Books Published

1. August 2006: Cowboy: The Illustrated History This heavily illustrated (250+ photos) coffee table book is a must-have. No respectable or unrespectable cowboy coffee table, bunkhouse card table, or saddle bag should be without it. Click the link for futher information, purchase information, and sample photographs.
2. Bolívar's Quest for Glory. You might also want to visit the publisher web site, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TX, Biography of the military and political career of the "George Washington" of South America, co-authored with Jane Lucas De Grummond. Appeared in June 2003.
3. ABC-CLIO The Mythical West: An Encycopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture Edition: 1st hardback [also available as an e-book Spring 2002] ISBN: 1-57607-151-0 Published: Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO, Inc., November 2001 Author interview about the book with Taylor Fogarty, readthewest.com
4. The Cowboy Encyclopedia Published: Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO 1994. Description: xv, 474 p. : ill. ; 27 cm. [also available as an e-book] LC Call No.: E20.S56 1994 Dewey No.: 978/.003 20 ISBN: 0-874-36738-7
5. Cowboys of the Americas Published: New Haven : Yale University Press 1990. Description: xiv, 306 p., [104] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm. Series: Yale Western Americana series LC Call No.: E20.S57 1990 Dewey No.: 978 20 ISBN: 0-300-04529-8 Hardback out-of-print/ Available only from collectors 0-300-05671-0 Paperback edition: 1994
   More information and online ordering from Yale University Press This books forms the basis for a film documentary by the same title, available from King Productions in Canada. Call 1 800 630 7840 to order.
6. Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas Published: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press Hardback: 1997 A new paperback edition of Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas is out (June 2001) from the University of Oklahoma Press. Priced at just $ 14.95 (plus $4.50 shipping), it is ideal for courses in comparative frontiers and/or western American history. Order at 800-627-7377 or visit the University of Oklahoma Press web site. Select the Fall 2001 catalog or use the "Subject" button to go to "Western History: Cowboys and Ranching." Description: xvi, 336 p. : 34 ill., 2 maps ; 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches LC Call No.: E20.S55 1997 Dewey No.: 970 21 ISBN: 0-806-12971-9 Hardback 0-8061-3384-8 Paperback
7. Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier Edition: 1st paperback ed. [1983 hardback out-of-print] Published: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press 1992. Description: 271 p. : ill., map ; 22 cm. LC Call No.: F2861.S53 1993 Dewey No.: 982/.12 20 ISBN: 0-803-29215-5
8. The Cowboy: An Unconventional History of Civilization on the Old-Time Cattle Range Author: Rollins, Philip A. / Foreword by Slatta, Richard W. Published: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, March 1997, reprinted 2001 ISBN: 0-806-12936-0
9. Bandidos: The Varieties of Latin American Banditry Published: New York : Greenwood Press 1987. Series: Contributions in criminology and penology, 0732-4464 ; no. 14 LC Call No.: HV6453.L29B36 1987 Dewey No.: 364.1/552/098 19 ISBN: 0-313-25301-3
10. More about the Cowboy Professor

Who says the Old West is dead and gone? Specializing in the frontier history of North and South America, "the Cowboy Perfessor" brings many Old Wests alive. Slatta strongly believes trying to bring history alive through teaching and writing. He has published more than 200 articles and reviews on history, educational computing, and other topics.

Ride and read along to relive the days of trail drives and ranch life. Or take a nostalgic trip along with singing or silver screen cowboys. If the Old West charms you, as it does millions, order one of these books today! They make great gifts for real-live or armchair cowpokes. Just do an author search for Slatta. Amazon also has the text of an online interview conducted with Slatta. The books may also be ordered online and at better bookstores everywhere.

The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and Popular Culture

Published November 2001 - 446 pp - Size 7 x 10 - From Jesse James to Baywatch, images of the Wild West, past and present, pervade American culture -- and often provide the rest of the world with its ideas of the 'real' America. Try to imagine the United States without the Stetson or the surfboard. Route 66 and the Chisholm Trail, cowboy boots and Winchesters, the Ponderosa and Las Vegas, Ronald Reagan and cowboy poetry: all these are the stuff the mythic West is made of. A sequel to Richard Slatta's popular Cowboy Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO, 1994), The Mythical West demonstrates how major western figures, events, and places have been depicted in folk legends, art, literature, and popular culture. Browsing the A-to-Z entries takes readers on a journey across a literary and cultural range.

