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Deadwood

Gold, Guns, and Greed in the American West

Author Peter Cozzens
Ebook (EPUB)
Knopf
On sale Aug 19, 2025 | 432 Pages | 9780593537862
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The true story of the Black Hills gold rush settlement once described as “the most diabolical town on earth” and of its most colorful cast of characters, from Wild Bill Hickok to Calamity Jane to Al Swearingen and Sheriff Seth Bullock.

"In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals . . . A fine non-fiction narrative that's as alluring as its subject.” —Hampton Sides

Sifting through layers and layers of myth and legend—from nineteenth-century dime novels like Deadwood Dick, to HBO prestige dramas to the casino billboards outside of present-day Deadwood—Peter Cozzens unveils the true face of Deadwood, South Dakota, the storied mining town that sprang up in early 1876 and came raining down in ashes only three years later, destined to become food for the imagination and a nostalgic landmark that now brings in more than two and a half million visitors each year.

That Western romance, we’re reminded by Cozzens—the prizewinning author of The Earth Is Weeping—retains its allure only as long as we willfully ignore the town’s foundational sins. Built on land brazenly stolen from the Lakotas, Deadwood was not merely a place where outlaws lurked, like Tombstone or Dodge City, but was itself an outlaw enterprise, not part of any U.S. territory or subject to U.S. laws or governance. This gave rise to the gunslinging, stagecoach robbing, whiskey guzzling, rampant prostitution, and gambling Deadwood is known for. But it also bred a self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation unique on the frontier, and made it an exceptionally welcoming place for Black Americans and Chinese immigrants at a time of deep-seated discrimination.

The first book to tell this complex story in full, Deadwood reveals how one frontier town came to embody the best and worst of the West—a relic of humanity’s eternal quest to create order from chaos, a greater good from individual greed, and security from violence.
“How did such a small, remote speck of a place come to loom so large in American lore and myth? With Peter Cozzens’ artful book, we get the answer. In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals. And you start to see Deadwood as something more, as a node of raw avarice and frank ambition reflecting larger American impulses that are still alive today. Deadwood isn’t dead. It lives on in legend, in pulp Westerns, films, and television shows, and now, in the pages of a fine non-fiction narrative that's as alluring as its subject.” —Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and The Wide Wide Sea

"What a perfect marriage—one of the most exquisite chroniclers of America's Wild West exploring the most notorious town of the era. Throughout Deadwood, Cozzens brings fresh drama and absorbing detail to paint a vivid portrait of the colorful characters who in just three short years etched this tiny if hellraising South Dakota mining community into the lore of our collective history. Exemplary in all respects, thanks to the author's storytelling skills, Deadwood lives again." —Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, bestselling authors of Blood and Treasure and Throne of Grace

"There is no western town more steeped in myth, legend, and fairy tale than Deadwood, South Dakota—not even Tombstone, Leadville, or Dodge City. It was the Wild West of dime novels, of breathless, not-quite-exactly-true accounts in the newspapers. What Peter Cozzens has done with this remarkable book is to show us that the truth about Deadwood is, in fact, even more interesting than the myth.” —S. C. Gwynne, author of NYT Bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon

"Peter Cozzens’ Deadwood is a sweeping saga of greed, stolen Indigenous land, and legendary westerners such as Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock, and Lakota leader Crazy Horse. With the in-depth research Cozzens is known for, thought-provoking new insights, and a narrative that moves along at a fast clip, readers of Deadwood are guaranteed to hit pay dirt on every page." —Mark Lee Gardner, author of Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone
© Antonia Feldman
PETER COZZENS is the author or editor of eighteen acclaimed books on the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. In 2002 he was awarded the American Foreign Service Association’s highest honor, the William R. Rivkin Award, given annually to one foreign service officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. He lives in Kensington, Maryland. View titles by Peter Cozzens

About

The true story of the Black Hills gold rush settlement once described as “the most diabolical town on earth” and of its most colorful cast of characters, from Wild Bill Hickok to Calamity Jane to Al Swearingen and Sheriff Seth Bullock.

"In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals . . . A fine non-fiction narrative that's as alluring as its subject.” —Hampton Sides

Sifting through layers and layers of myth and legend—from nineteenth-century dime novels like Deadwood Dick, to HBO prestige dramas to the casino billboards outside of present-day Deadwood—Peter Cozzens unveils the true face of Deadwood, South Dakota, the storied mining town that sprang up in early 1876 and came raining down in ashes only three years later, destined to become food for the imagination and a nostalgic landmark that now brings in more than two and a half million visitors each year.

That Western romance, we’re reminded by Cozzens—the prizewinning author of The Earth Is Weeping—retains its allure only as long as we willfully ignore the town’s foundational sins. Built on land brazenly stolen from the Lakotas, Deadwood was not merely a place where outlaws lurked, like Tombstone or Dodge City, but was itself an outlaw enterprise, not part of any U.S. territory or subject to U.S. laws or governance. This gave rise to the gunslinging, stagecoach robbing, whiskey guzzling, rampant prostitution, and gambling Deadwood is known for. But it also bred a self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation unique on the frontier, and made it an exceptionally welcoming place for Black Americans and Chinese immigrants at a time of deep-seated discrimination.

The first book to tell this complex story in full, Deadwood reveals how one frontier town came to embody the best and worst of the West—a relic of humanity’s eternal quest to create order from chaos, a greater good from individual greed, and security from violence.

Reviews

“How did such a small, remote speck of a place come to loom so large in American lore and myth? With Peter Cozzens’ artful book, we get the answer. In these pungent pages, you can smell the whiskey, the gunsmoke, the horse lather, the gold dust, and the mining chemicals. And you start to see Deadwood as something more, as a node of raw avarice and frank ambition reflecting larger American impulses that are still alive today. Deadwood isn’t dead. It lives on in legend, in pulp Westerns, films, and television shows, and now, in the pages of a fine non-fiction narrative that's as alluring as its subject.” —Hampton Sides, New York Times bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and The Wide Wide Sea

"What a perfect marriage—one of the most exquisite chroniclers of America's Wild West exploring the most notorious town of the era. Throughout Deadwood, Cozzens brings fresh drama and absorbing detail to paint a vivid portrait of the colorful characters who in just three short years etched this tiny if hellraising South Dakota mining community into the lore of our collective history. Exemplary in all respects, thanks to the author's storytelling skills, Deadwood lives again." —Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, bestselling authors of Blood and Treasure and Throne of Grace

"There is no western town more steeped in myth, legend, and fairy tale than Deadwood, South Dakota—not even Tombstone, Leadville, or Dodge City. It was the Wild West of dime novels, of breathless, not-quite-exactly-true accounts in the newspapers. What Peter Cozzens has done with this remarkable book is to show us that the truth about Deadwood is, in fact, even more interesting than the myth.” —S. C. Gwynne, author of NYT Bestseller Empire of the Summer Moon

"Peter Cozzens’ Deadwood is a sweeping saga of greed, stolen Indigenous land, and legendary westerners such as Wild Bill Hickok, Seth Bullock, and Lakota leader Crazy Horse. With the in-depth research Cozzens is known for, thought-provoking new insights, and a narrative that moves along at a fast clip, readers of Deadwood are guaranteed to hit pay dirt on every page." —Mark Lee Gardner, author of Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone

Author

© Antonia Feldman
PETER COZZENS is the author or editor of eighteen acclaimed books on the American Civil War and the American Indian Wars. In 2002 he was awarded the American Foreign Service Association’s highest honor, the William R. Rivkin Award, given annually to one foreign service officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. He lives in Kensington, Maryland. View titles by Peter Cozzens

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