They Rode for the Lone Star : The Saga of the Texas Rangers : The Birth of Texas-The Civil War

xx, 234 pages : illustrations (some color), maps ; 29 cm ; ISBN 9780878332052, 0878332057 ; OCLC 768255178 ; red cloth in color photographic dustjacket ; Following the success of Knowles's critically-acclaimed They Rode for the Lone Star: The Saga of the Texas Rangers, The Birth of Texas -- The Civil War, this second volume completes the saga of Texas' original lawmen. Tracing the state's transformation after the Civil War, The Border Wars -- The 21st Century chronicles the force as they evolved from the frontier's finest combat cavalry soldiers into the Wild West's most effective lawmen, and finally into elite officers of one of the modern world's most respected law enforcement agencies. They Rode for the Lone Star follows the Rangers through a half-century of border wars with Mexico. It recounts the Frontier Battalion's final Indian fights as they drove their enemies along the Black Road to defeat and the Special State Troops' capture of outlaws such as Sam Bass and John Wesley Hardin. The twentieth century brought forth a host of social ills and dangers. They Rode for the Lone Star documents agency activities in this century including: -- M. T. Lone Wolf Gonzaullas's fight against organized criminal gangs drunk on wildcat oil, dirty money, and bootleg liquor -- Red Burton's famous stand against the Ku Klux Klan -- Frank Hamer's 102-day interstate manhunt for notorious killers Bonnie and Clyde. This new volume follows the contemporary Ranger force as they combat high-tech extortionists, kidnappers, and serial killers with the latest tools in the arsenal of modern criminal science. Knowles also examines how the legends of the Rangers drew from reality. The stories and larger-than-life personalities that fill the pages of They Rode for the Lone Star give ample proof of the Texas Rangers' ability to spark the imaginations of all readers, those who love tales of the Old West and those who honor the traditions of the law enforcement profession. ; Thomas W. Knowles has worked as a reporter, photographer, columnist, and news editor, as a program coordinator and instructor at Texas A&M ; FINE/FINE.…