Books | Buffalo Bill

When it comes to the production and distribution of mass culture, no country in modern times has come close to rivaling the success of America. From blue jeans in central Europe to Elvis Presley's face on a Republic of Chad postage stamp, the reach of American mass culture extends into every corner of the globe. Most believe this is a twentieth-century phenomenon, but here Robert W. Rydell and Rob Kroes prove that its roots are far deeper.

Buffalo Bill in Bologna reveals that the process of globalizing American mass culture began as early as the mid-nineteenth century. In fact, by the end of World War I, the United States already boasted an advanced network of culture industries that served to promote American values. Rydell and Kroes narrate how the circuses, amusement parks, vaudeville, mail-order catalogs, dime novels, and movies developed after the Civil War—tools central to hastening the reconstruction of the country—actually doubled as agents of American cultural diplomacy abroad. As symbols of America's version of the "good life," cultural products became a primary means for people around the world, especially in Europe, to reimagine both America and themselves in the context of America's growing global sphere of influence. Paying special attention to the role of the world's fairs, the exporting of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show to Europe, the release of The Birth of a Nation, and Woodrow Wilson's creation of the Committee on Public Information, Rydell and Kroes offer an absorbing tour through America's cultural expansion at the turn of the century. Buffalo Bill in Bologna is thus a tour de force that recasts what has been popularly understood about this period of American and global history.

Stirring campfire tales of the Old West animate these memoirs of Colonel William F. Cody, better known as Buffalo Bill. In a personal narrative as thrilling and satisfying as the most colorful fiction, Cody takes readers on back trails through the frontier he knew and loved, a world that changed almost beyond recognition during his own lifetime. His exciting stories of buffalo hunts, adventures among the Indians, stagecoach travel, and riding with the Pony Express sparkle with cameos of historical figures such as Wild Bill Hickok and Generals Sherman, Sheridan, and Custer, the latter of whom he served as a scout.
Cody's vivid yarns begin with his frontier boyhood and perilous rides through Indian territory as an 11-year-old cattlehand, and conclude with the glittering triumphs of his Wild West Show, a dramatic re-creation of Indian battles and frontier life that dazzled audiences throughout the eastern United States and Europe. In this book, Cody draws on his own first-hand experience to paint an unforgettable picture of a storied period in American history and his own role in it.
Historians and other readers intrigued by tales of the Old West will find themselves spellbound by these lively and readable memoirs. Eight handsome illustrations by famed artist N. C. Wyeth complement the colorful text.