Acclaimed author Bryan Burrough explores the myths and truths central to our national identity in The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild. Burrough digs into Texas history to show how the “Wild West” gunfighter figure came to be, how the Hollywood view of characters like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid embedded itself into our culture, and why the separation of fact and fiction is key to understanding the American story. This session will be a treat for history buffs.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Author
Bryan Burrough is the author or coauthor of eight books, four of them New York Times bestsellers, including the Wall Street classic Barbarians at the Gate and Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth. A longtime correspondent at Vanity Fair and now an editor-at-large at Texas Monthly, he lives in Austin.
His latest book is The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild.
Dan Goodgame served as editor in chief of Texas Monthly magazine for six years—the first in that position to live in San Antonio. During his tenure, TM doubled its editorial staff and tripled its total audience: in print, on its website, on Apple News, and in books, podcasts, live events, newsletters, two weekly TV shows, streaming series such as Landman, and Hollywood movies such as Hit Man. He remains involved with TM as senior adviser. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and best-selling author, Goodgame worked for TIME magazine as White House correspondent and for the Miami Herald as Middle East correspondent. Goodgame earned a master’s degree in international relations from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.
