A study of how the American West took shape in the nation's imagination with the help of the writing of promoters trying to lure settlers, and of original settlers who sought to sustain their frontier heritage. It offers an exploration of this literature from the end of the Civil War to the 1920s.

Although they are generally seen today as unscrupulous charlatans and tellers of tall tales, David Wrobel reveals that these promoters and reminiscers were more significant than their detractors have suggested. By exploring the vast literature produced by these individuals from the end of the Civil War through the 1920s, he clarifies the pivotal impact of their works on our vision of both the historic and mythic West. Wrobel shows that these works were vital to the process of identity formation among westerners themselves and to the construction of a "West" in the national imagination. He also sheds light on the often elitist, sometimes racist legacies of both groups through their characterizations of Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans. Wrobel suggests that the West has not really changed much: promoters still tout its promise, while old-timers still try to preserve their selective memories. His book shows us that the West may well move into the twenty-first century, but our images of it are forever rooted in the nineteenth.