Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers
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Based on unprecedented access to Ranger archives, Lone Star Lawmen chronicles one hundred years of high adventure as told by one of the nation's most respected Western historians. Highlighting the gradual evolution of this celebrated force, Robert M. Utley reveals how the outlaw-pursuing horseback riders of yesteryear became a modern law enforcement agency combating urban crime in Texas's big cities, assisted by the latest advances in forensic science. Modernization didn't mean losing their toughness and independent spirit, however, and Utley predicts how the Rangers will continue to bring justice to the West in the twenty-first century. Publishers Weekly In this follow-up to Lone Star Justice, Utley tells how the Texas Rangers entered the 20th century as an effective if idiosyncratic law enforcement outfit and entered the 21st century as the investigative arm of the Texas Department of Public Safety. In a dry style, Utley describes the Rangers' various commanders, troopers and exploits. Through the first third of the 20th century, the Rangers operated in an extralegal fashion-their existence was at the whim of whoever occupied the governor's mansion in Austin. It wasn't until 1935 that the Rangers were made official and brought into the newly formed DPS. Utley is far too enamored of the Rangers for his book's good. While his precise if plodding prose doesn't hype the Rangers' exploits, and he acknowledges a "dark period" early in the 20th century when weak leaders failed to control their men, he treads so lightly on so many issues-prisoner treatment (brutal), racial integration (belated) and especially gender equality (a glaring problem Utley chalks up to "the lack of female applicants")-that it is hard to see this as the definitive account it aspires to be. 30 b&w illus. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Preface ixPrologue 1The Border, 1910-1915 8The "Bandit War," 1915 26The Big Bend, 1913-1919 48Austin, 1918-1919 68Pat Neff's "Battles of Peace," 1921-1925 85Ma and Pa Ferguson, 1925-1927 109Dan Moody, 1927-1931 119Ross and Bill Sterling, 1931-1933 142Return of the Fergusons, 1933-1935 152The Department of Public Safety, 1935 166DPS Birth Pangs, 1935-1938 179Homer Garrison, 1938-1968 192Gambling ... and Other Distractions 216Latino Uprising 235Change, 1965-1985 254Highs and Lows, 1970s 265Highs and Lows, 1980s 282Highs and Lows, 1990s 303A Summing-Up 329Abbreviations 342Notes 344Sources 381Index 391MapsTexas xviThe Upper Border in 1915 36The Lower Border in 1915 37Oil Boomtowns, 1920-1933 89Texas Rangers Field Organization 2000 305
