|
Showing 1 - 2 of
2 matches in All Departments
"Swanson has done a crucial public service by exposing the
barbarous side of the Rangers." -The New York Times Book Review A
twenty-first century reckoning with the legendary Texas Rangers
that does justice to their heroic moments while also documenting
atrocities, brutality, oppression, and corruption The Texas Rangers
came to life in 1823, when Texas was still part of Mexico. Nearly
200 years later, the Rangers are still going--one of the most
famous of all law enforcement agencies. In Cult of Glory, Doug J.
Swanson has written a sweeping account of the Rangers that
chronicles their epic, daring escapades while showing how the white
and propertied power structures of Texas used them as enforcers,
protectors and officially sanctioned killers. Cult of Glory begins
with the Rangers' emergence as conquerors of the wild and violent
Texas frontier. They fought the fierce Comanches, chased outlaws,
and served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. As Texas
developed, the Rangers were called upon to catch rustlers, tame oil
boomtowns, and patrol the perilous Texas-Mexico border. In the
1930s they began their transformation into a professionally trained
police force. Countless movies, television shows, and pulp novels
have celebrated the Rangers as Wild West supermen. In many cases,
they deserve their plaudits. But often the truth has been
obliterated. Swanson demonstrates how the Rangers and their
supporters have operated a propaganda machine that turned agency
disasters and misdeeds into fables of triumph, transformed
murderous rampages--including the killing of scores of Mexican
civilians--into valorous feats, and elevated scoundrels to
sainthood. Cult of Glory sets the record straight. Beginning with
the Texas Indian wars, Cult of Glory embraces the great, majestic
arc of Lone Star history. It tells of border battles, range
disputes, gunslingers, massacres, slavery, political intrigue, race
riots, labor strife, and the dangerous lure of celebrity. And it
reveals how legends of the American West--the real and the
false--are truly made.
A rip-roaring saga of murder, money, and the making of Las Vegas
They say in Vegas you can't understand the town unless you
understand Benny Binion-mob boss, casino owner, and creator of the
World Series of Poker. Beginning as a Texas horse trader, Binion
built a gambling empire in Depression-era Dallas. When the law
chased him out of town, he loaded up suitcases with cash and headed
for Vegas. The place would never be the same. Dramatic as any
gangster movie, Blood Aces draws readers into the colorful world of
notorious mobsters like Clyde Barrow and Bugsy Siegel. Given access
to previously classified government documents, biographer Doug J.
Swanson provides the definitive account of a great American
antihero, a man whose rise from thugdom to prominence and power is
unmatched in the history of American criminal justice.
|
|