University of Washington
Review
Reviewed Work(s): Cowboys of the Americas by Richard W. Slatta
Review by: Michael Allen
Source: The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 82, No. 2 (Apr., 1991), p. 74
Published by: University of Washington
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74 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY
l^jowboys secular bachelors
of the known for their love of to-
Americas. wood Lawrence'sBy Rodeo (1982) will puzzle
Richar
Slatta. (New baccoHaven: Yale
and caffeine, their equestrian over Slatta's
games, generalization that American Pr
University
Western and their drinking, gambling,
Americana and violence.
Series, rodeo has become
1990.less sexist over the century 30
xiv,
Differences
Illustrations, notes, are found in weaponry
glossary, (are women's goat-tying
(Latin and barrel-racing
bibliograp
essay, selectAmericans preferred knives to guns), tack and
bibliography, events really signs of the "erosion
index. of sexism"
$35)
other gear, treatment of their horses, and the [p. 213]?). Moviegoers will be surprised to
Nearly 40 reasons for their
years group's demise.
ago, Canadians
Edward Larocque
learn that Rip Torn, not Conchata Ferrell (who Ti
demonstrated appear to
thehave been the most law-abiding of
significance goes unmentioned),of is the hero of HeartJand
Hispanic
tion of cowboythe lot. Interestingly,
culture Argentinean gauchos (p.
in 215). Finally,
his Slatta classic
mars an otherwise as- Ho
men of the and American cowboys enjoy farand
Americas higher na-tutethe
discussion of "political 'cowboyism'"
Literature T
inspired tional mythological
(1953). Now status than Richard and the "political
their Chilean, W. and economic
Slatta disasters" (p. ha
knowledged Venezuelan,
Tinker and Mexican counterparts.
and 193) successfully com
it has entailed with his own political par-
mented Throughout all of
Tinker's this is woven the Hispanictisanship.
flowery (and He aims
at all of his salvos at the ele
times
prose with ainfluence:
fully Latin American language, work "cowboys" Theodore Roosevelt,
documented history John Wayne, of
subject. In Cowboys of
ways, and other traits can be seen the
in cowboys and Ronald Reagan. Surely the Texas Demo- a h
Americas,
some volume on the American
with Great Plains,a in Alberta, Can-crat Lyndon B. Johnson (ofhemisph
"sweeping LBJ Ranch fame)
perspective" ada, and even 12),
(p. on the ranches Slatta
of Hawaii. should join these Republican
argues "bad guys" in
persuasi
that the "Spanish influence this author's political
is shootout!
primary
open-range Cowboys of the Americas
cattle frontiers merits both praise of North and
America" (p.and criticism.
1). It is a work of immense scope,Yale University Press will soon, I hope, reissue
solidly researched, and based on an im- Cowboys of the Americas in a less expensive
In this pressive blend of English- and
comparative Spanish-lan- paperback version. Such an
sociocultural edition would
portrait
reader enters guage sources.
the is documented like a makeof
While it worlds an excellent
the and provocative
Argenti textbook
gaucho, Chilean huaso,
monograph, however, it is packaged and mar-Venezuelan
for western history courses and graduate JJan
semi-
Mexican vaquero, regrettably, writ- nars. Richard Slatta has and
keted like a trade book - and, American written what will now
Canad
cowboy, and
ten like other mounted
a textbook. In this lavishly illustrated become the standard work herdsmen
on this subject. Yet
learn about study (137 color andrespective
their black-and-white plates) readers of Cowboys
origins, of the Americas who keepsocio
nomic status,
encompassingwork10 national cultures,
ways,there ap- Edward Larocque Tinker at hand will be re-
equipment, s
food and drink, life-styles,
pears not a single map. minded that, once again, the "new" western
leisure purs
and mythological and literary
history has flowered from seeds dimens
planted gen-
While there Admirers
are of Terry
many G. Jordan's Trails to Texas erations earlier. D
similarities among
horsemen, there are
(1981) and Grady McWhiney's Crackeralso
Culture differences. N
all of Slatta's cowboys
(1988) will form
counter Hispanicization with Ang- Michael Allen an exploited
derclass of lo and Celtic theses.nation.
their Readers of Elizabeth At- They are
University of Washington, all
Tacoma nom
A Celebration of Work. By Norman the Best.
exclusion of most other considerations. explanations of terms used in road building.
Edited by William G. Robbins. (Lincoln: This Uni-
is a man who seems never to have played. These and the highway maps are especially
versity of Nebraska Press, 1990. xviii,From 223 his
pp.earliest Methodist church lessons in useful to readers unfamiliar with either the
Illustrations, notes, maps. $19.95) Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to his Communist party geography of the Pacific Northwest or the his-
organizing activities, to his career as a union tory of the 20th century.
Winds of Change: Women in Northwest Com-agent, he strove to blend his religion,
business
mercial Fishing. By Charlene J. Allison, Sue- and his social life with his work.
his politics, Winds of Change, on the other hand, is a col-
Ellen Jacobs, and Mary A. Porter. Best (Seattle: lective biography produced by a committee,
is on solid ground when he tells in loving
University of Washington Press, 1989. detail of the first teams of men, animals, and
xliv, and it lacks a clear focus. It resulted from a
203 pp. Illustrations, map, appendixes, glos- he worked with and how they have
machines project funded by Washington Sea Grant and
sary, bibliography, index. $25.00) been replaced by the enormously powerful the University of Washington and was in-
teams of men and machines of the present day. tended "to identify the range of roles women
Neither of these books qualifies as a He workalso of
describes the roads he helped build. play within the fishing industry and to collect
history, nor do they make the attempt. The Nor- oral histories of women who have worked in
narrative passages that trace the routes he
man Best's volume is an autobiographical surveyed ac- and the climatic and geographic the various roles" (p. xii). In addition to the
count of his life as a Pacific Northwest road problems he faced and overcame are particu- editors, a number of other advisers, volun-
builder and machinist from the 1920s to the larly good. teers, and paid staff worked on the project
1960s. Best attempts to apply socialist eco- over a period of four years.
nomic and political theories to the eventsTheof editor, William G. Robbins, has a light
his day, but it is a half-hearted and inconsis-
touch and has left Best to tell his own story. The researchers and editors accumulated and
tent effort and is not essential to his story.He
Hehas provided endnotes containing both analyzed data according to the principles of
focuses on work and the work experiencehistorical
to information from general works and anthropological research. Using a standard
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