Saturday, October 14: Missoula-based author Ken Egan joins us for a reading from his new book, Montana 1889: Indians, Cowboys, and Miners in the Year of Statehood. 1pm.

When Montana became the 41st state in 1889, an old pioneer lamented, "Now she's gone to hell," but most Montanans embraced statehood as the inevitable culmination of one of the most rapid and dramatic transformations in United States history.

Montana 1889 tells the many stories of this overwhelming transformation by entering into the lives, emotions, and decisions of diverse peoples cooperating and competing on this contested ground. Like Ken Egan's previous history, the acclaimed Montana 1864, these stories are told month by month, deftly showing the flow and friction of events and the unfolding destiny of individuals and nations.

After receiving his Ph.D. in American literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ken Egan taught college English for 25 years. His new book, Montana 1889: Indians, Cowboys, and Miners in the Year of Statehood, is a sequel to Montana 1864, which was a finalist for the High Plains Book Award for Nonfiction in 2015.