Product Description
Here is the first full telling of the most colorful and famous law enforcers of our time. For years, the Texas Rangers have been historical figures shrouded in myth. Charles M. Robinson III has sifted through the tall tales to reach the heart of this storied organization. The Men Who Wear the Star details the history of the Rangers, from their beginnings, spurred by Stephen Austin, and their formal organization in 1835, to the gangster era with Bonnie and Clyde, and on through to modern times. Filled with memorable characters, it is energetic and fast-paced, making this the definitive record of the exploits and accomplishments of the Texas Rangers.

Amazon.com Review
Predating the entry of Texas into the United States, the TexasRangers came into being as a ragtag outfit of frontiersmen who battleda host of enemies, from Mexican soldiers to Comanche Indians to Anglooutlaws, and who were not often scrupulous about method--or theniceties of law. The Rangers were a controversial instrument of statejustice throughout the 19th century, taming the frontier andborderlands with a hail of bullets and sometimes acting as little morethan what historian Charles M.Robinson calls "officially sanctioned lynch mobs" with anunfortunate habit of singling out nonwhite Texans for punishment.

Even with their sometimes flawed conception of right and wrong, theRangers earned widespread fame a century and more ago for conductingwell-publicized campaigns against such desperadoes as Sam Bass, JohnWesley Hardin, and John Selman. Less inclined to seek the spotlighttoday, the Texas Rangers still operate as an effective law-enforcementunit. In 1997, for example, they figured prominently in the surrenderof self-styled "ambassador of the Republic of Texas" RichardMcLaren. Robinson examines the checkered career of the Rangers,acknowledging the organization's darker moments while maintaining thatthe lawmen also did much to lessen violence in a markedly violent timeand place. He approvingly cites a Ranger saying of long ago: "No manin the wrong can stand up against a fellow that's in the right andkeeps on a-comin'." --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Texas Rangers Do Rule Texas
I love reading about Texas Rangers. They have come a long way and are still a big part of Texas. This book tells you stories and gives you some great background.

Worth the money.

Lesa Trapp The Odd Mind Radio Show

A new Texas history
The Texas Rangers are one of the most controversial forces in United States history.Charles Robinson does an excellent job of recounting their history.The rangers were founded after independence with an idea to police the state and provide border security. Their role would change throughout time and come to a peak during the Mexican Revolution. They would fight in the Mexican American war where they would particularly abuse the Mexican populations earning them a bad reputation with US forces.Despite their brutality they were among the best soldiers trained in scouting and commando tactics that US forces lacked.They were an early special forces that earned their reputation during the war. Their story of development is expertly recounted here.For those looking for an intro to Texas history this is a great place to start.

Lots of fun to read.
I agree with all of the other positives that have been written about this book.Not only does the book provide a complete history of the Rangers, it does so with spurs jingling and guns loose in the holster.I read all of Louis Lamour's books and found this as fun to read as all but Lamour's best.

A Readable Account of a Larger than Life Unit...

Although I have Walter Prescott Webb's classic work on the Texas Rangers, which was written decades ago, I was happy to see that there is a new history of the fabled frontier law enforcement unit had come out.The Texas Rangers were founded even before Texas independence in order to protect settlers from attacks from Comanche, Kiowa and Apache Indians, outlaws of more familiar origin, miscellaneous miscreants and eventually, after Texas joined the United States, cross-border Mexican bandits. While many of the early Ranger units were little more than sanctioned vigilantes who often conflated their law enforcement role with what can be described as extra-judicial enforcement of the law, they were tasked with an extremely difficult task - keeping Texans safe in a violent time.The Indians, who lived a hardscrabble existence on the windswept Texas plains, were resentful of intrusion of the white settlers and ranchers on their land and so more than five decades of raids ensued.Other works like the seminal "Trail Drivers of Texas" are full of stories of Texans who were killed by small war parties as the settlers pushed their way farther north and west.While Robinson does not attempt to whitewash the racism, brutality and ruthlessness of the early Texas Rangers, he puts their behavior into the proper context of the era in which they lived.His book is a narrative of short stories that illustrates live among the poorly paid Rangers and vividly portrays the heroism and endurance that was necessary to pursue outlaws and Indians across a barren and treacherous landscape.Robinson has augmented early accounts with further research that sheds light on the Rangers during the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period that followed.The history of the Texas Rangers is important for anyone who seeks to learn more about Texas as their story is intertwined with many other areas of Texas history including the rebellion against Mexico, the battle for the Alamo, post-war relations with Mexico and Texas law enforcement from the 1820's to the present day.Charles M. Robinson III, a native Texan, fills his book with truly larger-than-life characters like the immortal Captain McNelly who engendered great loyalty among his men and animosity from those he pursued. The Men Who Wore the Star provides those of us who love the American West with an excellent single volume history of the Texas Rangers.Jeffrey Morseburg

Brings Texas History to Life
Probably one of the best researched, and best written account of both Texas and Texas Ranger history.

