Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers - Hardcover

Utley, Robert M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195154444 ISBN 13: 9780195154443

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Hailed as "a rip-snortin', six-guns-blazin' saga of good guys and bad guys who were sometimes one and the same," Robert M. Utley's Lone Star Justice captured the colorful first century of Texas Ranger history. Now, in the eagerly anticipated conclusion, Lone Star Lawmen, Utley once again chronicles the daring exploits of the Rangers, this time as they bring justice to the twentieth-century West.
Based on unprecedented access to Ranger archives, this fast-paced narrative stretches from the days of the Mexican Revolution (where atrocities against Mexican Americans marked the nadir of Ranger history) to the Branch Davidian saga near Waco and the recent bloody standoff with "Republic of Texas" militia. Readers will find in these pages one hundred years of high adventure. Utley follows the Rangers as they pursue bank robbers, bootleggers, moonshiners, and "horsebackers" (smugglers who used mule trains to bring liquor across the border). We see these fearless lawmen taming oil boomtowns, springing the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde, facing down angry lynch mobs, and tracking the "Phantom Killer" of Texarkana. Utley also highlights the gradual evolution of this celebrated force, revealing that while West Texas Rangers still occasionally ride the range on horseback and crack down on smugglers and rustlers, East Texas Rangers--who work mostly in big cities--now ride in high-powered cars and contend with kidnappers, forgers, and other urban criminals. But East or West, today's Rangers have become sophisticated professionals, backed by crime labs and forensic science.
Written by one of the most respected Western historians alive, here is the definitive account of the Texas Rangers, a vivid portrait of these legendary peace officers and their role in a changing West.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert M. Utley is one of the leading historians of the American West. A former chief historian of the National Park Service, he is a founding member and former president of the Western Historical Association, and the author of sixteen books on the American West, including the best-selling The Lance and the Shield: The Life of Sitting Bull. He lives in Georgetown, Texas, with his wife Melody Webb, also a historian.

Review:

"Perhaps the most common question arising after the publication of Robert Utley's Lone Star Justice in 2002 was whether the promised second volume would match the first for compelling stories of lone Rangers battling Indians and outlaws on the Texas frontier...The answer, happily, is that Mr. Utley has risen to the occasion...this well-researched study adds enormously to Texas history and offers a reasonably objective treatment of one of the most unique and controversial organizations Texas ever produced."--Dallas Morning News

"What's most astounding is his singular ability to blend deep research with a mind-boggling grasp of secondary source materials. Then, like an alchemist, he uses his gift for old-fashioned storytelling to write beautifully rendered narratives... Honest, pragmatic and usually right, Utley's action-packed newest effort, 'Lone Star: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers,'belongs on all readers' Western Americana bookshelves, next to the best efforts of Webb, Dobie and Prescott."--Austin American-Statesman

"In this follow-up to Lone Star Justice, Utley tells how the Texas Rangers entered the 20th century as an effective if idiosyncratic law enforcement outfit and entered the 21st century as the investigative arm of the Texas Department of Public Safety. In a dry style, Utley describes the Rangers various commanders, troopers and exploits."--Publishers Weekly

"In Lone Star Lawmen our pre-eminent historian of the American West has presented a thorough and vividly written assessment of this great, often controversial, assemblage of Texas lawmen."--Roundup Magazine

"This book is a winner. Robert Utley's Lone Star Justice and Lone Star Lawmen are the best books ever written about the Texas Rangers. His brilliant account makes the story of the Rangers central to an understanding of Texas history, and his talent for vivid storytelling enthralls us to the very end."--Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University

"Utley rounds out his history of the Texas Rangers with a brisk account of their high points and their lows, their heroes and their villains, during the Twentieth Century. Exploring both the darkness and the sunshine, his well-rounded book is certain to create controversy among both supporters and detractors of the Rangers."--Elmer Kelton, author of Texas Vendetta and The Buckskin Line

"No one has done more to illuminate the real American Western experience and separate it from fictionalizing and folklore than Robert Utley. Lone Star Lawmen completes his landmark history of the Texas Rangers, from the last days of the outlaws to the modern challenges of patrolling an international border. Throughout Utley is cogent, authoritative, and unfailingly interesting, a Lone Star Historian at his best."--William C. Davis, author of Three Roads to the Alamo

"Lively with stories of crime and punishment, victory and disappointment. It is sure to be controversial...naming names and claling them as he sees them: the good, the bad, the modest, the flamboyant, and the incompetent."--Montana: The Magazine of Western History

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0195154444
• ISBN 13: 9780195154443
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400