasts the genre as a road movie. It’s raucous, it’s violent, and, scarily enough, it might even be true. In short, this graphic novel delivers the storytelling prowess of Stephen Graham Jones through Maria Wolf’s artwork, and the result is a ride you’ll want to take again and again.
Download or read book Gold Buckles Don t Lie written by Fred Whitfield and published by Whitfield & Powers Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fred Whitfield is one of the greatest cowboys to ever compete in professional rodeo, but will go down in history as "the black one." When Fred joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1989, African-Americans comprised a whopping 1% of its 10,000 members and only one other black man won one gold buckle before Fred won eight of them. Rodeo is a harsh mistress who will take you to the top of the mountain only to drop you off on your head, and she is historically lily white and rich. Fred Whitfield was neither white nor rich, but he stayed on top of her for a very long time. This made most of the people love him, but it made some hate him more than they already did and this bunch already hated him . . . a lot. The walls went up early and through twenty years of interviews, he never told the full story until now - and what a story it is. --cover
Download or read book Lecile written by Lecile Harris and published by . This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER of the 2016 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Excellence in Western Literature - Biography & Memoir!Whatever "that" is, four-time PRCA Clown of the Year and Pro Rodeo Hall of Famer LECILE HARRIS has been there and done it, and he shares it all via this collection of stories from his personal life and professional career. By virtue of his sixty years in rodeo, Lecile gives a veritable history of the sport and an insightful primer on the rodeo business. But most of all, Lecile entertains us with side-splitting tales of his seemingly limitless thirst for excitement. Additional contributors include Hadley Barrett, Baxter Black, Clay Collins, Randy Corley, Mark W. Duncan, Ken Knopp, Mike Mathis, Les McIntyre, Dr. Lynn Phillips, Boyd Polhamus, Donny Sparks, Ronny Sparks, Andy Stewart, and Bob Tallman.LECILE HARRIS is a rodeo clown and bullfighter who has entertained millions of fans and saved countless bull riders over the last sixty years. Lecile is a four-time PRCA Clown of the Year winner and 2007 inductee of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. Over the course of his personal life and career, he has played college football, been a professional musician at Sun Studios, advised Elvis on horses, danced with ornery bulls, been a featured performer on Hee Haw, developed dozens of comedy acts, and been in untold numbers of fights. He lives in Collierville, Tennessee with his wife, Ethel, and still performs at over fifty rodeos annually.
Download or read book Home Below Hell s Canyon written by Grace Jordan and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1954-01-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the depression days of the early 1930s the Jordan family-Len Jordan (later governor of Idaho and a United States senator), his wife Grace, and their three small children-moved to an Idaho sheep ranch in the Snake River gorge just below Hell's Canyon, deepest scratch on the face of North America. "Cut off from the world for months at a time, the Jordans became virtually self-sufficient. Short of cash but long on courage, they raised and preserved their food, made their own soap, and educated their children."-Sterling North, New York World-Telegram "Home Below Hell's Canyon is valuable because it writes a little-known way of life into the national chronicle. We are put in touch with the kind of people who set the country on its feet and in the generations since have kept it there. . . . Primarily it is a book of courage and effort tempered by the warmth of those who trust in goodness and practice it."-Christian Science Monitor "The thrilling story of a modern pioneer family. . . . An intensely human account filled with fun, courage and rich family life."-Seattle Post Intelligencer
