Barbed Wire on the Prairie by René Goscinny

Why read the book?

Vernon Felps and his wife Annabelle buy land from the government and try to farm the open plains. Trouble starts when Cass Casey's cattle wander straight through their fields, flattening everything, and the cattle king refuses to give an inch to mere homesteaders.

Luke sides with the farmer and helps string barbed wire around the property. When Casey wrecks the farm in revenge, Luke gathers the region's farmers and turns the new wire against the rancher, fencing in the town itself to cut off its supplies until Casey agrees to keep his herds away.

Favourite quote

What I Loved

The story takes a real frontier turning point, the coming of barbed wire, and builds a tidy comedy of escalation around it.

Felps the stubborn farmer and Casey the blustering cattle baron make a good pairing, and the final siege by fence is a clever, bloodless win.

Key Takeaway

A length of wire can change a whole frontier faster than any gun.

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