The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral and How it Changed the Ameri... - Softcover

"An absorbing, meticulous account of the famous O.K. Corral gunfight as it really happened. . . . Guinn places his complex and nuanced story firmly within the context of the evolving Western frontier. . . . A great story." --"Kirkus Reviews" "Jeff Guinn has come up with a new angle and approach to the events of that bloody day in Tombstone. Without that gunfight, Wyatt Earp would have never become a household name a hundred years later. Guinn delves into the myth and separates it from the facts. A terrific read about the West's most famous lawman."--Clive Cussler """The Last Gunfight"" is a portrayal of criminality, greed, ambition, rivalry, fidelity, and law enforcement gone awry. Add in the aspects of vengeance, lust, and enduring love, and you have a riveting book every bit as good as, if not better than, "Go Down Together", Jeff Guinn's much-lauded book about Bonnie and Clyde."--Lynn R. Bailey, Tombstone historian and author of "Too Tough to Die" Advance Praise for "The Last Gunfight" "Jeff Guinn gives us not only the clashing egos and the mythic gunslingers, but also the larger social forces that converged on a roistering mining town in southeastern Arizona that fateful day in 1881. The result is a kind of anti-Western: The cliches are stripped away, the black hats removed, the 'rugged individualists' unmasked, leaving us with real human beings who are swayed and shaped by the forces of history, and trapped in time." "--Hampton Sides, author of Blood and Thunder" "Jeff Guinn is a straight shooter when it comes to facts. He investigated the story from every imaginable angle, separating truth from tall tale, and now he delivers a factual account of what happened--and why--that's every bit as riveting as the fantasy." --David Martindale, "Star-Telegram "(Fort Worth, TX) "A gripping revisionist account of the famed 1881 showdown. . . . Exhaustively researched, stylishly written. . . . As grimly compelling as a Greek tragedy." --"Publishers Weekly "(Starred Review) "Jeff Guinn took readers down the back roads of Louisiana in his book "Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde." He's back in "The Last Gunfight", displaying the impeccable research that is his trademark. . . . Guinn's story is what really happened. . . . A terrific read." Craig Wilson, "USA TODAY" "Scrupulously details how this isolated act of violence attained such heroic status. . . . A deeply researched and colorfully written history of one of those dramatic oddments of Americana that never fails to captivate us." --Dale L. Walker, "Dallas Morning News" "The most thorough account of the gunfight and its circumstances ever published." --"The Wall Street Journal" "Guinn . . . delivers another double-barrel blast of history and true crime. . . . Superbly detailed . . . . A thorough, thrilling account of the crime and its influence on the history of the West. . . . Absolutely buy this dazzler." --"Library Journal Express "(Starred Review)

"The genius of this book is that, for all its historical accuracy and sophistication, it still tells a story as stirring as any western." The Sunday Times "A book I've been reading with enormous pleasure." Simon Hoggart, The Guardian On the afternoon of 26 October 1881, in a vacant lot in Tombstone, Arizona, a confrontation between eight armed men erupted in a deadly shootout. The gunfight at the O.K. Corral shaped how future generations came to view the old West. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons became the stuff of legends, but the truth is even better. As The Last Gunfight makes clear, the real story of the O.K. Corral and the West is far different from what we've been led to believe by countless Westerns. Drawing on new material from private collections, including diaries, letters, and Wyatt Earp's own hand-drawn sketch of the shootout's conclusion, as well as documentary research in Tombstone and Arizona archives and dozens of interviews, Jeff Guinn gives us a startlingly different and far more fascinating picture of what the West was like.