The Bad Lands

By Oakley Hall,

Book cover of The Bad Lands

Book description

It's 1883 in Johnson County, in the old Dakota Territory a rugged, wide-open landscape of rolling, red earth, prairie, and cattle as far as the eye can see. But the land is closing, the "Beef Bonanza" is ending, and the free-range cattlemen are stuck watching a way of life disappear…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked The Bad Lands as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Here is the other archetypal plot, the reverse of the first: “A Stranger Comes to Town.” In this case, a protagonist who seems an unlikely but brilliantly persuasive amalgam of Theodore Roosevelt and Henry Adams—a bookish Easterner—arrives in the Dakota Territory in 1883 to make a new life for himself after the death of his wife. The new life will feature lynchings, cattle drives, saloons, brothels, and an even harsher wilderness than Diony Hall found in Kentucky. The author’s cinematic Warlock is a western masterpiece. This forgotten title is every bit as good.

Want books like The Bad Lands?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 83 books like The Bad Lands.

Browse books like The Bad Lands

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Teddy Roosevelt, brothels, and presidential biography?

Teddy Roosevelt 47 books
Brothels 35 books