An album of period photos, paintings, advertisements and posters culled from the collections of the Library of Congress. To each Sandler contributes a few general remarks, not so much descriptions as appreciations of cowboy work and character in sometimes hyperbolic prose: ``He is perhaps the most American of us all. His restlessness, his optimism, his joy in hard work...are the very qualities that mark us as a nation.'' The author acknowledges the presence of women and African-Americans on the trail and closes with a nod to modern cowboys plus a paean to LC. The photos communicate an authentic sense of life on the range; in effective contrast, the color posters, sheet music, and book jackets illustrate the growth of the cowboy myth. Still, the lack of informational captions or sources makes this a browsing item rather than a research tool. Books such as Granfield's Cowboy or Marrin's Cowboys, Indians and Gunfighters (both 1993) offer an equally dramatic, much more detailed and authoritative picture. In the same handsome format, a companion volume: Pioneers (ISBN: 0-06-023023- 1). Index. (Nonfiction. 11-14) Read full book review >