Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West
Today, most of us know the iconic red and yellow image of the  Wells Fargo stagecoach only as the omnipresent logo of a huge national  financial institution. Philip L. Fradkin'sStagecoachreminds us  of the far more complex and colorful history of the 150-year-old  enterprise it symbolizes, beginning with its heyday as an unpolished  but honorable "express company" that dependably linked, by means of the  stagecoach, an upstart West Coast and roughshod Rockies with everything  else back East. Fradkin, author of eight books on the American West,  ties the company's and region's fates together as mining, agriculture,  and then more contemporary commercial interests (with help from the  federal government) indelibly shaped them both. From the time of the  dusty stage driver to the era of the wing-tipped banker, the book  recounts it all but wisely focuses on the period from 1852 to 1918, a  time when the firm "served as the principal communications conduit  between East and West ... contributed to the Union victory in the Civil  War ... and shipped fresh vegetables and fruits via fast refrigerated  express." After reading it, you'll be hard-pressed to look at the  enduring stagecoach imagery in quite the same way ever again.--Howard Rothman--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.