Book Review: Cowboy Culture

I just finished a wonderful book about cowboys.
(Yep, that's right. Y'all read that correctly. Cowboys.)

The work is titled Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries by David Dary.

The work is in 14 engaging fact-filled chapters with an epilogue, notes and an index in the back.

The history starts off with the Spanish presence in New Spain and chronoligically (and topically) follows the evolution of what becomes the American cowboy. It ends with the way of the open range ending, as Eastern Americans throw up barbed wire fences and limiting cattle movement. It reminded me of the Kevin Costner movie "Wide Open Range" (which was a good movie).

Dary dispells myths protrayed by Hollywood and fiction and paints a picture based on facts. Illustrations and contemporary photos are sprinkled within the book to give clarity, featuring the people, the locations and the cowboy's equipment of the trade.

Chapter one of the book inspired a short story from me called "Vaquero", about a young man who is faced with a bandit problem and his cattle in 16th century New Spain (Mexico). I hope you will be able to read it in a magazine soon. I will inform you when it is available.

The rest of the book is full of stories, annecdotes, eye-witness accounts and facts about cowboys which are providing me with inspiration for other short stories and possibly some longer works of fiction. There is something alluring about that time period and location. Perhaps I have been a victim of Hollywood, too, but a romanticized view is OK. It is like sailors. There has been a romance with the sea and life at sea.

Being a cowboy or sailor was a difficult job with low pay, potential danger everyday, boredom beyond measure, forced to deal with a group that may not be exactly cordial, and short careers (if not lives). They also share a solitary practice in the vast expanse of openess. Perhaps people like me long for the solitude once in awhile and think how nice it must be to do that job.

But, having worked on ships, a life of solitude is a lonely one, indeed. So perhaps the position of cowboy is reserved for a few.

Fiction writers and film makers have embellished what a cowboy was, but as with most fiction, there is a grain of truth to art. It is true that they lowly in position, yet there was a certain nobility about them in their trade, with a code of honor and conduct which would be the equivalent to any medieval chivalric code and something people could aspire to follow today.

If you are a fan of history and wonder about life in the West for the cowfolk, please read this book. Enjoy it, as well as any books, for reading is a wonderful experience.

Carpe diem.


Click the image to learn more about the book.