Books Published by Richard Slatta, the Cowboy Professor

Books Published

Book List

If two dates are given, indicates hardback and paperback editions.
2016: Latin America: An Interactive History Lab online electronic e-book and learning environment--richly illustrated. ISBN #: 978-1-68075-145-1 Available for online purchase from the publisher.
2010: National Cowboy Symposium & Celebration Publisher: American Cowboy Culture Association, Inc. Hardcover, 9x12 inches (just right for your cowboy coffeetable) 175 pages, with an astonishing number of photographs, color and black-and-white List Price: $30.00 ISBN: 978-0-615-38610-2
2006, 2008: Cowboy: The Illustrated History This heavily illustrated (250+ photos) coffee table book is a must-have. No respectable or unrespectable cowboy coffee table, bunkhouse card table, or saddle bag should be without it. Click the link for futher information, purchase information, and sample photographs. Out of print--but available via the Internet.
2003. Simon Bolívar's Quest for Glory. Biography of the military and political career of the "George Washington" of South America, co-authored with Jane Lucas De Grummond.
2001. The Mythical West: An Encycopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture ISBN: 1-57607-151-0 Published: Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO, Inc., Available used or as an e-book from the NC State Library. See ABC-CLIO, the publisher for other e-book access.
1990, 1994.The Cowboy Encyclopedia See also ABC-CLIO (original publisher) website.
Cowboys of the Americas Published: New Haven : Yale University Press Description: xiv, 306 p., [104] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm. Series: Yale Western Americana series LC Call No.: E20.S57 1990 Kindle version forthcoming 2017. 0-300-05671-0 Paperback edition.
1997. Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas Published: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press 336 p. : 34 ill., 2 maps ; 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches LC Call No.: E20.S55 1997
1983, 1992. Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press Description: 271 p. : ill., map ; 22 cm. LC Call No.: F2861.S53 1993 Dewey No.: 982/.12 20 ISBN: 0-803-29215-5
1987. Bandidos: The Varieties of Latin American Banditry Greenwood Press Series: Contributions in criminology and penology, 0732-4464 ; no. 14 LC Call No.: HV6453.L29B36 1987 Dewey No.: 364.1/552/098 19 ISBN: 0-313-25301-3

Book details and cover photos

The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture Published November 2001 [out-of-print] 446 pp - Size 7 x 10 - From Jesse James to Baywatch, images of the Wild West, past and present, pervade American culture -- and often provide the rest of the world with its ideas of the 'real' America. Try to imagine the United States without the Stetson or the surfboard. Route 66 and the Chisholm Trail, cowboy boots and Winchesters, the Ponderosa and Las Vegas, Ronald Reagan and cowboy poetry: all these are the stuff the mythic West is made of. A sequel to Richard Slatta's popular Cowboy Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 1994), The Mythical West demonstrates how major western figures, events, and places have been depicted in folk legends, art, literature, and popular culture. Browsing the A-to-Z entries takes readers on a journey across a literary and cultural range.

The Cowboy Encyclopedia
Published by W. W. Norton, this books is loaded with information. It includes entries on 450 different topics. ANYTHING you ever wondered about cowboy history, poetry, song, movies, tack, and more is here. Lively prose sweeps you along for an exciting ride with the old-time cowpokes of yesterday. Women, American Indians, Mexican vaqueros, and many others also get their due. Entries cover cowboys from Alberta, Canada to Argentina. Recommended as a best reference book by both Library Journal and the American Library Association! At about $17 in paperback this is a real live book buyer's bargain. The library-quality hardbound version is available from ABC-CLIO Press.

W. W. Norton Catalog Entry for paperback "The Cowboy Encyclopedia"

Cowboys of the Americas
Head 'em up, move 'em out! You have never seen so many exciting tales about cowboys. And not just cowboys of the Old West. You can also read about cowboy life in Argentina, Mexico, Hawaii, Venezuela, Canada, and elsewhere. This lavishly illustrated book includes seven photo essays featuring 139 color and black and white photographs and paintings. The book won the prestigious Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Order a paperback copy today directly from online Yale University Press or call 1-800-YUP-READ. Limited numbers of a library-quality hardbound edition may still be available from speciality book shops and collectors.

Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas
Hard cover: 1997/ Paperback November 2001: Much like cowboying itself, doing comparative frontier history requires ingenuity--a bit of bailing twine and a chunk of rawhide now and then. This University of Oklahoma Press Book shows and explains how to compare different frontier societies. Topics include indigenous equestrian cultures, Spanish colonial military policy, tips on finding and using primary sources, a critique of frontier historiography, the diffusion of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis throughout Latin America and Canada, cowboy life in North and South America, and much much more. The always popular cowboy is joined by the fascinating gaucho. llanero, vaquero, and charro. We compare work techniques, roundups, songs, tack, lingo, vices, and more. We visit saloons and pulperías and ride the plains and pampas. A historiographical chapter critiques the "overrevisionism" of some recent writings on frontiers in North and South America. Anyone aspiring to stretch beyond narrow local history to "think big" and comparatively will benefit from this book.

Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier
The whole world knows about cowboys of the American West. Equally fascinating is the gaucho-- the cowboy of Argentina and Uruguay--who roamed the range hundreds of years before the American cowboy appeared. This book describes the dizzying changes in the gaucho's life during the 19th-century. You'll see how the gaucho lived and played and learn about the rigors of frontier life for women and children. This is an excllent case study of elite treatment of the rural masses during the past century. Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier won a best book award presented by the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies.

Bandidos: The Varieties of Latin American Banditry
Like cowboys, bandits are highly mythologized figures. This collection of essays examines the REAL history of REAL bandits throughout Latin America. You will learn how real bandits acted--and compare the social reality with how how Hollywood and pulp fiction novelists portrayed them. Chapters : Paul Vanderwood examines Mexican banditry, Linda Lewin and Billy Jaynes Chandler -- Brazil; Erick Langer -- Bolivia; Louis A. Pérez, Jr. -- Cuba; Gonzalo G. Sanchez and Donny Meertens -- Colombia; Miguel Izard -- Venezuela; Rich Slatta -- Argentina; Dretha M. Phillips -- bandit criminology; Allen L. Woll --Hollywood images of bandits. Published in hardcover by Greenwood Press (1987, ISBN 0-313-25301-3)

Slatta grew up and studied in the West [Texas, Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, California, North Dakota, Washington]. He earned degrees in history from Pacific Lutheran Univ. (BA), Portland State Univ. (MA), and the University of Texas at Austin (PhD). Grants from the Fulbright Commission, Social Science Research Council, and the Tinker Foundation have supported his research and publishing on US and Latin American history and comparative frontiers.