Cowboys of the Americas

Winner of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s 1991 Western Heritage Award for Non-Fiction.

What was it actually like to be a cowboy? The blazing gunfights and the dangerous lifestyles of these all-American figures have captured the imagination of the public for generations. Transporting the reader back to the Old West – as well as Canada and Spanish America – historian Richard Slatta aims to unearth the realities of life as a cowboy.

Allow Slatta to take you on a journey alongside the cowboy through roundups and trail drives, brothels, horse races, saloons and, of course, terrifying gun fights. With shocking true stories, he delves deep into the appearance, character and activities of these Cowboys, and reveals the harsh reality of frontier racial conflict and Native American wars.

Cowboys of the Americas is an engrossing examination of the danger and excitement – as well as the everyday reality – of life as an American cowboy.


Praise for Cowboys of the Americas


‘This unique panoramic history is an absolute delight to read’ Howard R. Lamar

‘Slatta tells the story of these cowboys more comprehensively than the novels of Zane Grey or the old Hopalong Cassidy movies could ever hope to... This is an outstanding work' Smithsonian

‘Everything you wanted to know about the cowboy but were afraid to ask.’—James Crumley, Los Angeles Times

‘A sweeping comparative overview of the rise and fall of the cowboy and the cattle ranges he worked, from the Argentine pampas to the Alberta prairies... Slatta has drawn upon an array of multinational scholarships, as well as his own archival research, to fashion an engaging... foray into the world of the cowboy' Western Historical Quarterly

‘A beautifully written work of sustaining value... Rich in detail' Southwestern Historical Quarterly

‘If you read only one book on cowboys, read this one' Journal of the Southwest