"...for anyone searching for a complete and upbeat look at how the West was won--and what won it--there is no better explanation than this one."—Las Vegas CityLife
"...Abbott's contribution to our understanding of the urban West is truly impressive."—EH.Net
"This reader recommends How Cities Won the West to all students of history."—Annals of Wyoming
"...exquisitely crafted...Highly recommended."—Choice
"...ably conceived and especially readable..."—The Journal of American History
"Throughout this sweeping authoritative argument are numerous wonderful details, lucid explanations, and colorful references to novels about western cities--the Great Plains included."—Great Plains Quarterly
"The writing is enthusiastic, even exuberant at times, making the book unusually engaging and accessible. How Cities Won the West is, simply put, the best brief introduction to the urban West currently available. It should be on a short list of books to read for anyone seriously interested in the history of the American West."—Nebraska History
"To explain how western cities attained such prominence, this important book ranges widely across time, space, and subject. Indeed, one of Abbot's notable feats is to narrate coherently the development of cities across the western United States and Canada from the early eighteenth to the late twentieth century without flattening the differences between San Francisco, Phoenix, Tacoma, and Winnipeg."—Montana the Magazine of Western History
"This is a wonderful book, beautifully written and expansive in scope."—The Journal of Arizona History
"... How Cities Won the West is essential reading not just for scholars of the U.S. western experience, or those of the broader western North American experience, or even those of the U.S. urban experience, but for all scholars of cities."—Technology and Culture
"The reading experience is like traveling on a whirlwind tour of the U.S. and Canadian wests with an extraordinarily knowledgeable and entertaining guide."—New Mexico Historical Review
"Abbott's thesis is vital and convincing, but his book is also a wonderful read....the energy of the writing carries the reader along. A hard book to put down, it is also one that will cause present and future western historians to rethink the critical importance of cities in the region's past."—South Dakota History
"( How Cities Won the West) is arguably the best synthesis of the urban North American West to date."—Oregon Historical Quarterly