This was not a quick read but a fascinating, fully documented account of the South West history from the lives of the 4 Bean brothers. I knew very little about the history of the South West from the period of the Civil War, Indian uprising, or the wildness of the part of our country and I feel that now I do. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in actual stories of some of those establishing towns in the South West. I learned more with every chapter and am highly impressed with the footnotes and all the details the author offered to substantiate his story. I knew a little about Judge Roy Bean from movies but feel I have a full insight into the entire family. It was a very readable story that could have been a history class but was one that really healed my attention and made me eager to return to reading each day.

I wish to thank Net Galley and St. Martin’s Press for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed this advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

My thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of on the history of the American West as shown through the eyes of 4 brothers, one of which will be very familiar to fans of western novels and movies, though his real exploits make his fictional stories seem tame.

America is a country where myth is better known than history. This offers a cleaner, clearer history, one that doesn't have to deal with questions that still haunt us. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend is a famous quote from a popular Western, and it is true. Truth can be ugly, and if one myth is proven wrong, well so can others. One doesn't like to think of the dirt, the disease, and the smells of the old west. As one person said in this book its amazing that men didn't realize how bad they smelled coming in from the trails. That's is what I like most of about the books that Joe Pappalardo writes about history. Pappalardo not only knows his subjects, but he is not afraid to discuss what the life and times of America was like. Setting west with hopes and dreams, with carts flooding, running out of food, water, or being ambushed. Armies sent to expand the states, but not equiped with rifles, or even clothes, with disease killing far more men than combat. Four Against the West: The True Saga of a Frontier Family That Reshaped the Nation—and Created a Legend is a story of America growing expanding in many ways, covering the adding to new states, a Civil War and what came after as seen through the life of 4 brothers, whose last name will quite familiar many.

Roy Bean has been written about in plenty of fiction, being a character in many a western, just as many radio shows, and even a few movies one of which had him played by Paul Newman. However much of this was fictional and dealt with his later life as a Judge in Texas. Roy Bean was born in Kentucky the youngest of 4 sons and a one daughter. The family was struggling, as was the nation with financial hardships, and Roy set out, at sixteen, to New Orleans as crew on a boat selling slaves. Soon his brothers James, Sam and Joshua would also try to make their way in the new west, setting up shops, becoming judges, teamsters on cattle trains. They would fight in wars, the Mexican-American War which gains America new territory, and served as a proving ground for men who would be generals in the Civil War. Joshua would be a mayor in San Diego, Sam and Roy would travel together, get in duels, and other battles. The would take different roles in the Civil War, and one would become famous, famous for things that might not have happened. All as the country around them grew, battled itself, and created a whole new mythology for itself.

I have read a few of Pappalardo dealing with the west and World War II and have enjoyed them quite a lot. I love the research that Pappalardo puts in, and the fact that he will print the ugly truth, even if the legend is known, and more accepted. This is an interesting way to look at a lot of events, thought the eyes and lives and these brothers. One gets a different views, from the law, to business, to politics. And the violence, which seemed to always be around. That said, there brothers are not sterling examples of great human beings. In fact they can kind of get on one's nerves. However they are paragons of their time. For people familiar with Roy Bean from the movies, this book is a bit of a revelation. Bean was a little bit weirder than portrayed in movies, and a whole lot more violent.

A very good history about what America was like, and told in four different voices. Fans of western history will enjoy this. This would make a perfect gift for those kind of readers for the holidays.

I didn't love this book, some parts got a bit boring but other parts were really good. I know this is nonfiction but some of these characters were really pissing me off.

I have just finished reading an ARC of "Four Against the West: The True Saga of a Frontier Family That Reshaped the Nation and Created a Legend," written by Joe Pappalardo and published by St. Martin's Press (who graciously made this ARC available to me). This is an interesting book that looks closely at the public lives of four brothers, all of whom became prominent in the history of the American Southwest in the period of time from roughly the Texas War for Independence to Reconstruction and beyond. First I should point out that there is a bit of hyperbole in the subtitle, and the reader should keep that in mind. That said, the book is fascinating in the way that it uses the adventures and misadventures of the Bean family brothers, most notably Roy Bean, in the regions of the the American Southwest wrested from Mexico during the Mexican-American War. This is a broad and fascinating canvas, and the author does a superb job of using it to examine the practical implications of Frederick Jackson Turner's well known Frontier Thesis. Don't misunderstand me, I don't recall that thesis being named here and this is clearly not intended to be another dry historical or sociological treatise. Instead, it is a rip-roaring tale of the wild west and the kind of men and women who benefited, one way or another, from the chaotic witches brew of imperial expansion, civil war and lawlessness which can be seen as characterizing this period of American expansion. The colorful cast of characters, largely dominated by the dubious "hero" who came to be known to history as "Judge Roy Bean," brings a new clarity to all of the texture of life on the frontier as it grew and changed into our modern nation. From wagon trains to the California gold rush, it's all here revealed through the experience of one outstanding family. A job well done!