Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West - Softcover

Fradkin, Philip L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0743234367 ISBN 13: 9780743234368

Publisher: Free Press, 2003

Synopsis

Sweeping in scope, as revealing of an era as it is of a company, Stagecoach is the epic story of Wells Fargo and the American West.
The trail of Wells Fargo runs through nearly every imaginable landscape and icon of frontier folklore: the California Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the transcontinental railroad, the Civil War, and the Indian wars. From the Great Plains to the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean, the company's operations embraced almost all social, cultural, and economic activities west of the Mississippi.
As its reputation for speed and dependability grew after the Gold Rush, the sight of a red-and-yellow Wells Fargo stagecoach racing across the prairie came to symbolize faith in a nation's progress. For a time, Wells Fargo was the most powerful and widespread institution in the American West, even surpassing the presence of the federal government.
Stagecoach is a fascinating and rare combination of Western and business history. Along with its rich association with the frontier, readers will discover that swiftness, security, and connectivity have been constants in Wells Fargo's 150 years.

About this title

Review:

Today, most of us know the iconic red and yellow image of the Wells Fargo stagecoach only as the omnipresent logo of a huge national financial institution. Philip L. Fradkin's Stagecoach reminds us of the far more complex and colorful history of the 150-year-old enterprise it symbolizes, beginning with its heyday as an unpolished but honorable "express company" that dependably linked, by means of the stagecoach, an upstart West Coast and roughshod Rockies with everything else back East. Fradkin, author of eight books on the American West, ties the company's and region's fates together as mining, agriculture, and then more contemporary commercial interests (with help from the federal government) indelibly shaped them both. From the time of the dusty stage driver to the era of the wing-tipped banker, the book recounts it all but wisely focuses on the period from 1852 to 1918, a time when the firm "served as the principal communications conduit between East and West ... contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War ... and shipped fresh vegetables and fruits via fast refrigerated express." After reading it, you'll be hard-pressed to look at the enduring stagecoach imagery in quite the same way ever again. --Howard Rothman

About the Author:

Philip L. Fradkin is the author of nine critically acclaimed books about
the American West and Alaska. He shared a Pulitzer Prize for his work at the
Los Angeles Times, and he has taught writing courses at the University
of California at Berkeley and at Stanford University. He lives in San
Francisco.

About this edition

• Publisher: Free Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0743234367
• ISBN 13: 9780743234368
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272