Billy the Kid

By Robert M. Utley,

Book cover of Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life

Book description

Whatever his name or alias at the moment-Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, Kid Antrim, Billy Bonney-people always called him the Kid. Not until his final month did anyone call him Billy the Kid. Newspapers pictured him as a king of outlaws; and his highly publicized capture, trial, escape, and end fixed…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Billy the Kid as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Utley, a respected historian of (mostly) Indian-related research, offers the cold, hard facts of Billy’s life and remains true to objectivity, leaving the reader with the job of analyzing the right and the wrong of decisions, reactions, and events.

What tantalizes me about his book is that a researcher of such stature would choose to write about a teenaged outlaw and killer, when so many other topics of greater significance await their turn in his pen.

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