Rodeo Queens: On The Circuit With America's Cowgirls

Rodeo has always been considered a supremely masculine sport, a rough and tumble display of macho strength and skill. But author Joan Burbick shows us the other side of rodeo: the world of rodeo queens—part cowgirl and part pageant princess—who wave and smile and keep the dream of the ideal Western woman alive.

So who are the women behind the candy-red chaps, Farrah Fawcett curls, and rhinestone tiaras? Burbick traveled the backroads of the rural West for years, trying to find out. She int...