The Wild West Catalog
Grade 5 Up—Coverage in these 12 chapters includes cowboys, Native Americans, gunfighters, railroads, women, and the Old West in popular culture, including movies and toys, illustrating Wexler's assertion that "…the West has also permeated the very fabric of American life." Abundant color photographs and illustrations include copious photographs of guns. However, the photographs are not sourced and many of them are undated. There is heavy emphasis on the book comprising a "virtual tour" of the West from 1800 to 1900, but the author does not define the boundaries of the region. He makes reference to the West as "an untamed landscape," but not every group might agree with that assessment. There are typos such as "Lost" Angeles, and use of the word "colored." The main problem, however, is that the lack of a bibliography negates the use of this book as a reference tool.—Patricia Ann Owens, Wabash Valley College, Mt. Carmel, ILCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.