{"product_id":"the-great-american-outlaw-a-legacy-of-fact-and-fiction-paperback-softback-9780806128429","title":"The Great American Outlaw; A Legacy of Fact and Fiction (Paperback \/ softback) 9780806128429","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Great American Outlaw\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eA Legacy of Fact and Fiction\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eFrank Richard Prassel (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780806128429\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 15 September 1996\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e432 pages, 23 black \u0026amp; white illustrations\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.592 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eThis book explores in depth the  origins, development, and prospects of outlawry and of the relationship  of outlaws to the social conditions of changing times.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout American history you will  find larger-than-life brigands in every period and every  region. Often, because we hunger for simple justice, we romanticize them  to the point of being unable to separate fact from fiction. Frank  Richard Prassel brings this home in a thorough and fascinating  examination of the concept of outlawry from Robin Hood, Dick  Turpin, and Blackbeard through Jean Lafitte, Pancho Villa, and Billy the  Kid to more modern personalities such as John Dillinger, Claude Dallas,  and D. B. Cooper. A separate chapter on molls, plus equal  treatment in the histories of gangs,  traces women's involvement in outlaw activities.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrassel covers the folklore as well as  the facts, even including an appendix of ballads by and about outlaws.  He makes clear how this motley group of bandits, pirates, highwaymen,  desperadoes, rebels, hoodlums, renegades, gangsters, and  fugitives - who stand tall in myth - wither in the light of truth,  but flourish in the movies. As he tells the stories,  there is little to confirm that Jesse and Frank James, Butch  Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Daltons, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ma Barker,  Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, Belle Starr, the Apache Kid, or any of  the so-called good badmen, did anything that did not enrich or otherwise  benefit themselves. But there is plenty of evidence, in the form of  slain victims and ruined lives, to show how many ways they caused harm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Great American Outlaw \u003c\/em\u003eis as  much an excellent survey on the phenomenon as it  is a brilliant exposition of the larger than-life figures  who created it. Above all, it is a tribute to that aspect of  humanity  that Americans admire most and that Prassel describes as a willingness  \"\"to fight, however hopelessly, against exhibitions of privilege.\"\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","brand":"University of Oklahoma Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52551735083288,"sku":"9780806128429","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-great-american-outlaw-a-legacy-of-fact-and-fiction-paperback-softback-9780806128429","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}