by Bryan Burroughs, 2025, Audiobook narrated by Fred Sanders, Penguin Audio

This book details the history and culture of the gunfighters in the West from after the Civil War until the turn of the 20th century. The author dispels the notion that the West was not really violent as has be posited by some researchers. Burroughs suggests that it was even more violent than most individuals realize. He traces this to the culture of the South and the “code duello” which emphasized the need for respect. Any perceived slight could result in a gunfighter drawing his gun and shooting the perpetrator.

As to the Texas connection, there were a couple of chapters that highlighted the concentration of killings that were done by Texans, but there was a great deal of information about gunfighters that came from other areas as well, so I’m not sure that he proved his point that Texas generated most of the violence.

The book went into so much detail about each of the incidents that it got to the point where I was looking forward to finishing the book before I let out a scream. I suspect the blow-by-blow was necessary to impart the entire picture, but it sure made the book a lot more tedious to listen to.

The narrator was fine, but he, too, seemed to get impatient toward the end of the book and seemed to cruise through the later chapters a bit faster. Maybe he was also getting bored with it all.