Law and Order
Subjects / History / American West, 1840-1895
During the nineteenth century, the western part of America earned itself the nickname 'The Wild West'. This term is used a lot nowadays, and is often applied to places where crime is common and people can pretty much get away with anything. On the flipside, Hollywood makes a lot of movies glamorizing life in nineteenth-century western towns with their saloons, sheriffs and wooden-porched buildings. In fact, a whole tourist industry is centred on the exciting lives led by early inhabitants of these dusty mining and cattle towns. The reality of life in the Wild West was more like the first example. Life was hard, and cheap. Guns were common and law enforcement scarce. For most people living in the west at that time, the Hollywood portrayal of their lives would have been unrecognizable.
| Author: | Sally Thorne | Publisher: | GCSEPod® |
| Narrator: | Peter McGowan | ISBN: | 978-1-84906-075-2 |
| Video ISBN: | 978-1-84906-575-7 |
Chapters
- Governing America: Politicians and Lawmen
- Causes of Crime
- Common Crimes
- Famous Females: Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley
- Outlaws and Enforcers: Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, Wyatt Earp and the James-Younger Gang
Exam Board Relevance
- Edxcel
- AQA
- CEA
- IGCSE (EdExcel)
- OCR
- SQA
- WJEC
- IGCSE (CiE)
Curriculum and Exam Board Information
Key Issues
Titles
Chapters
- The structure and theory of government: federal, territory and state governments, counties and towns
- The problems of government in practice
- Law and order in the mining regions, the cow towns, rustling and territorial rivalry
- Causes of disorder
- The range wars
- Solutions to problems of disorder: sheriffs and marshals; miner's courts, vigilantes
- Johnson County War
- The Dawes Act, 1887
- The reasons for conflict between the ranchers and the homesteaders, including a case study of the Johnson County War
- The growth of the American West: population growth, the spread of towns, the need for law and order
- the nature of the 'Wild West'
- law enforcement: marshals, sheriffs, judges and vigilantes
- types of common crime: bank robbery, cattle rustling, fence cutting, horse stealing, shootings, train robbery
- the Johnston County War
- Law enforcers and law breakers: Wyatt Earp, the James-Younger Gang
- Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch, Billy the Kid
- women role models: Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley
- the Dawes Act, 1887
Reviews
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