The Western

Ground-breaking and essential history of the genre, highlighted by superb research, penetrating insights, and sharp, entertaining prose. Smartly designed, with scads of rare b&w photos laid out in a dynamic and witty design.-Print ed.

“For many years the Western film has been strangely and unfairly neglected. Although many articles and essays have appeared in general and specialized periodicals all over the world, substantially organic books dealing exclusively with the Western are very rare indeed. And of all this material, the majority has been disguised publicity, or at best essays which refused to take the Western seriously, the work of writers who knew little or nothing of Westerns, writers who glibly referred to the cliché of the hero always kissing his horse instead of the girl, leaving it at that….

We felt, therefore, that there was not only room, but a need, for a detailed history of the Western, a book which would represent not only a useful study of the industrial and aesthetic growth of a popular movie genre, but a critical analysis of it, as well. For the most part, we have adopted a strictly chronological approach, but, in the parlance of the film, it has sometimes been necessary to use “flash-forwards and cutbacks” and even a form of montage, in order to follow a thesis through to its logical conclusion.”-Introduction.