Book Reviews
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BOOK REVIEWS NONFICTION process, he adds to Roosevelt’s impres- Birth of the FBI. Doubleday. Hardcover, sive reputation as one of the giant 336 pages, $29.95, KnopfDoubleday. figures in American history. com. MARK LEE GARDNER. Rough – Jon Chandler David Grann’s well-researched, Riders: Theodore Roosevelt, His Cowboy compulsively readable account of the Regiment, and the Immortal Charge Up BRUCE A. GLASRUD and MI- infamous “Osage Reign of Terror” is San Juan Hill. William Morrow. Hard- CHAEL N. SEARLES (editors). Black one of the best nonfiction books of the cover, 352 pages, $26.99, Cowboys in the American West: On the year. A staff writer for the New Yorker, HarperCollins.com. Range, On the Stage, Behind the Badge. Grann trains his well-honed reportorial There have been countless books University of Oklahoma Press. Trade instincts and a keen observational eye written about various facets of Theo- paperback, 250 pages, $24.95, on the spate of greed-driven murders dore Roosevelt’s life, but it’s unlikely OUPress.com. that swept through the oil-rich reserva- that any offer the masterful mix of The editors of this volume have tion and its inhabitants in the boom rousing storytelling and historical ac- gathered a number of essays by several years of the 1920s. The tale finds sharp curacy contained in Mark Lee Gard- authors to note the unsung contribu- personal focus in the dual stories of ner’s Rough Rider. Gardner’s trademark tions made by black cowboys in our Osage tribal member Molly Burkhart, style imbues dry historical facts with American West. Freemen, not slaves on whose family suffered catastrophic loss, plot development and narrative action horseback, they participated in rodeo, and former Texas Ranger-turned-G- usually reserved for the best fiction, music, ranch work, on stage, on screen man Tom White, whose team of under- and has made his previous efforts, and in law enforcement, to name a few. cover investigators cracked the case and To Hell on a Fast Horse and Shot All to Some took on the risks of the entrepre- scored a headline-grabbing victory for Hell, popular additions to the legends neur, which yielded successful ranch the nascent FBI and its boss, J. Edgar of Billy the Kid and Jesse James. His and business ownership. A seemingly Hoover. Grann’s crisp, propulsive style take on Roosevelt is equally accessible universal truth written in one essay makes for compelling stranger-than-fic- and enjoyable. Gardner follows the stated, “The mutual interdependence tion drama (movie rights have already creation, implementation and legacy of left little room for arrogant displays sold for an astonishing $5 million). In the Rough Riders from the regiment’s of racial superiority…” in mixed-race the final section of the book, the re- creation shortly after the sinking of trail drives. This is a great collection of porter becomes a character in his own the USS Maine in Havana harbor in stories. investigation, journeying to the modern 1898, an act that spawned the Span- – Lynn Bueling reservation to uncover a conspiracy ish American War. Gardner shows us far more insidious than even the FBI a Roosevelt who is less a cartoonish DAVID GRANN. Killers of the imagined. In an era of continued ex- man of action, and more a thoughtful Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the ploitation and pipeline protests, this is military and political genius. In the essential reading. – Kirk Ellis MATTHEW CHRISTOPHER HULBERT. The Ghosts of Guerrilla Memory: How Civil War Bushwhackers Became Gunslingers in the American West. University of Georgia Press. Hardcov- er, trade paperback, 327 pages, $84.95, $29.95, UGaPress.org. In 1870, Samuel Hildebrand’s The Life of Samuel Hildebrand (likely written by an editor) was published – the first known memoir of a Confederate guer- rilla. By the early 1900s, many Mis- souri bushwhackers – Cole Younger, William Gregg, John McCorkle – were writing their Civil War memoirs. Kit Dalton even wrote one, although many 22 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2017 historians today have discredited Ways Features accepted, perpetuated Cattle Company. Available at the Sul- Dalton and his accounts. Matthew and popularized an often fantastic phur Springs Valley Historical Associa- Christopher Hulbert writes that most version of Arizona and Sonora that tion in Willcox, Arizona. memoirs were, well, mis-remembered became embedded in the American at best. Hulbert, a cultural and military psyche through movie newsreels. The M. JOHN LUBETKIN. Road to historian, argues that cultural politics author offers a critique of mid-20th War: The 1871 Yellowstone Surveys. Uni- helped change popular impressions of Century American culture. versity of Oklahoma Press. Hardcover, these irregular warriors. The subtitle is – Doug Hocking 312 pages, $34.95, OUPress.com. a bit misleading as post-war gun-blaz- Road to War is the author’s third in ing on the frontier is rarely discussed, KATHY BLISS KLUMP. The Last a series of books