In 1877, a decade after the Civil War, not only was the US gripped by a deep depression, but the country was also in the throes of nearly unimaginable violence and upheaval marking the end of the brief period known as Reconstruction and a return to white rule across the South. Celebrated historian Michael A. Bellesiles reveals how the fires of that fated year also fuelled a hothouse of cultural and intellectual innovation. The story of 1877 is also related through the the lives of famous historical icons such as Billy the Kid and John D. Rockefeller.