Tough Towns: True Tales from the Gritty Streets of the Old West - Softcover

Smith, Col. Robert Barr Col.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0762740043 ISBN 13: 9780762740048

Publisher: TwoDot, 2006

Synopsis

The lawless days Old West lasted only a short time, but the stories of its outlaws and the havoc they wreaked are legendary. Tough Towns reveals the small American towns that fought back when criminal gangs invaded their quiet streets, making heroes of ordinary citizens and local lawmen who wouldn’t be pushed around by armed hoodlums.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Barr Smith entered the United States Army as a private in 1958. He served in Vietnam with 4th Infantry Division, more than seven years in Germany, and with troop units and on posts throughout the United States, retiring as a Colonel. He is a Senior Parachutist, and holds the Legion of Merit (two awards), the Bronze Star, and other decorations. He holds two degrees from Stanford University and is a Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma, where he also served six years as Associate Dean for Academics and Associate Director of the Law Center. He lives in the Ozark Hills of southern Missouri, and is the author or co-author of sixteen books and more than a hundred magazine articles, primarily in military and western history.

From the Back Cover

The only people tougher than the bank and train robbers of the Old West were the citizens who banded together to create law and order on the streets of their towns. Shoemakers and storekeepers, bank men and local lawmen, barbers and liverymen―they all fought to defend their homes and to defend their lives against the outlaws who threatened them.
Tough towns faced down famous gangs like the Daltons and the James-Youngers, drove off Mexican bandits, killed Pretty Boy Floyd's chief lieutenant, and helped put an end to the nineteenth-century rash of bank robbing in the West. Ordinary-people-turned-heroes joined their neighbors and fought―and sometimes died―because they wouldn't run away or turn a blind eye to crime. Their stories, told by historian and writer Robert Barr Smith, are a fascinating part of the legend of the Old West.

Edition details

• Publisher: TwoDot
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0762740043
• ISBN 13: 9780762740048
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256