chronicling the sur- and including Billy the Kid, who never Roundup of the “Y” Cattle Company: veys and building of the United States was a Missouri bushwhacker, is quite The Story of John Walter Klump and His second continental railroad by the the stretch. Still, whether you buy Association with the Partnership of Hurst, Northern Pacific. This volume covers Hulbert’s thesis or not, The Ghosts of Black, Kiehne, and Wiley in New Mexico the initial surveys through Dakota Guerrilla Memory is a fascinating, well- and Arizona. PetKat. Trade paperback, Territory and Montana and construc- researched read. 178 pages, $20, SSVHS.weebly.com. tion of the railroad through Min- – Johnny D. Boggs Ranching is a business, and some- nesota. These actions would lead to times the business can be far from further decimation of the bison herds JENNIFER L. JENKINS. Celluloid glorious. This regional history follows and eventual war with the Lakota. Pueblo: Western Ways Films and the In- the beginnings and tragic end of one John Lubetkin tells the story through vention of the Postwar Southwest. Univer- of the largest cattle ranches in New official reports, journals, private let- sity of Arizona Press. Hardcover, 227 Mexico and Arizona. The period is ters and newspaper articles linked pages, $45, UAPress.Arizona.edu. roughly 1885 to 1898. It ended with a together by explanations on what Although jargon infested, this final gathering of cattle that had to be was occurring. Twenty illustrations, book remains oddly readable, offer- sold to pay off debts. Local historian four maps and four tables add to the ing an excellent description of how to Kathy Bliss Klump uses correspon- wealth of first-hand information. Road photograph the American Southwest. dence and other documents to tell the to War is invaluable for anyone want- Charles and Lucile Herbert of Western story of the rise and fall of the “Y” ing to further understand the building APRIL 2017 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE 23 of the Northern Pacific Railroad and prevailed. But MacKinnon questions icling the difficulties of their leaving, its consequences. and downplays both his motives and travel and settlement as well as their – Bill Markley methods. Still, with Volume I, this is many and varied accomplishments in likely the most detailed study of the promoting equality of opportunity. WILLIAM P. MacKINNON (edi- Utah War and an essential resource. Known facts and resulting conclusions tor). At Sword’s Point, Part 2: A Documen- – Rod Miller are presented in an interesting, well- tary History of the Utah War, 1858-1859. written, engaging narrative. Arthur H. Clark. Hardcover, 650 pages, SHIRLEY ANN WILSON – Rod Miller $45, OUPress.com. MOORE. Sweet Freedom’s Plains–Af- While titled “documentary his- rican Americans on the Overland Trails JOHN OLLER. The Swamp Fox: tory,” editorial narrative outweighs 1841-1869. University of Oklahoma How Francis Marion Saved the American documents in this big book. Secondary Press. Hardcover, 232 pages, $29.95, Revolution. Da Capo. Hardcover, 400 sources inform the narrative, unfortu- OUPress.com. pages, $26.99, DaCapoPress.com. nately dominated by the editor’s own Westward migration included un- During the American Revolution, works. Of particular interest, the editor counted numbers of African Americans Francis Marion led a group of Patriot chronicles the widespread, if minor, – escaped slaves, freed slaves and men partisans in guerrilla warfare against influence of the Utah War in unexpect- and women born free. Owing to social, British regulars and colonial Loyalists ed places through newspaper reports, political and legal discrimination of the on the South Carolina frontier. Hiding letters and diplomatic correspondence. times, records of their passage and lives in the swamps, he earned the Swamp The book follows the war from the in the West are scant. While the hopes Fox nickname, and an updated biog- Army’s winter at Fort Bridger – includ- of African American emigrants mir- raphy has been long overdue. John ing Randolph Marcy’s heroic journey ror those of their white counterparts Oller writes with convincing author- to New Mexico – through its march – with the added dream of freedom ity, although he fails when he tries to beyond an abandoned Salt Lake City. – the realization of those expectations be cute: Colonial General Nathanael Virtually all historians credit Thomas proved much more challenging. Draw- Greene wanted Marion’s men to supply Kane’s semi-official diplomacy with, ing on available documents, the author the regulars with horses but also “to at the very least, keeping the lid on a reconstructs the experiences of several serve, in part, as cowboys – driving potential bloodbath until cooler heads representative black overlanders, chron- cattle to the army and away from the 24 ROUNDUP MAGAZINE APRIL 2017 enemy. And no cowboy was ever with- against fire, Pyne offers, derive as sand Miles in Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, out a good horse.” Cattle were herded much from culture as from science.