James Horan Books

This is a very large oversized hardcover book. Cloth bound. Reinforced library binding and spine for extra stength. It gives the perspective of the eyewitness and the gunfighters themselves. It has 200 authentic documents and illustrations. Here from Billy the Kid, Kid Curry, Tom Horn, Wild Bill Hickok, and others. The list price on this library issue book was $12.95 when published in 1976, not $8.95 as Amazon has listed.

The accomplishments of James Iredell Waddell and the C.S.S. Shenandoah read like a movie script. It is amazing that this piece of history has been buried so long. James Horan brings it to life. He reveals that this was not an accidental sortie but a well planned venture breadboarded in the Confederate Naval Headquarters and played out step by step to its conclusion. It is interesting to wonder what would have happened if more ships had been available to the South for this war. Also interesting is the fact that even though the South did not win the war the efforts of the C.S.S. Shenandoah and the C.S.S. Alabama set Yankee dominance of the seas back 70 years.

This book is a gem for fans of James Horan. A good read for history buffs, especially those interested in 19th century crime and the Pinkerton Agency-- a real page turner. I love this book, but then I've never read a book by Horan that I didn't like-- the man was a great historian.

Few books on the "Wild West" go into as much detail on specific characters as these sets of books do ( there are two others: the Lawmen and the Outlaws). This book is filled with accounts by eyewitnesses and the Gunfighters themselves. Although sometimes I find these books 'dry', they are incredible references. Filled with newspaper reports of the day, excerpts from courtroom documents and plenty of asides from the gunfighters themselves as well as the people who knew them ( parents, friends, enemies and lovers ), they are lavishly illustrated, well documented and completely annotated with sources AND bibliography of about every quote in the book. This enables you to understand where EVERY source comes from. One of the most complete references that I have ever seen on the subject. If this subject interests you then this is a must have book for your library.

The workbook is very easy to follow as it leads you through a complete set of considerations and thought-processes to end up with a tight, structured business plan and summary. At completion you have a 30-second "elevator" summary of your plan, a written executive summary (the One Page plan), and all the details and decisions behind the summary you need for creating a more formal business plan to present to a board or bank. The accompanying disc provides great templates and tools. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has never written a business plan, or hasn't written one recently.

I like to think that life is like an old wooden stool I got in Blaine, MO. It rests on three legs: Truth, beauty, and the money to obtain the first two.

If "Chicken Soup for the Soul" is the truth that guides you each morning, and if you found beauty in the remarkable riddles of "The Da Vinci Code", then this book is the third leg you've been looking for.

I have several texts and templates for writing business plans and have written a number of very long and complicated business plans. I wish I would have come across this book sooner. Jim Horan has a way of distilling
the jungle of information that needs to be researched and thought through to the core and most important elements providing a very clear picture of the business vision both for the writer of the plan and any investors.
Highly recommend.

I found that each time I sat down to work with the book, I was easily drawn into the "zone" of creating and brainstorming, and came up with new ideas that will make a big difference in my business. It was so satisfying to be that productive at each session, and in the end, I spent only about 10-12 hours to come up with my One Page. I now feel clear about my goals for this year, and feel that they are doable and well organized. Not only did this book help me develop my plan through the exercises and examples, but now that I have completed it, I am excited about implementing my plan. I broke down the bullets in my Plans section into action steps on a separate page, and then used the provided worksheet templates to create budgeting and sales goals. Thanks to Jim Horan for offering such an inspiring and useful set of tools!

I think this is an excellent book for any small business owner, or even for any one in business. I have my one-page plans displayed predominantly in my office where they help me focus. I enjoyed getting coached through the book, as the accountability and professional advice made it come alive for me. So, if you have a personal coach of your own, you may want to have them go through this book with you.

I first read Horan's 1958 book The Wild Bunch, which is now kind of difficult to find. This book includes some interesting facts which have been unearthed since the time of the first book. The photographs that are reproduced here really add to the book as well - the photos reproduced in the old paperback I had were grainy, but these are great. The book gives a good description of the facts, and I was surprised at how fast I finished it. Definitely of interest to those who love the stories of the Old West.

This book is in two parts: the first half is all about Jesse James and his exploits; the second half is concerned with Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. Relying on secondary sources only, Horan recounts the life of Jesse James and the activities of his gang with accuracy, if in a pedestrian manner. Jesse's Civil War years with Quantrill, numerous stagecoach holdups and train robberies, the Northfield Bank robbery, and his eventual death at the hands of Robert Ford are all related. Horan errs in placing James at the Liberty, Missouri, bank hold up; Jesse was at home in bed tending to a wounded lung at the time.

Horan was able to gain access to the files of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and the information gleaned from there proved especially useful in the section on the Wild Bunch. Whereas the James segment was pretty straightforward history, the part on the Wild Bunch is written almost like a novel, with a great deal of invented dialogue and unsubstantiated descriptive details thrown in liberally throughout the text. The Wild Bunch, which at various times included, besides Cassidy, Harry Longabaugh ("The Sundance Kid"), George Curry, Elza May, and others, were associated with a number of illegal activities, including cattle and horse rustling, numerous bank and payroll holdups, train robberies, and murder. After getting away with a large amount of money from robbing the Winnemucca, NV, bank and a Great Northern train in Montana, Cassidy and Longabaugh went to South America. Rumors persist that Cassidy returned to the US and died in Spokane, WA, in 1937, but Horan (and the most recent hard research) insists he died in Bolivia in 1909. Horan is a careful historian and does not confuse fact with legend. Although I don't care much for the novelistic approach taken in the second half, one can't fault Horan for being lazy or confused or uninformed. A later, fuller book on Cassidy and the Wild Bunch was published by Horan in 1959.

Horan did an excellent job in writing the first third of the book. Captain Thomas Hines was an interesting character in History. Horan's telling of how Hines assisted John Hunt Morgan on his raid and his escape was truly fascinating reading. However, that's only the first third of the book. The rest of the book centers on the "Northwest Conspiracy", and quite frankly, it is a rather ponderous tome.

this book, is all about the facts... and it tells them in a story-book fashion... plenty of photographs and illustrations... not just summaries on the famous gunfighters, but page after page on each one... huge index, with just about every gunfighter you've ever heard of, and many that you haven't...

If I was writing this review back in the 50's when the book was first published, I would have to give it a 5-star rating... but since it is 2005, taken the amount of resources now available though the internet, printing & photocopy technology, and the ease of travel; modern day author's could (but haven't) have done a little better job putting such a complete reference book together. This is still a top-notch book, even in the new millenium

A great book about two young boys being brought up the gangsters way and taking over a tough long shoremans union. They grew up fast and tough thanks to Pepe a hard core killer, and a hard core teacher.