The Cowboy Legend: Owen Wister’s Virginian and the Canadian-American Frontier by John Jennings (review)

Gunfights, lawmen, cattle rustlers, and cowboys easily leap to life in the myths and history of the American West. For most Americans interested in Western history those images are physically rooted in Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas and other regions of the Rocky Mountain west and Great Plains. Jennings’s objectives are clearly laid out in the opening pages of his book. The inspiration and the core of his research is an examination of the life of Everett Johnson. Johnson, an old friend of the author’s family, was a cowboy whose work led him from the ranches of Wyoming to the cattle ranges of Alberta. Jennings argues that Johnson is the model for Owen Wister’s fictional title character in the “Virginian,” and more importantly, the archetype for the largely mythologized cowboy of the American West. A concurrent theme of Jennings’s study is a comparative examination of the two frontiers: Canada and the US West. The author proposes that while both frontiers had many similarities in their development, a striking difference rests in the evolution of their legal institutions as specifically related to criminal and land laws. For Jennings, Everett Johnson’s story is remarkable and worthy of study on its own merit, but is made more important as a medium through which we can gain some insight into the violent legacy of the American west. Jennings suggests that while the American and Canadian west shared many aspects of their growth and development, the evolution of their legal systems in the west produced two very different outcomes.

Before the reader encounters the first chapter, Jennings thankfully introduces us to the literary foundation for his study of Everett Johnson. A thorough synopsis of “The Virginian” provides the reader a brief introduction to a number of scenes that establish the fictional cowboy’s humble, but heroic character. Not having read the original book by Wister, it is easy to see the connection Johnson is making. Whether challenging the bad guy to a noonday gunfight, protecting a “damsel in distress,” or fighting Indians, Jennings assertion that the “Virginian” inspired Hollywood cowboys for decades to come is plausible. However, the genealogy of the Hollywood cowboy and the mythologized “Wild West” is much more expansive and much older than Wister’s alludes to. Once the literary foundation is laid, Jennings then proceeds to present his main argument for the comparative analysis of the legal evolution of the two Wests. Everett Johnson is notably absent in this section, as Jennings offers an extensive historiographical analysis of American vigilantism and gun worship. According to his assessment, the American fascination with guns and lawlessness is rooted in our revolutionary founding. Civil disobedience and related American characteristics gave way to the populace embracing an ideology of vigilantism and localized, often ad hoc, systems of justice. Canada, by contrast, is a beacon of civility and order, according to the author, because of the more powerful role of both the Canadian parliament’s legislation and presence of the Mounted Police in the development of Canada’s West. While Jennings does offer some acknowledgement of violence resulting from Canada’s forced dispossession and military actions against the Indigenous peoples, he concludes that Canadians are nevertheless fortunate. According to Jennings, “without the presence of the Mounted Police, it is hard to imagine that the Canadian West would have been as peaceful as it was” (4). Jennings makes many solid points about the comparative differences in the legal history of the two wests. Unfortunately, his quick dismissal of the significant role of violence against Indigenous people in the Canadian West is very problematic, especially when Jennings is quick to point out the US legacy of violence against Native Americans and other groups: Chinese, Mexicans, and African-Americans. Whether discussing Canada or the United States, violence against Indigenous people informed, shaped, and nurtured the agencies of law enforcement and civil governance in both...