The open-range cattle era lasted barely a quarter century, but it left America irrevocably changed. These few decades following the Civil War brought America its greatest boom-and-bust cycle until the Depression, the invention of the assembly line, and the dawn of the conservation movement. It inspired legends, such as that icon of rugged individualism, the cowboy. Yet this extraordinary time and its import have remained unexamined for decades. Cattle Kingdom reveals the truth of how the West rose and fell, and how its legacy defines us today.

"An Eamon Dolan book."

Pt. 1. Birth of a Boom. The demise of the bison ; Cattle for cash ; Birth of the cattle town ; Cattle-town high jinks ; Lighting the fuse ; Cowboy aristocrats -- Pt. 2. From Stockyard to Steakhouse ; The rise of Cheyenne ; Barbed wire: The devil's rope ; Frewen's castle ; The nature crusader -- Pt. 3. The Boom Busts. Teddy Blue and the necktie socials ; Mortal ruin ; Poker on joint-stock principles ; The big die-up ; The fall of Cheyenne -- Pt. 4. Nails in the Coffin. The rustler problem ; Nate Champion and the Johnson County War ; The cowboy president ; The closing of the range ; Failed second acts ; Myths of the Old West -- Afterword: "Unhorsed for good.".