Barbed Wire: The Fence That Changed the West

If you want to learn all about the history of barbed wire and its effect on the US (the west in particular), this is a great book to get started. The book is a quick read; however, provides all the details on the invention, types/styles of wire, and ultimate "takeover" of barbed wire use in the western US. We don't even think of barbed wire today as any big deal, so it was very interesting to read about a time and place in our country's history where barbed wire issues were a dominant factor in daily life (i.e. patent fights over who invented it, cattlemen and ranchers having "wars" over use of the land and placement of barbed wire). Anyone interested in western US history would find this book informative. It has me wanting to look into other books on the subject.

I was forced to read this for a college class. It is a very informative book, and if you enjoy learning about the American West in the late 1800's, this is your book. But if you are looking for a story, move along, this is a history class book in disguise.

Interesting and informative

I really enjoyed this book. Lots of little info for the nerdy person such as myself who likes to delve a little deeper into out of the ordinary topics like this. Well written and easy to read and follow.

good

Needed a full history for a research project and this book fills the need very well.

I really enjoyed this quick, easy to read chronicle of the surprising impactbarbed wire had on the settling of the American West. It follows the 80/20rule ... the author expertly weaves 20% of the text most authors would useto discuss the topic, while revealing 80% of the valuable insights.My kind of book!!

I really liked the way it's written to make the history of the American west very interesting. The barbed wire serves as the string through which the beads of the American west history is strung in a beautiful way.The old photographs serves well in crystallizing your imagination about the west.Will highly recommend to young and old readers alike.

Who'd have thought that a history of barbed wire and its impact could be so fascinating? Brilliant!