The time of the Wild West in America is far more that just a period in history. It’s become the modern-day mythos that the character of the United States is built from. Nowhere is this more evident than in the long and fascinating history of Western movies, those big screen favorites that challenged and changed the dreams of generations of young boys and girls.

In Hang ‘Em High: 100 Years of Western Movie Posters, author Mark Fertig has collected the most iconic and memorable visual depictions of the Western movie era—more than 500 of them, to be exact. In the book’s pages you’ll find visual evidence of feats of daring do, frozen in time alongside six shooters and bloody barroom brawls. It’s a beautiful coffee table book that just might give you a deeper insight into the spirit that still animates Hollywood today.