The New Wild West

"A fascinating look at what can happen when one area becomes a hot spot of activity with no regulation or oversight."—New York Post

"Blaire Briody was on the ground during the epic fracking boom in Williston, North Dakota and The New Wild West provides a fascinating portrait of the times, the people, the community, and the 21st century quest for the American dream."—C.J. Box, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"The same furious forces that shattered the Bakken Shale and unleashed one of the most explosive oil booms in history also fractured the lives of many who were drawn to it. Insightful, deeply reported, and at times heartbreakingly personal, Blaire Briody’s The New Wild West brings us face to face with the walking wounded of America’s domestic energy boom—the preacher fallen from grace, the young couple struggling to hold their family together, the roughnecks and drivers who all came looking for that most elusive of natural resources, a second chance."—Seamus McGraw, author of The End of Country: Dispatches from the Frack Zone

"The North Dakota oil rush brought a wave of prosperity and a load of human trouble to a previously-gentle frozen backwater of the United States. Blaire Briody tells the story with fearlessness and compassion and gets inside the lives of truck drivers, pastors, roughnecks and modern-day American migrants trying to cope with a bonanza and its aftermath. This is first-rate reporting, with a novelist's sensibility."—Tom Zoellner, author of Train: Riding the Rails that Created the Modern World, from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief

"Nothing decodes a place in time like a great reporter on the ground. With elegance, incisiveness and heart, Blaire Briody weaves snapshot stories of those recession refugees attracted to and affected by the North Dakota oil boom. With Briody as your guide, you'll see, feel, and understand the motives, choices, and challenges that defined the New Wild West."—Adam Skolnick, author of One Breath: Freediving, Death and the Quest to Shatter Human Limits

"Briody shows a remarkable talent for explaining the societal shifts wrought by the new American oil boom through individual stories. Where others might cite statistics and be done with it, she applies a human touch, and the impact of her work is greater for it."—Sarah Stodola, author of Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors

"Briody, winner of the Richard J. Margolis Award for social justice reporting, tells the fascinating stories of people in pursuit of their piece of the oil boom. There’s triumph and heartbreak in this blend of reportage, profiles, and personal essay."—Booklist (starred review)