Originally Posted: June 5, 2020
In 1935, Walter Prescott Webb—one of the 20th century’s leading historians of Texas and the wider American West—published “The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense.” Clocking in at more than 550 pages, the book chronicled the exploits of the most famous law-enforcement outfit in the world. Crucial to Webb’s study were the interviews he conducted with dozens of active and former Rangers, some of whom had served during the especially tumultuous years between Reconstruction and World War I. Although “The Texas Rangers” remains enormously popular today, it has not aged well. READ MORE