Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries

by David Dary

A nationwide bestseller—with more than 65,000 copies in print since publication by Alfred A. Knopf in 1981, this fascinating chronicle of cowboy life and legend is now available in a trade paperback edition. It's the 500-year saga of the "real cowboy"—from fifteenth-century Mexico to the twentieth-century American West.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Research, Westerns

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exploration of how the American cowboy came to be. Dary shows how American history shaped and changed cowboy culture through extensive research. Particularly interesting was the effect the Civil War had and the influence of Eastern writers--the romanticization of their way of life impacted cowboys as early as the 1870s/80s. The pictures and drawings included are also helpful for researchers.

It's not perfect though. Dary views cowboys with rose-tinted glasses, there is zero critical analysis, and you can tell which areas of research he didn't care about. (Ex: His brief inclusion of prostitution is a joke. He provides no sources and makes no mentions of abuse, disease, or violence. It just screams laziness). Minus the chapter on Mexican Vaqueros, there's little-to-no attention paid to Black, Mexican, or Native American perspectives/influence on cowboy culture. It's not a bad read but read some modern texts alongside it for a more comprehensive picture of cowboy life and culture.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating survey of cattle raising and trailing in the Old West, from the early 16th century Spanish colonists to the late 19th century cattle barons. The main focus of the book is on the Texas cattlemen and cowboys who raised herds on the open range and then led them on cattle drives to markets and railheads in Kansas and Missouri. Dary illuminates this history with many anecdotes and other first person accounts, as well as giving many details of cowboy life on the ranch and trail, and in the cattle towns of the West.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an exhaustive treatment of the birth and growth of the cattle industry in the Americas. Especially commendable is the author's extensive research into the Spanish ways of ranching. There are many books which seek to say something about Texas or the American West but few which undertake to tell the story back to the times of the Spanish empire.

At times, the book bogs down a bit in painstaking detail over some matter that is probably not of great interest to someone outside of the industry. This is offset by the extensive first person quotations which were included in the work. There are also many illustrations interspersed through the text, not just 6 or 8 pages in the center.

Overall, both enlightening and enjoyable.

[Neil Pierson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There really was a Longbranch Saloon in Dodge City. But no Marshall Dillon. And if there was a Miss Kitty, she was probably upstairs entertaining customers.

This book includes a little too much research for my taste, but it has its charms: The introduction of barbed wire made it practical to fence large tracts of land, putting an end to open range grazing, cattle drives, and the cowboy way of life. Some cowboys called barbed wire "the devil's hatband."

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost gave this book 5 stars, that's how informative and well-written I thought it was. Covering 500 years of cowboy evolution, David Dary covered every aspect of the cowboy from the early Spanish explorations to the King ranch in Texas. It blew holes in the romantic Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, Gene Autry portraits and painted a culture that was hard, challenging, and sometimes deadly. Want to know. about saddles, bridles, breaking horses and how it was done? Dary has answers. Want to know the evolution of the cowboy hat? Dary shows how it evolved from the Spanish helmet to the Stetson. And there is so much more. His copious notes at the end is full of nuggets of information. A surprising
read for those looking for something different.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cowboy Culture covers 500 years of the American cowboy culture and cattle industry beginning with their Spanish and Mexican roots. The most interesting part of the book for me was Dary’s description of cowboy life in the late 1880’s – on cattle drives and back home at ranches and bunkhouses. Although fascinated Easterners romanticized the cowboy and his lifestyle, the truth was that a cowboy was a hired man on a horse. He sang, not to a sweetheart, but to calm skittish cows. A good saddle cost him a whole month’s wages (about $35.00). Dary characterized the cowboys of this period as honest, trusting, hospitable and caring.

[Jaime · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book took me a very long time to finish...it's pretty dry but very interesting. I gave it 4 stars because I believe it is very well researched and executed and really gives the reader a sense of what life on the frontier was truly like. Not only did the book give me more empathy for the many ranchers and "cowboys" I came across during my time working for the Bureau of Land Management in Idaho, but also a great deal more respect for the cattle ranching industry as a whole and what it took to get it where it is today.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything you ever wanted to know about the cowboy and his accoutrements...I enjoyed every minute of this read!

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that lives up to its title. I found the first few chapters especially interesting, but all of it enjoyable.

[Erin Bowman]

Thorough examination of cowboy history and culture. Useful photographs, illustrations, and maps included. Read for research.