Customer Reviews

Industrial Cowboys: Miller & Lux and the Transformation of the Far West, 1850-1920

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This is a fine book that provides important new insights not only into the history of big cattle ranching in California, but also into our broader understanding of the settlement of the American West and the meaning of American industrialization. Igler's concept of the "industrial cowboy" who works, in essence, in a factory without walls in which the landscape of nature itself becomes part of the technological system should force all American historians to rethink their understanding of what constitutes an industrialization. Likewise, Igler's work adds to the growing body of evidence that one of the best ways of defining and thinking about the American West is a place where a relatively pristine environment interesected with an advanced industrial society.

Miller & Lux owned a lot of land in the area we live and we are very interested in the history. Our family moved in this area around 1920 while we know some the history from family this adds to the info.

Reading this book put me back in time. I live and work in the area Henry Miller owned. Everywhere you turn in this area you are unknowingly walking on local history.

It gave me a new perspective for the area around me which most people, myself included take for granted. It is shameful how much of what Henry Miller amassed is now gone and with every passing day goes a little more of our local history.

A must read for anyone who relishes the era of days gone by and a time when every person could succeed if they worked hard and had some good old fashioned common sense.