They left behind familiar towns and villages for the promise of a new beginning. Midwestern farm boys, New England school teachers, families of newly freed slaves, emigrants from Europe and from China - all found a country that was beyond their imagination and sometimes beyond their ability to endure. The flood tide of their coming would forever change the lives of the Native Americans who had inhabited the land before them. In a world with few boundaries and fewer rules, the struggle on both sides for survival gave rise to what would become known as THE WILD WEST. In this remarkable companion volume to the ten-hour miniseries of the same name, the Editors of Time-Life Books have drawn upon thousands of rare photographs, diaries, and artifacts to present a portrait of the American West that looks beneath the romantic veneer of the myth. Encyclopedic in scope and lavishly illustrated with photographs and full-color paintings throughout, THE WILD WEST lets you experience the majestic grandeur of the West and the powerful historical forces that changed it. Most of all, it lets you meet a diverse and unforgettable group of people who chose to forge new lives in this vast land. You'll share the hardships of the sodbusters, who stood up against tornadoes, blizzards, and two-year plagues of locusts, as they struggled to turn what early explorers had called the "Great American Desert" into the most productive argicultural region in the world. You'll trail a cattle herd north to Kansas, build the first transcontinental railroad, and learn the truth behind the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. And you'll listen to the voices of Native American warriors and chiefs as treaties were broken, their sacred lands plundered for gold, and their people confined to reservations against their will. THE WILD WEST is not only designed to accompany the ten-part miniseries but to stand on its own as a word in the finest tradition of Time-Life Books. Meticulously researched and marvelously detailed, perfect for serious study or leisurely browsing, it captures the full, sweeping drama that redefined the continent and became a living part of who we are - the epic of THE WILD WEST.