 

The Cowboy Encyclopedia

Published by W. W. Norton, this books is loaded with information. It includes entries on 450 different topics. ANYTHING you ever wondered about cowboy history, poetry, song, movies, tack, and more is here. Lively prose sweeps you along for an exciting ride with the old-time cowpokes of yesterday. Women, American Indians, Mexican vaqueros, and many others also get their due. Entries cover cowboys from Alberta, Canada to Argentina. Recommended as a best reference book by both Library Journal and the American Library Association! At about $17 in paperback this is a real live book buyer's bargain. The library-quality hardbound version is available from ABC-CLIO Press.

W. W. Norton Catalog Entry for paperback "The Cowboy Encyclopedia"

 

Cowboys of the Americas

Head 'em up, move 'em out! You have never seen so many exciting tales about cowboys. And not just cowboys of the Old West. You can also read about cowboy life in Argentina, Mexico, Hawaii, Venezuela, Canada, and elsewhere. This lavishly illustrated book includes seven photo essays featuring 139 color and black and white photographs and paintings. The book won the prestigious Western Heritage Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Order a paperback copy today directly from online Yale University Press or call 1-800-YUP-READ. Limited numbers of a library-quality hardbound edition may still be available from speciality book shops and collectors.

Comparing Cowboys and Frontiers: New Perspectives on the History of the Americas

Hard cover: 1997/ Paperback November 2001: Much like cowboying itself, doing comparative frontier history requires ingenuity--a bit of bailing twine and a chunk of rawhide now and then. This University of Oklahoma Press Book shows and explains how to compare different frontier societies. Topics include indigenous equestrian cultures, Spanish colonial military policy, tips on finding and using primary sources, a critique of frontier historiography, the diffusion of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis throughout Latin America and Canada, cowboy life in North and South America, and much much more. The always popular cowboy is joined by the fascinating gaucho. llanero, vaquero, and charro. We compare work techniques, roundups, songs, tack, lingo, vices, and more. We visit saloons and pulperías and ride the plains and pampas. A historiographical chapter critiques the "overrevisionism" of some recent writings on frontiers in North and South America. Anyone aspiring to stretch beyond narrow local history to "think big" and comparatively will benefit from this book.

Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier

The whole world knows about cowboys of the American West. Equally fascinating is the gaucho-- the cowboy of Argentina and Uruguay--who roamed the range hundreds of years before the American cowboy appeared. This book describes the dizzying changes in the gaucho's life during the 19th-century. You'll see how the gaucho lived and played and learn about the rigors of frontier life for women and children. This is an excllent case study of elite treatment of the rural masses during the past century. Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Gauchos and the Vanishing Frontier won a best book award presented by the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies.

Bandidos: The Varieties of Latin American Banditry

Like cowboys, bandits are highly mythologized figures. This collection of essays examines the REAL history of REAL bandits throughout Latin America. You will learn how real bandits acted--and compare the social reality with how how Hollywood and pulp fiction novelists portrayed them. Chapters : Paul Vanderwood examines Mexican banditry, Linda Lewin and Billy Jaynes Chandler -- Brazil; Erick Langer -- Bolivia; Louis A. Pérez, Jr. -- Cuba; Gonzalo G. Sanchez and Donny Meertens -- Colombia; Miguel Izard -- Venezuela; Rich Slatta -- Argentina; Dretha M. Phillips -- bandit criminology; Allen L. Woll --Hollywood images of bandits. Published in hardcover by Greenwood Press (1987, ISBN 0-313-25301-3)

 

More About the Cowboy Perfessor

Slatta grew up and studied in the West [Texas, Colorado, Oregon, Wyoming, California, North Dakota, Washington]. He earned degrees in history from Pacific Lutheran Univ. (BA), Portland State Univ. (MA), and the University of Texas at Austin (PhD). Grants from the Fulbright Commission, Social Science Research Council, and the Tinker Foundation have supported his research and publishing.

Honors include Outstanding People of the Twentieth Century [1999], International Who’s Who of Intellectuals [13th ed., 1999]; Dictionary of International Biography [26th ed., 1997]; Who's Who in the World [14th ed., 1997]; Men of Achievement [15th ed.]; Who's Who in American Education [5th ed.];International Authors and Writers Who's Who [13th ed.].

Slatta began teaching at the NC State History Department since 1980 and became a full professor in 1990.