Reviews for The Last American Frontier

The average rating for The Last American Frontier based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-09-18 00:00:00 Sheal Recto A rather typical history of the Texas Rangers written by a young historian in the mid-1930's. More a telling of the Ranger's exploits in war and law-enforcement instead of a scholarly examination of the organization's political/legal development and the role that it played in the social structure of early Texas (good and bad such as dealings with slaves, freed slaves, Mexicans and native Americans). As was common of these type of histories from the mid-twentieth century Mr. Webb is a flag waver and unabashedly partisan. Also, equally typical of works from the time period (unfortunately), there is casual racism that I'm sure Mr. Webb was unaware of. Many of his readers would have accepted some of his statements as just a matter of fact in 1935. In defense of Mr. Webb his later works showed that he had changed - as do most of us as we mature. Mr. Webb had plans to do some editing to this book before it was re-released in 1965 and ,I suspect, among those changes would have been some judicious editing of some of the more inflammatory sentences. I also suspect that he would have provided more material on the role that the Texas Rangers played during the post-Reconstruction Era (which is basically ignored in the book). However Mr. Webb was killed in a car crash in 1963 so the original publication remains unchanged. I always state that one needs to keep perspective when reading an older book, but often it seems to fall on deaf ears. Nevertheless try to keep that in mind when reading this history.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-06-15 00:00:00 Volvert Daniel J. Frank Dobie, Roy Bedichek, and the author of 'Texas Rangers', Walter Prescott Webb, are considered the fathers of Texas literature. They all gathered tales and folklore that were told around campfires, in parlors and certainly a few saloons. All the information that might be considered common knowledge for a time, but that would have been lost to history had these men not collected and wrote about it. Webb wastes no time in setting the scene, there were 3 sides to the landscape, the Indian Warrior, The Mexican Vaquero, and the Texas Ranger. All were dead set against each other and at times, two of the three would be against the one. The word Texas means 'friendly', but for its first 100 years, it was anything but. The Rangers were created to apply law and order to a vast piece of real estate for a population and government with few resources. Ranger companies were formed, having to provide their own horse and gun, usually of a few to 20 men led by a Captain. Often the force was supplemented by locals who had an interest in why the Rangers had arrived, such as cattle or horse thieving or the occasional invasion of Mexico. Often facing great odds, the Captain had to be intelligent, brave and bold, and when successful, his name became part of legend, such as Bill McDonald, or Ben McCulloch. There is no shortage of action in Texas, even after having seen many western movies and TV shows, one can still be impressed at the scale of the violence that could happen to you out there under a Comanche moon. In many Ranger events they are judge, jury, and executioner, not necessarily in that order, an insight into the conditions of the times. One thing noticeable by its absence, while there are plenty of guns and bad guys, there are no 'show downs' in the middle of the street at high noon. And it's not all cowboys, Indians and banditos, as WWI arrived, there were Germans on the border, maybe, prohibition to enforce, reluctantly. The chapter on Frank Hamer, who was off and on a Ranger and always a true Texas character, and the man who tracked down Bonnie and Clyde, is a fascinating one. As Hamer was a contemporary, you can tell Webb was a bit in awe of him. Author Webb was born in 1888 near Austin, Texas, and as the book was published in 1935, in time for the centennial of the Republic, it offers a fascinating perspective, as Webb grew up hearing the stories and later interviewing many old Rangers, their families and cohorts. He adds on a final chapter of his adventure as he spent a few months with the Rangers in the ultimate 'police ride along' which had campouts as well as shootouts! My second edition has a photo of saddled Rangers on the cover, though the original cover art by Tom Lea (WW2 fans may know him for his '2,000 yard stare' painting) is on the title page, so good stuff, also President Lyndon Johnson provides a forward (1965). Since 1935 there have been many other books published about the Rangers, something Webb appreciated. If you want the tale from the start, get yourself 'Texas Rangers a Century of Frontier Defense', a Texas map, and saddle up.