COWBOYS AND COW TOWNS OF THE WILD WEST

The reality behind the image of the American cowboy gets a quick once-over in this perfunctory, thinly illustrated report. Savage recycles anecdotes, mostly about stampedes, from three o.p. but easily available books, linking them with a background account of the growth and decline of trails and cowtowns in the southwest. He acknowledges the contributions of Native American vaqueros, women, and African-Americans, and closes with a brief glance at modern cowboy work. Typical of the level of detail here is the description of cowboy dress and equipment: horse, lariat, and six-shooter. It is supplemented with generic b&w photographs and maps. Granfield's Cowboy: An Album (1994) or Murdoch's Cowboy (1993), among many others, leaves this one in the dust. (b&w illustrations, notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-12)