The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 86, July 1982 - April, 1983 Page: 464

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

ged, pedestrian researchers. But listen to this brief description of the
differences between ranchers and cowboys:
Ranchers are often prominent leaders in the community; cowboys are not.
Ranchers often sit on governing boards of businesses, churches, and schools;
cowboys do not. Ranchers are frequently the subject of articles in livestock
journals, while cowboys are seldom mentioned. The rancher and his wife
may belong to the country club, but the cowboy and his wife won't. The
rancher has his circle of friends, the cowboy has his, and they do not over-
lap. . . . the rancher can take the day off or go into town whenever he
wishes, but the cowboy can't.... The rancher and the cowboy may dress
alike, talk alike, and even think alike, but at six o'clock in the evening, one
goes down to the milking barn while the other attends a meeting in town.
I recommend this book to every person who ever dreams of becom-
ing a cowboy or a cowboy's wife (which Erickson doesn't recommend,
although he has one), to every urban cowboy who thinks hard drinking
and high-crowned felt hats guarantee his status, and to serious readers
who want to know what industrialization has done to a mythological
character particularly cherished by Texans and southwesterners. While
the modern cowboy has not been emasculated, he has been dropped to
the bottom of the workingman's ladder and will put up with low
wages, bad housing, long hours, and dictatorial employers-and still
stick to cowboying. This is a book to remember, to quote, and steal
ideas from.

University of Texas, Austin

464

JOE B. FRANTZ