The last veteran of the Battle of the Little Bighorn—American or Indian—died in the mid 1950s, and Philbrick’s latest book is a vivid reminder of just how brightly the emotions of those two days still burn. A National Book Award winner, Philbrick is a prolific researcher and first-rate historian.

Many of the faces included in this beautifully presented and succinctly written coffee-table book are well known to history—William F. Cody, Theodore Roosevelt, John Wesley Powell, Sam Houston, Annie Oakley, and Jesse James among them. Tucked in among the familiar faces, however, are a few surprises that give depth and breadth to this compendium, this who’s who of historical Western figures.

Pat Garrett, Lincoln County New Mexico’s recently recruited sheriff, accomplished what many believed would be a death sentence: He captured and jailed for months the fast-gunning, slippery escape artist known as Billy the Kid.

From its inception as a ragtag band of men charged with protecting settlers in the Texas territory from roving bands of cannibalistic Indians, to decades spent warring with outlaws, Comanche, Mexican banditos, and Union soldiers, Cox takes readers on a compelling and unflinching journey through the checkered past of the legendary Texas Rangers in the first of this two-volume series.