Red Dead Redemption and Western fans may want to get themselves some light reading this holiday.
As reported by RockstarIntel, the book Red Dead History has just hit paperback. The book was originally published in hardcover and as an ebook in 2024.
It even received an audiobook version narrated by Arthur Morgan himself, voice actor Roger Clark. But Red Dead History’s move to paperback makes it the most accessible it has ever been.
What’s The Story Of Red Dead History?
Author Tore Olsson actually explained his idea behind the book for The Conversation. Olsson is himself a history professor in the University of Tennessee.
As you can imagine, Red Dead History was originally a course that he came up with after playing the two games.
Olsson’s motivation is not that hard to understand. He rediscovered video games in the pandemic and was wowed by Red Dead Redemption 2.
He then realized that these games could be an opportunity to teach his own students about the real life historical era these games were set in. But what may surprise you is that he took a different angle than you probably expected.
This Book Is Not About The Wild West
Arthur Morgan and John Marston are outlaws, but we like to think of them as cowboys. They explore the same fictional tropes as found in the Wild West.
But Olsson’s book is not about the Wild West. It’s not even about the closest historical equivalent to the Wild West, the Old West or the American frontier.
That whole morass of history and mythmaking, beyond stories of train robberies and gunfights, is really about the period of expansion and settlement of North American territory.
But Olsson’s angle is not the myth, but the reality. The reality of the Gilded Age
Mark Twain’s Gilded Age In Red Dead Redemption
Mark Twain wrote a novel called The Gilded Age: A Tale Of Today, where he criticized the very historical period he lived in.
Historians then adopted his novel’s name to refer to that historical period itself, from the 1870s to the 1890s. And yes, Red Dead Redemption 2 is itself set near the end of that age, just at the cusp of the start of the Reformation era.
Some American gamers may have some familiarity with this history, but Rockstar fans around the world may find this all completely new.
And that’s what makes this book so fascinating. Much like the Assassin’s Creed Discovery Tours, Red Dead History is the gateway drug that Olsson hopes will get gamers interested in the real history that men like Morgan and Marston lived in.
