1 comments about Bust to Boom: Documentary Photographs of Kansas, 1936-1949.

1. Very few of the adults pictured in this book smile with their teeth showing. You can see why by the handful who do: the teeth tell you better than anything else that this is Kansas in the 1930s and dental care is an unaffordable luxury.
   
   The earliest photographs in this book were created on behalf of the Farm Security Administration, a New Deal project which (among many other things) attempted to educate the public about rural poverty. These photographs show closed banks, empty expressions, and farms turned to dust -- the people here did not know what had hit them or when the Depression would be over. The late 1930s photographs are not entirely bleak: they document 4-H fairs and the FSA's improvement efforts. The photographs from World War II show Kansas at work: at Fort Riley, on trains, in wartime industrial jobs. By the time the post-war photographs were taken (for Standard Oil of New Jersey), Kansas had recovered to become a different, and more modern, state.
   
   Oddly for a photography book, the text commentary is so outstanding that it almost outshines the pictures. The author, Donald Worster, gives the reader an interesting history of Kansas as it approached the "Dirty Thirties," when the dust turned day to night, no one had a spare dime and the state started to empty. Worster describes the state during World War II, when young men went to war and everyone else went back to work. Although the state slowly recovered, the Depression, the war and their aftermath scarred all Kansans who lived through them. Worster's erudite and highly readable commentary creates in one's mind a separate, unique set of pictures that enhances the experience of viewing the actual photographs.

No comments about Victorian West: Class and Culture in Kansas Cattle Towns.

1 comments about Federal Land, Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics (Development of Western Resources).

1. The author, head of the political science department at the University of Wyoming, has accomplished a balanced, comprehensive history of the Sagebrush Rebellion -- pretty well written too.

No comments about Schoolwomen of the Prairies and Plains: Personal Narratives from Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, 1860S-1920s.

1 comments about The Paston Women: Selected Letters (Library of Medieval Women).

1. I learned so much reading the Paston letters. Women "manning" the castle and men shopping for spices and armour. Turned my previoius notions of women in this time period on end.

No comments about Sod-House Days: Letters from a Kansas Homesteader, 1877-78.

4 comments about Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries.

1. Currently there is no review here for this fine book, and it deserves one. For starters, the title for this well-researched history of 400 years of cattle raising in North America is not exactly right. It should be called "Cattle Culture," because cattle and not cowboys are at the center of the story the author tells. And his story traces their introduction to the New World by Columbus in 1494 through to the end of the open ranges in the American West in the late 1800s. Horses, also introduced by the Spanish, are no less a part of that story, along with the cattlemen who owned, bought, sold and sometimes stole cattle, and the horsemen (vaqueros, buckaroos, and cowboys) who worked the cattle.
   
   Readers learn a great deal about cattle as a business, how the price of livestock fluctuated with demand and depended always on getting cattle to market, often many hundreds of difficult miles away. In some periods, the value of cattle was not in the beef on the hoof but in the hides and tallow. The California vaqueros, we learn, were not just herders but also expert slaughterers of cattle.
   
   Not surprisingly, a great swath of Texas history is interwoven with the rising and falling fortunes of cattlemen, and the author puts together a detailed picture of the industry as it emerged there in the mid-19th century, foundered during the Civil War, and then flourished as the railheads worked west into Kansas. But the cattle drives from Texas to cow-towns like Abilene were only some of the many that the century witnessed, as herds were driven in various directions, sometimes by west-bound settlers on the Oregon Trail, or often to meet the sudden demand for beef wherever there were gold strikes. The author provides accounts of many of these, illustrated with maps.
   
   There are many black and white period photographs in the book, which challenge the back-lot Hollywood imagery that readers are likely to have of the West. There are also informative illustrations, like that of the early western bridle called a jáquima by the Spanish-speaking vaqueros, later anglicized to "hackamore" by their American counterparts. The reader learns of many words flowing from Spanish into English, including "ranch," from the Spanish "rancho." The meanings of Spanish words like "hacienda" (a place where work is done) are also clarified. There are also illustrations of how to throw ropes in different ways to catch cattle and horses, how to dally a rope around a saddle horn, and the design of various kinds of barbed wire.
   
   One chapter, "Bunkhouse Culture," is devoted to describing the fraternity of young men, mostly from the South, who came to be the Texas "cow-boys" that eventually emerged as the mythic figures on horseback that excited popular imagination. The author describes the unspoken "code" that bound them together and notes their quick passing from history as long-range drovers when barbed wire brought an end to the open range starting in the 1870s. About the same time, ranching as a corporate enterprise transformed the old conditions of loyalty between cowman and cowboy that characterized the earlier years. And so 400 years of history drew to a close.
   
