Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Summer 1984
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly Vol. 4, No. 3, Summer 1984, pp. 196.
Abstract
Paul Carlson presents readers with a comprehensive, well-organized, and easily read treatment of a subject comparatively neglected by historians of the American livestock industry. The first major synthesis of the Texas sheep and goat business in nearly forty years, Texas Woollybacks adds measurably in detail and focus to omnibus classics like Shepherd's Empire (1945) and America's Sheep Trails (1948), and to pioneering studies of the Texas business such as Winifred Kupper's The Golden Hoof (1945) and more recently Val W. Lehmann's Forgotten Legions (1969). The author, nevertheless, leans heavily on these and a variety of other supporting secondary sources. While most of these works are reliable, he might have been more discriminating in his choice of quoted material from works such as the Time-Life Old West Series.
Organized chronologically, the bulk of Carlson's narrative spans the period from Spanish exploration to the early twentieth century. Within this general framework the subject is treated regionally, topically, and biographically. A number of fine maps, tables, and photographs enhance the text at strategic points. An epilogue, based largely on interviews with prominent breeders and their associates and on primary materials embodied in the records of breeders' organizations, summarizes the major developments in the business since the final enclosure of the Texas sheep range in the 1930s.
The author dwells on the success of sheep and goat raisers in providing Texans with food, clothing, and jobs. He also explores the industry's impact on the social and cultural fabric of the state, noting the nurturing role played by Hispanics and European immigrants.
Perhaps this work's most original contribution to scholarship lies in its clarification of the often "elusive and contradictory" (p. 178) relationship between cattlemen and sheep raisers. In a brief comparative analysis that will leave the interested reader hungry for more, Carlson finds several similarities between the two major stock-raising enterprises in Texas. He concludes, for example, that dramatic television and motion picture portrayals to the contrary and occasional range wars notwithstanding, sheep men and cattlemen coexisted for the most part peacefully (albeit apart) from the Spanish period onward. Often they cooperated, and when many cattle ranchers began to diversify their operations during the early twentieth century, they even became allies.
A more extensive examination of these and other important topics would have further enhanced the value of Texas Woollybacks. The volume has, however, laid a firm groundwork for more specialized studies of the Texas sheep and goat industry.
Comments
Copyright 1984 by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln