Mormon War’s Grand Views Years before John Wesley Powell, an 1858 river expedition brought about the first views into the Grand Canyon abyss. Tom Jonas
The End of the West Richard White’s The Republic for Which It Stands redefines the role of the West in the Gilded Age, plus three new history books about the Texas Rangers, another about Mexican revolutionary Gen. Pascual Orozco Jr., the story of the national parks, and a rollicking Western tale. Stuart Rosebrook
The Nation’s Worst Single Lynching A bloody Chinese massacre finds a new audience through The Jade Pendant. Henry C. Parke
Mining the Optics The California Gold Rush merchant’s son whose passion earned him the Nobel Prize. Greg Bailey