Expansion Books

The American Cowboy was written by Phillip Ashton Rollins, a cowboy who lived the Old West in the late 1800's. He looks at the beginnings of ranching, the ranchmen and farmers of the west, the cowboy character, what he wore, his equipment, and furnishings including saddles, a typical days work, branding and round-up, the cattle drive, breaking horses, his diversions and recreations along with rustling and trailing. Rollins speaks from experience having tutored under Jim Bridger, participated on cattle drives from Texas to Montana and lived on a Cheyenne Indian reservation. He also witnessed Wyoming's "Rustler War" in 1892. This work is an invaluable account for anyone attempting to gain insight into the life and times of the American cowboy in the old west, 1870 - 1900. In completeness, readability, accuracy, it is the equivalent of the long time classic Civil War book, "Hardtack and Coffee" by John D. Billings - a soldier who gives the reader an open window into the life and times during the Civil War.