True West

Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America

By: Betsy Gaines Quammen

Narrated by: Rebecca Gallagher

From the Northern Rockies to the Southwest deserts, Betsy Gaines Quammen explores how myths shape our identities, heighten polarizations, and fracture our shared understanding of the world around us. As she investigates the origins and effects of myths of the American West, Gaines Quammen travels through small towns and big cities, engaging people and building relationships at every stop.

Misperceptions about land, politics, liberty, and self-determination threaten the well-being of people and communities across the country, and Gaines Quammen interrogates it all as she seeks to reconcile the anger and misunderstandings that continue to be fueled by the West's enduring myths and complex history.

Whether sitting down with a militia member seeking to protect his rural Utah town from Antifa or talking with grassroots organizers working across ideological divides, Gaines Quammen brings to life connections and contradictions that shape our politics and our lives far beyond the West.

©2023 Betsy Gaines Quammen (P)2024 Tantor

Almost riveting

This story was largely compelling, entertaining and informative but at times seemed to lose itself. There were a lot of uninvestigated disparate ideas proffered and points of frustration following lists and lists of similar peoples where a summarization would have sufficed to help make the book more succinct. Overall though I found it to be a hopeful and promising deep dive into who truly makes up America and our chances for reconciliation as a nation.

Very misleading, title and book description.

I thought I was going to learn about the history of the west, but instead was given a very left, leaning overview of today's political climate of the west. I will say that the argument that we should all listen to one another more and look for commonalities was a good message. But it was strangely contrasted by the vitriol of an obviously far left, leaning author.