The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense [Paperback]

Walter Prescott Webb (Author), Lyndon B. Johnson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1965

Webb's classic history of the Texas Rangers has been popular ever since its first publication in 1935. This edition is a reproduction of the original Houghton Mifflin edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 584 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (1965)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292781105
• ISBN-13: 978-0292781108
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A detailed chronology of the Texas Rangers., June 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Texas Rangers (Hardcover)

Written in 1935, this book takes a look at the first 100 years of the Texas Rangers. Not an easy read it is very detailed . This book should be used in Texas History Classes where that course is taught. It offers a realistic look at the brutality of life in frontier Texas. Although slow going at times this book has fascinated me for the twenty odd years I have owned it. I use the index as a source of reference when I want to look back into my native Texas' history. I enjoyed this book and readily recommend it for those interested in the early history of Texas.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Indepth Study of the Early Rangers, April 9, 2006

By 

Monty Rainey (New Braunfels, TX) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense (Paperback)

This classic was first published in 1935. The consummate western historian Walter Prescott Webb, assimilated a history of the first century (actually from 1823 - 1935) of the Texas Rangers in his book, THE TEXAS RANGERS: A CENTURY OF FRONTIER DEFENSE. This 1965 reprinting contains a foreword by Lyndon B. Johnson.

Webb covers not only the history of the Texas Rangers, but also focuses on some of its more noteworthy, or to some, notorious, men who wore the star. From Jack Hays to Frank Hamer, the reader is given some of the high points of their careers, from the Battle of Plum Creek to the capture of Bonnie and Clyde.

Webb, great historian that he was, was not a great writer and the book reads rather slowly at times. For entertainment value, I preferred Robert Utley's book of a similar name, Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers, but this one does cover some interesting material you wont find in Utley's book, so both should be considered for a better understanding of the early years of the Rangers. One frustrating thing about this book, because of its age, most of the books mentioned in the brief bibliography are long out of print and nearly impossible to find. Utley's book being far more recent (2202) contains numerous resources that are more available for further study.

Please don't consider that a knock on this valuable book, however, as much of what is provided here is quite detailed of major events. Webb gives a good account of many specific events in Ranger history and a good narrative of the Ranger's role in shaping the Texas frontier.

Monty Rainey
www.juntosociety.com

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Limited, December 26, 2008

By 

Michael E. Fitzgerald (Kingwood, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense (Paperback)

In his forward to this book former President Lyndon Johnson describes the American West not so much a place as it is a symbol, a symbol of America's confidence that on beyond the moment, on beyond the present terrain, the world will be brighter, the future better. This is the story of a group of Texas men who sought to fulfill those words.

Originally written in 1935, this is the book upon which most other works on the Texas Rangers are based. Unfortunately, the real story of the Texas Rangers, i.e., the unsanitized version, is not here. According to the author the records of the early years were destroyed by not one but two fires. As a result, this book, like most others, can only do its best to cover the origin of the Rangers up to the Civil War. This portion of Ranger history, the more juicy and flamboyant portion of the Ranger story, is limited but there is a sufficiency to leave a very good taste of what the early rangers were all about, defending the early Texas frontier against the Indians and Mexico. However, with records since the Civil War abundant, the story thickens up quite a bit as it moves into the era of the Wild West and the twentieth century. Along the way we see the Rangers transition from a frontier paramilitary force to a more formalized constabulary.

This is quite a good work about the early Texas guardians who were as indifferent to the lives of their enemies as their enemies were to the lives of the people the Rangers defended. It is a shame the early story has been lost to time and memory. But maybe it is better that way.