Cult of Glory

The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers

By: Doug J. Swanson

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith

“Swanson has done a crucial public service by exposing the barbarous side of the Rangers.” (The New York Times Book Review)

A 21st-century reckoning with the legendary Texas Rangers that does justice to their heroic moments while also documenting atrocities, brutality, oppression, and corruption.

The Texas Rangers came to life in 1823, when Texas was still part of Mexico. Nearly 200 years later, the Rangers are still going - one of the most famous of all law-enforcement agencies. In Cult of Glory, Doug J. Swanson has written a sweeping account of the Rangers that chronicles their epic, daring escapades while showing how the white and propertied power structures of Texas used them as enforcers, protectors, and officially sanctioned killers.

Cult of Glory begins with the Rangers' emergence as conquerors of the wild and violent Texas frontier. They fought the fierce Comanches, chased outlaws, and served in the US Army during the Mexican War. As Texas developed, the Rangers were called upon to catch rustlers, tame oil boomtowns, and patrol the perilous Texas-Mexico border. In the 1930s they began their transformation into a professionally trained police force.

Countless movies, television shows, and pulp novels have celebrated the Rangers as Wild West supermen. In many cases, they deserve their plaudits. But often the truth has been obliterated. Swanson demonstrates how the Rangers and their supporters have operated a propaganda machine that turned agency disasters and misdeeds into fables of triumph, transformed murderous rampages - including the killing of scores of Mexican civilians - into valorous feats, and elevated scoundrels to sainthood. Cult of Glory sets the record straight.

Beginning with the Texas Indian wars, Cult of Glory embraces the great, majestic arc of Lone Star history. It tells of border battles, range disputes, gunslingers, massacres, slavery, political intrigue, race riots, labor strife, and the dangerous lure of celebrity. And it reveals how legends of the American West - the real and the false - are truly made.

©2020 Doug J. Swanson (P)2020 Penguin Audio

A Historical Hit Piece

While this book offers a good counterbalance to the myth of the Rangers as so-called "white knights", it is a poor history and should be taken with a large grain of salt. Swanson privileges the veracity of some accounts over others with no explanation and fails to uphold the duty of a historian to remain a fair and removed arbiter of truth, basing each statement on available evidence and not inserting his own opinions as fact.

All this being said, I would not reccomend Cult of Glory.

Texas Rangers

A wonderful amalgam of myth, legend, optimism and disappointment
The Rangers were an exaggerated version of their times: bigoted inclined to kill rather than control, immune from prosecution and having little or no constraints a story better than the best of the lawless west
They ruled and killed with intent Indians, Blacks, outlaws, Mexicans and people who were innocent. Women, children were killed without fear of a trial or fear of punishment Linked to the KKK and on the side of the Confederacy. A very good and interesting read

Okay, not great

Not what I was expecting,

First, my issues with the narration. I am a native Texan. If you are going to narrate a book about Texas, for heaven's sake, learn the correct pronunciations of locations and historical figures. Every time he mispronounced Bowie (as if we were talking about David Bowie), I cringed. I am from Bowie, Texas, named for Jim Bowie, so I found this particularly irritating. Add Pedernales, Beauford Jester, San Jacinto, Bastrop, Mexia, and countless others--it was enough to almost make me quit listening.

Next, the book itself. I was hoping for an in depth study of the Rangers and their history, good, bad, neutral. Instead this book does a recitation, in jumpy narrative, of one event after another. Though some are put in the brutal, usually racists, historical context, there is nothing to really explain the men--their back stories (with few exceptions), for example. The passing mention of Bonnie and Clyde is a disappointment (the extra-jurisdictional use of the former Rangers, for instance), the disbanding by Ma Ferguson (and their investigation of her leading up to ot) was barely mentioned, and the 21st Century Rangers are given short notice. The Henry Lee Lucas chapter disturbs me because of a glaring error--I met Sheriff Conway in the 70's when I worked as a dispatcher one summer during my college years. I knew his son for years later. I have never heard him called "Hound Dog". I cannot help but wonder what else may be wrong in his research that I just didn't recognize.

Even so, because there are few books on the Rangers I do recommend this, with a grain of salt, for people who are interested.

A more even-handed review of Ranger history

This work includes some of the less heroic actions in the history of the Rangers than Webb's book. It makes the organization more "human" if no less legendary.

A reference to a specific incident in the book which I feel is just as applicable to the Rangers story is that their flaws aren't so much a history of the Rangers, as that of America and Texas.

Society tends to judge based on current beliefs, customs, and mores - not so much those in place at the time/place of those and the actions being judged.

Some of the legends are dispelled. But the Rangers remain no less legendary.

Outstanding and Excellent

I knew I was going to like this book, when I heard the interview with the author on NPR’s Fresh Air.

A bit one-sided.

While I don’t doubt that the events recounted in this book actually occurred, the overall tone of the book is generally negative. History is made up of millions of stories contextualized by millions of others under circumstances dramatically different from our own. Three stars for the detailed research.

Not as bad as some say.

After reading reviews, I decided to give this a listen to see if it was actually as biased as it was depicted. The author did relate atrocities committed by all, not just rangers; but most all of these are related in a variety of books covering the period. The book probably is a little slanted against the Rangers, but when "Cult" is in title, what do you expect. There is a lot of history in the book; but like with any history, it could possibly be tainted by the author's prejudice. I would recommend this work as a study of rangers and period history; but not certainly as a sole source. As to the narration, it takes a little to adapt to. And as with many, there are mispronunciations, etc.

This book should be sold in the Texas ranger HOF store

But it will never be. Why? Because it totally de-mythologized the high image of the Texas rangers, using first person documentation, and not just news headlines, which is the main source of the Texas Ranger mythology. I totally enjoyed this book. The stories behind the myth are much better and more human than the lies and mythologies created in order to increase the Ranger prestige. It is sordid, racist, corrupt…. But its history is proof that time can transform myth into reality…. Even if it takes over 150 years (1969 1st Latino Ranger…1988 1st black Ranger…1993 1st female Ranger)…

Rangers-Lawmen?

Seems like the rangers were an unsavory lot.
Surely there is another side to this
story!

Fantastic!

Narrator was great and kept me hooked, the story was never boring, definitely recommended.