Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers [Paperback]

Robert M. Utley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0425219380 | ISBN-13: 978-0425219386

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.

Editorial Reviews

From 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 © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Perhaps the most common question arising after the publication of Robert Utley's Lone Star Justice in 2002 was whether the promised second volume would match the first for compelling stories of lone Rangers battling Indians and outlaws on the Texas frontier...The answer, happily, is that Mr. Utley has risen to the occasion...this well-researched study adds enormously to Texas history and offers a reasonably objective treatment of one of the most unique and controversial organizations Texas ever produced."--Dallas Morning News

"What's most astounding is his singular ability to blend deep research with a mind-boggling grasp of secondary source materials. Then, like an alchemist, he uses his gift for old-fashioned storytelling to write beautifully rendered narratives... Honest, pragmatic and usually right, Utley's action-packed newest effort, 'Lone Star: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers,'belongs on all readers' Western Americana bookshelves, next to the best efforts of Webb, Dobie and Prescott."--Austin American-Statesman

"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."--Publishers Weekly

"In Lone Star Lawmen our pre-eminent historian of the American West has presented a thorough and vividly written assessment of this great, often controversial, assemblage of Texas lawmen."--Roundup Magazine

"This book is a winner. Robert Utley's Lone Star Justice and Lone Star Lawmen are the best books ever written about the Texas Rangers. His brilliant account makes the story of the Rangers central to an understanding of Texas history, and his talent for vivid storytelling enthralls us to the very end."--Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University

"Utley rounds out his history of the Texas Rangers with a brisk account of their high points and their lows, their heroes and their villains, during the Twentieth Century. Exploring both the darkness and the sunshine, his well-rounded book is certain to create controversy among both supporters and detractors of the Rangers."--Elmer Kelton, author of Texas Vendetta and The Buckskin Line

"No one has done more to illuminate the real American Western experience and separate it from fictionalizing and folklore than Robert Utley. Lone Star Lawmen completes his landmark history of the Texas Rangers, from the last days of the outlaws to the modern challenges of patrolling an international border. Throughout Utley is cogent, authoritative, and unfailingly interesting, a Lone Star Historian at his best."--William C. Davis, author of Three Roads to the Alamo

"Lively with stories of crime and punishment, victory and disappointment. It is sure to be controversial...naming names and claling them as he sees them: the good, the bad, the modest, the flamboyant, and the incompetent."--Montana: The Magazine of Western History

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (March 4, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425219380
• ISBN-13: 978-0425219386
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,337 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VALUABLE ADDITION TO TEXAS HISTORY, March 17, 2007

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers (Hardcover)

Much to the pleasure of Texans and history buffs acclaimed historian Robert Utley returns with his sequel to Lone Star Justice (2002) thus bringing the saga of the Texas Rangers to the present day. Many have been introduced to the Rangers via television with such programs as Walker or Texas Ranger, yet it is left to Utley to deliver the most telling and intriguing story of all.

We read, "One Riot, One Ranger. A single Ranger could quell an incipient riot. Rangers and Texans alike reveled in the image of the stalwart, fearless lawman facing down an angry mob. On occasion it came close enough to happening to provide at least an inspiration for the slogan."

Yes, the Rangers were and are, for many, men of mythic stature. Utley debunks some myths while perpetuating others. History is at its most fascinating as the Rangers enter the twentieth century leaving their beloved horses behind and chasing criminals in motorized vehicles. They're no longer after rustlers but set their sights on modern criminals and the utilization of contemporary methods, such as forensic science.

With Lone Star Lawmen readers view the Mexican Revolution (a dark point in Ranger history) and visit towns made rich and lawless by oil. The dramatic capture of Bonnie and Clyde is retold, as well as the Branch Davidian tragedy near Waco.

Prodigiously researched Lone Star Lawmen is one more valuable addition to Texas history.

- Gail Cooke

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Master Rescues History from the Pit of Myth, February 17, 2007

By 

David A. Clary (Roswell NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers (Hardcover)

Robert M. Utley follows his masterful account of the first century of the Texas Rangers, Lone Star Justice, with another tour de force, bringing the story up to date. Brilliantly written and meticulously documented, as always with this celebrated historian of the West, this book traces the transformation of a frontier peace force at the beginning of the 20th century to today's internationally recognized investigative and law-enforcement force, a small band of efficient professionals whose frontier history will always hang over them. Casting off frontier ways was not always easy, politically or professionally, as Utley clearly explains. He is not afraid to deal with the controversial aspects of his subject's history, in particular repeated charges of racism and high-handed brutality. This is no love poem to this sometimes controversial organization, as Utley takes on the negative as well as the positive, with judiciouos balance. On the whole, his judgment of the Rangers, for all the regrettable elements of their past, is favorable, and he concludes that the organization has not so much overcome its history as learned from it. A welcome corrective to the romanticizing that usually characterizes stories about the Rangers. Recommended to anyone interested in the history of Texas, the West, and law enforcement. Given that issues involving the US border with Mexico are in the forefront lately, this book provides informative background.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truth Trumps Mythology--Not a Moment Too Soon, February 17, 2007

By 

Jerry L. Rogers - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers (Hardcover)

As a proud native Texan I have relished the mythology of the Texas Rangers as much as anyone else. But after a century and three quarters of a steady diet of stories of larger-than-life Rangers who could do no wrong it is past time that we begin to understand these lawmen as the real men they were. Some of what they did was extraordinarily good and some extraordinarily bad. Robert Utley, who has never yet stepped back from pushing fact in the face of popular mythology, has helped us know the genuine background of Texas as few others have done.