Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers - Softcover

"His fame borders on mythic. The Texas Ranger evokes heroic images of the Old West, the sentinel planted steadfastly between law-abiding citizens and the outlaws, mountebanks who preyed on them...Robert Utley, former chief historian of the National Park Service who's written a long list of books dealing with conflict, armed and cultural, in the early West, takes an intense look at the colorful history of the Rangers and traces their evolution from a loose-knit group of citizen soldiers on the 1830s frontier to a small but highly effective group of lawmen at the turn of the 20th century."

"The legendary Rangers have been both revered as skillful and brave and reviled as brutal and ruthless. As Utley makes clear, the truth lies somewhere in between."

"Offers to realign the historical record, to strip it of its pop-culture makeup and reveal as objectively as history allows the factual story of the Texas Rangers."

"A remarkably clear-headed treatment of a combustible subject. There is no recycled mythology in this book, no revisionist rancor either. And in Utley's judicious hands, the story of the Rangers is more exciting than ever."

"A splendid, indeed brilliant new work by an outstanding historian of the American West."

A splendid, indeed brilliant new work by an outstanding historian of the American West. (Howard Lamar, author of "The New Encyclopedia of the American West", Sterling Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University") A thorough job...a fine book. (Larry McMurtry)

A lively account of the Texas Rangers illuminates their spectacular career on the Western frontier, covering more than acentury of Indian wars, labor strikes, train robbers, cattle thieves, and assorted outlaws. Reprint.