Cow Boys and Cattle Men: Class and Masculinities on the Texas Frontier, 1865-1900

Cowboys are an American legend, but despite ubiquity in history and popular culture, misperceptions abound. Technically, a cowboy worked with cattle, as a ranch hand, while his boss, the cattleman, owned the ranch. Jacqueline M. Moore casts aside romantic and one-dimensional images of cowboys by analyzing the class, gender, and labor histories of ranching in Texas during the second half of the nineteenth century.
As working-class men, cowboys showed their masculinity through their skills at ...