The Real American Cowboy by Jack Weston (review)

146 Western American Literature possibilities, illustrate that the circumstances surrounding the occupation of the cowboy may have changed, but his attitudes have not. Cannon indicates in the introduction that he hopes, through the book, to “puncture” the stereotypical image of the television and movie cowboy by allowing the cowboy poets “to speak for themselves as they celebrate the huge sky, the rodeo, busting broncos, the cattle drive that still goes on, the land, and the life and times of the people who continue, spiritedly, to live that cowboy life.” Cowboy Poetry: A Gathering does just that. It is at once a joyous celebration and a realistic depiction of what it means to be a cowboy, then and now. JAN (UGAN) ROUSH Utah State University The Real American Cowboy. By Jack Weston. (New York: Schocken Books, 1985. 267 pages, $19.95.) The aura of romance that has surrounded the American cowboy for a good many years has been the subject of numerous realistic treatments that have certainly demythologized the cowboy. In addition are the comments of the debunkers of the cowboy myth, who have tended to be vicious in their attacks on this figure. In The Real American Cowboy, Jack Weston adopts a reasonable and objective view as he explores the everyday life of the old-time American cowboy. Although avowedly not a member of the debunking school, Weston, nevertheless, presents the image of the cowboy as a hard-working figure who, in pursuing the American dream of success, was looking for some measure of economic security in his world of ranching in the late 1800s. Weston emphasizes those elements in the culture that worked against the cowboy, particularly the European-financed land and cattle companies which resisted the efforts of cowboys to establish their own small herds and to own property. A section on cowboy strikes, such as the one Elmer Kelton deals with in The Day the Cowboys Quit, isparticularly good, as isa chapter dealing with black and Mexican cowboys, as well as with women who worked the cattle country as range hands and ranchers. Weston’s final chapter, “The Myth of the Cowboy,” is sane and reasonable. The book contains, in addition, num­ erous photographs and drawings of old-time range life and extensive quoting from primary source material. Weston, who teaches English and film criticism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, does not add much new to the argument over what cowboy life was really like, but he makes a valuable contribution to the con­ tinuing discussion on a widely debated subject. He has brought to bear some perceptions which must be considered by anyone who seeks to understand and interpret the old-time cowboy and the life he lived. LAWRENCE CLAYTON Hardin-Simmons University ...