Synopses & Reviews
Cowboys are an American legend, but despite ubiquity in history and popular culture, misperceptions abound. Technically, a cowboy worked with cattle, as a ranch hand, while his boss, the cattleman, owned the ranch. Jacqueline M. Moore casts aside romantic and one-dimensional images of cowboys by analyzing the class, gender, and labor histories of ranching in Texas during the second half of the nineteenth century.
As working-class men, cowboys showed their masculinity through their skills at work as well as public displays in town. But what cowboys thought was manly behavior did not always match those ideas of the business-minded cattlemen, who largely absorbed middle-class masculine ideals of restraint. Real men, by these standards, had self-mastery over their impulses and didnt fight, drink, gamble or consort with "unsavory" women. Moore explores how, in contrast to the mythic image, from the late 1870s on, as the Texas frontier became more settled and the open range disappeared, the real cowboys faced increasing demands from the people around them to rein in the very traits that Americans considered the most masculine.
Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.
Review
"One of the best things about Moore's work is her keen balancing of theory with substance.
is not only a cutting-edge study of class and gender, it may be the best overall social history of the cattle industry in print." "In this short but significant book, Moore (Austin College) offers a convincing corrective to the romanticized views of cowboys and cattlemen advanced by purveyors of popular culture in the US... Moore's book is provocative in its theme and informative in its coverage of the work of both cowboys and cattlemen... Highly recommended." “This fascinating book recounts the stories told by cowboys and cattlemen to pierce through the mythologized tales told about them. These men, who came to model manhood for themselves and others in so many ways, are vividly revealed as both less and more familiar—less exotic than the stereotypes we thought we knew and more the working men and capitalist bosses we know and are, defining themselves in terms of gender, race, and class identities through both their work and leisure activities in changing economic times. Highly recommended for anyone interested in new truths about the Old West.”
“Moore, a historian who knows her sources and how to squeeze them, lays clear the many shapes masculinity took among Gilded-Age Texas cattlemen and cowboys. Hers is an in-depth look at their mindsets and behaviors from as many angles as an MRI. How did cowboys change from manly doers to marginal juveniles, and finally, to the mythic idols of recent times? Read it here.”
Review
"A passionately engaged book that puts individual moral responsibility at the center of criminal justice and challenges much of the traditional wisdom. Required reading for all those interested in criminal justice policy and criminal law."-Stephen J. Morse,Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law Professor of Psychology and Law in Psychiatry University of Pennsylvania
Review
"From the opening paragraph, Pillsbury piques the reader's curiosity about just punishments. . . . What do people deserve for their wrongdoing, especially in those cases involving extreme cruelty? . . . Pillsbury enables clear and careful thinking about one's own expectations of the legal system. Highly recommended." -Choice,
Review
"A provocative, well-written volume that will keenly interest criminologists, lawyers, and philosophers alike." -Paul M. Kurtz,J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law, University of Georgia
Review
“This fascinating book recounts the stories told by cowboys and cattlemen to pierce through the mythologized tales told about them. These men, who came to model manhood for themselves and others in so many ways, are vividly revealed as both less and more familiar—less exotic than the stereotypes we thought we knew and more the working men and capitalist bosses we know and are, defining themselves in terms of gender, race, and class identities through both their work and leisure activities in changing economic times. Highly recommended for anyone interested in new truths about the Old West.”
-Harry Brod,editor of The Making of Masculinities: The New Mens Studies
Review
“Moore, a historian who knows her sources and how to squeeze them, lays clear the many shapes masculinity took among Gilded-Age Texas cattlemen and cowboys. Hers is an in-depth look at their mindsets and behaviors from as many angles as an MRI. How did cowboys change from manly doers to marginal juveniles, and finally, to the mythic idols of recent times? Read it here.”
-Walter Nugent,author of Into the West: The Story of Its People
Synopsis
Moore explores how, in contrast to the mythic image, from the late 1870s on, as the Texas frontier became more settled and the open range disappeared, the real cowboys faced increasing demands from the people around them to rein in the very traits that Americans considered the most masculine.
Synopsis
Why do killers deserve punishment? How should the law decide?
These are the questions Samuel H. Pillsbury seeks to answer in this important new book on the theory and practice of criminal responsibility. In an argument both traditional and fresh, Pillsbury holds that persons deserve punishment according to the evil they choose to do, regardless of their psychological capacities. Using real case examples, he offers concrete proposals for legal reform, urging that modern preoccupations with subjective aspects of wrongdoing be replaced with rules that focus more on the individual's motives.
About the Author
Jacqueline M. Moore is professor of history at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. She is the author of several books, including Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois and the Struggle for Racial Uplift.