Book excerpt: In this collection of letters, diaries, interviews, and public writings from people who were "in the right place at the right time," David Colbert gives us a history of the American West, "but not the one we usually encounter and expect" (Dallas Morning News).Spanning 500 years from the Aztecs' first encounter with Spanish conquistadors to the explosion of technology in Silicon Valley today, vivid episodes swirl together, revealing patterns that link early Kentuckians and Asian immigrants, Mormons and black "Buffalo Soldiers," the first Los Angeles smog and an 1811 earthquake that reversed the Mississippi's flow, the Trail of Tears and the Summer of Love, Georgia O'Keefe at Taos, the origin of Levi's, and the eruption of culture in the contemporary Northwest. David Colbert's kaleidoscope of the American experience invites readers to delve into any moment in the history of the West, offering clear themes that will satisfy history buffs, and enough entertaining surprises to delight the casual reader.