Book excerpt: For two hundred years the great wilderness of the American West was being opened up and slowly destroyed by settlers from the east. Their prime tool was the gun, and the longarm and pistol have achieved legendary status in the folklore of the Wild West. Firearms of the American West tells the story of the guns used in the West during this period, which included the Indian Wars, the Civil War and the Gold Rushes. Copiously illustrated, no Western fan or gun enthusiast will want to be without this book.