Review of “Thunder in the West”
Thunder in the West: The Life and Legends of Billy the Kid by Richard W. Etulain. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2020. 428 pages. Illustrations, maps, preface, bibliography, index. Hardcover, $29.95
This book is Volume 32 in the Oklahoma Western Biographies, of which the author is the General Editor.
Why another book on Billy the Kid? Simple: book gives a comprehensive analysis of how the understanding of Billy the Kid has been presented in earlier books. Etulain sorts out what roughly 140 years of publications have said about Henry McCarty and how he evolved into Billy the Kid. The book has two main parts. Part One is The Life. Part Two is The Legends. The Life gives “a brief and balanced biographical account of Billy the Kid.” But it really goes deeper than that. The author not only summarizes how early literature understood the Kid, but what each author contributed to our understanding of a young man whose life ended in his 21st year. Part One summarizes the developing interpretations evolved over the decades, which brings the reader into Part Two, where Etulain acknowledging a deep indebtedness to the writings of Frederick Nolan and Robert Utley, whose interpretations supplanted all earlier efforts. The understanding brought out in Part One sees the Kid as a “demonic desperado,” and then, in the 1920s, as “a hero, freedom fighter, young man of courageous action.” Etulain sees both views as incomplete.
What emerges in Part Two is a bifurcated Billy the Kid, i.e., a complicated individual incarnating both interpretations. Nolan and Utley were the first authors to incorporate the two into one understanding.
Part One covers all the events in the Kid’s life. Admitting the biggest gap is knowing Billy the Kid from his childhood until his later teens, more is known of him once he emerged in New Mexico and got involved in the Lincoln County war. All the main persons in this era of violence are fully explored, giving the reader a solid understanding of the complexities and characters involved, but also showing how this understanding was formed over decades of research and publications. The “murderous desperado” character was the main interpretation of the Kid through World War 1, when it changed, now presenting the Kid as “something of a romantic hero protecting himself and his interests.”
In Part Two Etulain develops four separate time periods to “illustrate the major stages in the development of the legendary Billy the Kid.” In showing this, he summarizes all important publications developed in each stage, of which the last covers publications from 1995 to the present. This final stage does not mean our biographical understanding of the Kid is complete; but it does show how he is now understood.
One thing this reviewer appreciated was the author’s willingness to expose flaws in the historical interpretations contemporary authors try to give the Kid. If a Kid historian shows flaws in their publications, Etulain is more than ready to expose it, which helps one in better understanding Billy the Kid. Not left out in this analysis are the many movies Hollywood has produced on the Kid. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in reading about Billy the Kid. Indeed, its legacy might well be that Thunder in the West is the first book one should read if interested in Billy the Kid.
— Jeff Broome