I originally got the book for my own interest, but soon decided to use it as a primary resource for a major research paper.

Robinson even tells the part of The Alamo story that almost all high school Texas History teachers leave out.

This book should be one of the textbooks students should use for Texas History.

You can feel the power of Jack Hayes, the heat of the Texas desert, you fear for the men at The Alamo, and you feel like your riding along side the Rangers against the Indians.

This book is required reading for any Texan who wants to know more about the history of the state and many of its legends. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Eagle and the Serpent fight a "most unjust war"
The American Heritage Junior Library was published mostly in the Sixties but these informative and marvelously illustrated volumes still hold up today."Texas and the War With Mexico" covers both the war for Texan independence, with the massacre at the Alamo and the battle at San Jancinto, along with the Mexican War and its major campaigns and engagements.Even in 1961 when this particular edition was printed the foreword to this volume could note that to most people of the United States the Mexican War was a dim, mildly disgraceful incident from the nation's past (Would it be considered the Vietnam of the 19th-century or would that distinction go to the Spanish-American War?).However, Fairfax Downey makes the case that even without answering the question of responsibility for the war and deciding whether the United States was the aggressor or if Mexico provoked a tolerant nation beyond endurance, the annexations of Texas and the Mexican War resulted in the United States adding enormously to its territory (California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona).The Mexican War made Zachary Taylor President and gave invaluable military experience to the young officers who would be the main generals in the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant, George H. Thomas, George G. Meade, Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, Joseph E. Johnston, and Thomas J. Jackson.

However, "Texas and the War with Mexico" is clearly not a glorification of the military might of the United States.The book draws a strong parallel between the example of Nathan Hale's death in the American Revolution with the veneration accorded by the Mexican people to "Los Ninos," the boy cadets who gave their life in the defense of Chapultepec.Downey deals with the story of the war from both sides and provides a much better sense of how the war was actually fought than young readers will find in their standard American history textbook.The book makes excellent use of paintings and other illustrations from the period.There are several paintings presents as two-page spreads, a woodblock of Davy Crockett falling at the Alamo, dozens of primitive paintings down by soldiers and sailors, and one of the first daguerreotypes ever taken of American soldiers in wartime. You might be surprised at how much art depicting the Mexican War was done during this period.There are portraits of virtually every major figure talked about in the book.In the end Downey reinforces the idea that the Mexican War was "the most unjust war" the nation had fought, quoting Grant as the expert witness on that score, but also points out that this acquisition of territory meant the country stretched from sea to shining sea and that the idea of "Manifest Destiny" sprang from this period. ... Read more

Product Description

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission celebrated its centennial in 2009. To honor that milestone, former State Archivist David Gracy has taken a retrospective look at the agency's colorful and sometimes contentious history as Texas's official information provider and record keeper. In this book, he chronicles more than a century of efforts by dedicated librarians and archivists to deliver the essential, nonpartisan library and archival functions of government within a political environment in which legislators and governors usually agreed that libraries and archives were good and needed--but they disagreed about whatever expenditure was being proposed at the moment.

Gracy recounts the stories of persevering, sometimes controversial state librarians and archivists, and commission members, including Ernest Winkler, Elizabeth West (the first female agency head in Texas government), Fannie Wilcox, Virginia Gambrell, and Louis Kemp, who worked to provide Texans the vital services of the state library and archives--developing public library service statewide, maintaining state and federal records for use by the public and lawmakers, running summer reading programs for children, providing services for the visually impaired, and preserving the historically significant records of Texas as a colony, province, republic, and state. Gracy explains how the agency has struggled to balance its differing library and archival functions and, most of all, to be treated as a full-range information provider, and not just as a collection of disparate services.

Product Description
In 1983 an earlier version of this work appeared as a small number of copies reproduced from typescript as "A Bibliomaniac on the Texas Frontier: Swante Palm and His Swedish Library at the University of Texs at Austin." ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
Two volume reprint of the 1844 original. Facsimile reprint of original map laid in. Limited to 500 sets. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Houston in 1908 in 46 pages; Subjects: Libraries; Language Arts ... Read more