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This week on Angry Planet we’re taking a break from the horrors of the present to explore horrors of a past distant enough now that they’re entertaining. But then, America found those horrors pretty entertaining at the time, too. Even when it was still a thriving community and a going concern, the town of Deadwood, South Dakota, was the subject of dimestore novels and tall tales.

Peter Cozzens is here with us to talk about his new book Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West. Cozzens is a historian who has written 17 books that focus on the U.S. Civil War, the Wild West, and the American Indian Wars. His latest work is all about Deadwood and the wild cast of characters who inhabited it. Come sit with us a spell and learn about the real Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickok, and Al Swearengen.

• “Power comes to any man who has the color.”
• Black Elk and how the West Was Lost
• Conflicting perceptions of Wild Bill Hickock
• Professional gamblers
• Creating Calamity Jane
• Softening George Hearst
• “In the West, women didn’t wear underwear.”
• Deadwood burns
• How history becomes a dime store novel
• “The most diabolical town on the face of the earth.”

Deadwood: Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

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