A Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

Robert W. Cherny (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0806126671 ISBN 13: 9780806126678

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994

Folks all over West Texas and eastern New Mexico will tell you: Cowdens have been ranching here for as long as anyone can remember.The Cowdens, in fact, have been at the forefront of the cattle business for 150 years. Arriving in Texas in the 1850s, Cowden men and women raised and trailed cattle, sought out water and better grazing land, tangled with Comanches—and helped extend the western line of Anglo settlement as they raised their families. They eventually moved to New Mexico, where they established the renowned JAL Ranch.Award-winning writer Michael Pettit, a Cowden descendant and former rancher, offers a compelling portrait of this genuine American ranching family. Riding for the Brand spans six generations and two states to serve up a real slice of the Old West, complete with cowboys and Indians, cattle and buffalo, open range and barbed wire.Pettit skillfully blends family saga with an urbanite’s firsthand look at life on today’s 50,000-acre Cowden Ranch, where the one dependable factor is the constant wind. Riding for the Brand traces the evolution of the Texas and New Mexico cattle business from the era of intimate ranching communities to today’s oil-enriched or corporate operations. But it’s also the story of one man’s search for identity through his connections to a family, a place, and a way of life.

Review:

"A succinct study in which the author combines a knowledge of the standard works in the field with original research and new insights and analysis. . . . His book is a serious and intelligent one that students, scholars, and a general public can read with pleasure and profit."--Martin Ridge, Annals of Iowa

"The best short biography of Bryan. . . . Cherny's treatment of Bryan and Darrow at the Scopes trial is fair, and his concluding chapter, 'Evaluating a Crusader, ' is very well balanced."--Ferenc M. Szasz, Ohio History

"Cherny has traced Bryan's life in short compass and in a fashion that works well for the student and general reader."--R. Hal Williams, Western Historical Quarterly

About the Author:

Robert W. Cherny is Professor Emeritus of History at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Populism, Progressivism, and the Transformation of Nebraska Politics, 1885-1915, American Politics in the Gilded Age, 1868-1900 and coauthor of Competing Visions: A History of California and Making America: A History of the United States.