   At 300+ pages, plus another 50 of notes and an index, the book is not a quick page-turner. It reads instead like a very informative and often entertaining textbook on its subject, drawing heavily on contemporary accounts from diaries, journals, and newspapers. Doing so, it brings the past to life with people, personalities, and arresting incidents. I'm happy to recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the American West, the origins and development of the cattle industry, and the interplay between cattle, politics, economics, and social history.



2. I enjoyed it. The title sounds like a college textbook, but the style is very conversational and there are stories on every page. The author clearly relishes his subject. The writing is crisp and the humor is understated. He puts the cattle business in a very helpful historical perspective. Although it's not a page turner, I always looked forward to picking it up. I also expect to get more out of it the next time I read it.



3. I read this book for a term paper and found it very informative and interesting!



4. I bought this as a Valentine's Day present for my husband, after he got intrigued by Old West history while viewing the dvd collection of "Gunsmoke: the first season" which was also an Amazon purchase (Christmas present.) We are finding it to be well written and cohesive, with lots of fascinating details, and good quotes from primary (eyewitness) sources. So much of our self image as Americans is rooted in our ideas about the Old West. If you want to separate fact from fiction about this time and region of USA history you will enjoy this account.

2 comments about The Cattle Towns.

1. "One of the most intelligent, interesting, and worthwhile contributions to the field of Western history in some time. [The author] has managed to say something rather basic about American culture in general." -- William H. Goetzmann. "Excellent . . . readable and persuasive. . . . One of the most refreshing and rewarding approaches to be applied to western history topics in many years, for [the author] is asking basic questions about social process and the nature of urban society." -- Howard Roberts Lamar.



2. In The Cattle Towns, Robert Dykstra demonstrates how five Kansas towns--Dodge City, Ellsworth, Caldwell, Abilene, and Wichita--developed through a complex set of conflicts that bred progress. Instead of adding to the frontier myth of wild and violent cattle towns, Dykstra builds upon studies of urban history and applies them to the developing frontier to create a local, social history that has national relevance.
   
   Success or failure of a town depended on a number of variables including location, promotion, and people. Location as related to the county center, railroad lines, and especially for this study, cattle trails, played major roles in determining town futures. Advertisements in newspapers located between the Kansas cattle towns and the source of the cattle herds in Texas lured the trail drivers north. The most important element in the future of the cattle towns, however, was the local population.
   
   Although the town newspapers often gave the impression that residents of the town and surrounding areas spoke in a unified voice, that was usually not the case. Disagreements between businessmen and rural folk, ranchers and farmers, natives and foreign-born, and reformers and vice practitioners were frequent. Dykstra contradicts earlier studies that claimed successful town development on mutual cooperation and shows how progress was made through such differences.
   
   The differences over town policy provided a forum for area residents to discuss the future vision of their town. Whether the discussion was over alcohol, gambling, prostitution, or the movement of the splenic flu deadline, the result was an exchange of ideas focused on improving the town. Town businessmen, for example, sympathized with the reformers who sought to improve the moral values of the town by eliminating vices, but not at the financial cost of losing the trail drivers who were attracted by such vices and spent their funds liberally throughout town.
   
   Due to the advancement of technology and the progression of settlers into the once open Kansas frontier, the cattle towns shifted their focus from cattle to the more consistent industry of agriculture. The westward movement of settlers altered the routes of cattle drives away from towns like Abilene and Dodge City and railroads continued to expand their coverage, removing these towns from the cattle industry. Despite the moral vices that accompanied it, the cattle industry between 1867 and 1885 helped provide an immediate economic base that developed towns and laid the groundwork for future success.
   
   Utilizing information from period newspapers, letters, maps, government documents, and previous studies, Dykstra creates a well-written study that explores urban aspirations and rivalry in a frontier setting. By examining the motivations of individuals and groups in the cattle towns, Dykstra has made a valuable contribution to town building on the changing frontier.

3 comments about True Tales of Old-Time Kansas: Revised Edition.

1. Here's one for the history buffs out there. Kids and adults, read about frontier life in Kansas. This is an excellent addition to any library collection. -Native Kansan



2. I live in New york on the Island. I've always, always had a fascination with the old west, and in particular the state of Kansas.. even though I haven't yet been there. For Christmas this year, my mum gave me among other things, an actual Kansas license plate along with this book. I started reading it right away and it has been entirely engrossing. Very interesting individual tales, some are pretty short, so this is the perfect book to read while on the train. I love it.



3. Very good book. I have had this book for years and purchased for a friend.

1 comments about Flag Burning and Free Speech: The Case of Texas v. Johnson.

1. Pros: Goldstein announces his bias in the preface to alert readers to possible slants in his writing style. It's an easy read and organized well.
   
   Cons: I find that he uses too many citations and includes little analysis. Insights and rhetorical questions are pretty surface-level.
   
   Overall, it's a good read and poses some interesting questions.