Posse Book Review Program

Currently there are twenty (15) new books available to review. Yes that’s right, more books than ever, Come to our monthly meetings to pick a book or two for your fun historical readings. These are new publications from universities where historical research is continually taking place.

New western historical books are available to review for the Denver Posse of Westerners. Send your reading requests to Frank Pilkington, book review editor at Apache313@gmail.com. You may pick up the book at the next meeting or the book you request could be mailed to you for a small $5.00 shipping charge. A review of the authors work needs to be returned for every book taken. The University publishers, the authors and our Roundup magazine will receive a copy of your review. In return, you get to keep the book for your personal library. Here are the current choices on deck.

  1. Borderlander: The Life of James Kirker, 1792-1852, by Ralph Adam Smith, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK., 1999, 326 pgs. James Kirker was an immigrant from Ireland who became a villain, a hero, or a scoundrel. When Apache and Comanche Indians from the U.S. began raiding northern Mexico, bounty warfare contracts with effective and inexpensive methods to solve the problems made him famous. This Indian fighter became an infamous frontier figure.

  2. Hispano Bastion: The New Mexican Power in the Age of manifest Destiny, 1837-1860, by Michael Alarid, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque NM, 2022, 243 pages, Groundbreaking study examining New Mexico’s transition from Spanish to Mexican, to US control during the nineteenth century. Emerging

  3. The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak: Fire Spotting in Idaho’s St. Joe National Forest by Nancy S. Hammond, 2024 Pullman WA. Captures that lost era and recounts a life few will now experience - serving as a US Forest Service fire lookout.

  4. Killing Over Land: Murder and Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier by Robert M. Owens 2024, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK. Why and how interracial homicide - white killing Native Americans, Native Americans killing whites - once played a key role in Indian affairs and how this role changed over time. This gave both Native and white leaders an opportunity to improve relations, or at least profit from conflict resolution.

  5. Forts of the Northern Plains: A Guide to Military and Civilian Posts of the Plains Indian Wars by Jeff Barnes. 2024, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln NE. Barnes has produced a valuable combination of history and travel guide for all students of the Northern Plains Indian Wars. A handy, carefully organized summary of many important military sites in the West.

  6. Duval County Tejanos: An epic Narrative of Liberty and Democracy, by Alfredo E. Cardenas, U of North Texas Press, Denton TX. 2024, 415 pages, Carenas’s book is the first scholarly history of San Diego and Duval County. This is a new approach primarily because the author’s intensive study of county voting in the 1890’s clearly illustrates his major theme that Tejanos were not merely pawns to an Anglo political boss but viable agents of election activities and results.

  7. Murder on the Largo: Henry Coleman and the New Mexico’s Last Frontier, by Eleanor Williams, U of North Texas Press, Denton, TX. 2024, 190 pages. Important book in the field of western frontier violence. The life of the main character, a psychopath named Coleman, has the greatest coverage that exists in New Mexico histories.

  8. Jim Bridger: Trailblazer of the American West, by Jerry Enzler, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2023, 371 pages. An outstanding biography that should be on the reading list of everyone who is curious about learning more about the men and women and processes that built the United States in the first 100 years.

  9. All the Water the Law Allows: Las Vegas and Colorado River Politics, by Christian S. Harrison, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2023, 249 pages. As the population of the greater Las Vegas area grows and the climate warms, the threat of a waters shortage looms over southern Nevada. America’s legal system has caused this problem . . .

  10. Patrick Connor’s War: The 1865 Powder River Indian Expedition, by David E. Wagner, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2021, 296 pages. The summer of 1865 marked the transition from the Civil War to Indian war on the western plains. Lots of action here . . .

  11. Custer and the 1873 Yellowstone Survey: A documentary History, by M. John Lubetkin, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2013 335 pages. This makes an important contribution to the literature of the western frontier. This is a fine source book that will make a welcome addition to all collectors.

  12. Joe: The slave who became an Alamo Legend, by Ron J. Jackson and Lee Spencer White, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2013, 325 pages. Lieutenant Colonel Travis’ slave and only survivor of the Alamo battle.

  13. Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West Volume 3, by Robert K. DeArment, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2010, 395 pages. Men who in their own time were notorious as frontier gunfighters but have since disappeared into obscurity.

  14. What is a Western? Region, Genre, Imagination, by Josh Garrett-Davis, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2015, 171 pages. Local, national, and global perspectives to ask not only what but where the West is today. . .

  15. Ghost Towns of Oklahoma, by John W. Morris, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 1978, 229 pages & lots of pictures. A scholarly book that is fun. Clear colorful and vigorous prose of the town histories.

  16. More books are on their way. Surely there is a topic of particular interest to you so let me know and I will try to get that for you. Have fun reading more history.

Contact Frank Pilkington, Posse Book Review Chairman if you would like a book for reading and review at: apache313@gmail.com

(Reviews limited to 700 words.

Writing a Review -- A Template.

So, you have chosen a book; read it and you are ready to write a review. What is a Review?

A Review is a friendly letter back to your friends, the Posse members and to the Book Publisher. In this friendly letter you start with a standard heading that tells us and the Publisher what it is that you are reviewing:

Heading "Title: Subtitle", by author. University of Somewhere Press, 2022, 234 pp. Tables, graphs, endnotes, index. Hardcover. $39.50. (now you are 1/3 done).

Then tell us what the author was trying to tell us. Maybe 3 or 4 sentences. Then wrap it up by adding 2 or 3 sentences as to why this book would be (or would not be) of interest to other Posse members. You are probably at about 300 words but if a few more happen to be on the page, no worry. Posse etiquette says 500 words are too many. Add your name and word count ex. Virgil Earp (300 words) You are now done.

If you still have doubts about what a review should look like, check a recent Roundup magazine.  Each edition has a half dozen or so reviews that have made it through the Posse review process.  Pick one you like and model your review after it.

Send your review to the Posse Book Chair and they can take it from there.