Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers is a 2020 nonfiction book by Doug J. Swanson. [1] It describes the history of the Texas Rangers.
Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers is a 2020 nonfiction book by Doug J. Swanson. [1] It describes the history of the Texas Rangers.
Reviews of the books were mixed, with journalists and Texas historians unable to find consensus on the book's merits. Author and political historian, Douglas Brinkley, in a New York Times book review called the book "revisionist" as it shows incidents of violence not previously covered in histories of the Texas Rangers. [1] Brinkley wrote that the author "portrays the 19th-century Rangers as a paramilitary squad, proudly waving the banner of white supremacy." [1] Swanson claimed that he did not set out to challenge the previous historiography of the Texas Rangers but that this became apparent to him as he did more research. Of the impressions he took away from his research, Swanson said that the positive image of the Texas Rangers "has been crafted and many times is a fraud". [2]
Cult of Glory well was reviewed favorably in the Houston Chronicle, [3] San Antonio Express News, [4] Dallas Morning News, [5] Texas Monthly, [6] the New York Times, [7] and others. Texas Ranger scholars and historians, however, disagreed with the reviews of journalists. Texas historian and professor, Richard McCaslin, opined in The Journal of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society, that "readers seeking an objective, well researched, or even reasonably accurate history of the Rangers will not find it here. In response to author Swanson's claims about the crafting of the positive Ranger image, McCaslin wrote "In fact, it is this work at falls within the category of modern mythmaking, as the author abandons objectivity and presents carefully selected episodes in Texas history, many of which do not directly involve the Rangers, to present a poorly researched and inaccurate condemnation." [8] Ranger scholar and author, Darren L. Ivey described the book as "an example of advocacy journalism rather than historical analysis," [9] taking issue with Swanson's research and source selection in the Wild West History Association Journal. "Swanson's book selectively disregards works that would have added crucial context and perspective," writes Ivey.
The book is a 480-page chronological illustrated history of the Texas Rangers, examining each of the epochs of the force, 1821 to the modern Texas Rangers. [10] Swanson's thesis is that the Texas Rangers "were the violent instruments of repression" of a white ruling class who preyed on Texans of color throughout their history. [9]
Joe Holley of the Houston Chronicle wrote that "apparently because of Swanson’s book" Dallas Love Field removed a statue of a Texas Ranger. [11]
Douglas Jules Swanson, a native of Florida, [6] was born in 1953. He graduated from University of Texas in 1977 and spent a year as the John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.[ citation needed ] He worked as a journalist for 35 years at the Dallas Times Herald and Dallas Morning News. Until Cult of Glory, he was best known for his 1990s mystery series about private investigator Jake Flippo.[ citation needed ] He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. [12] He has taught journalism and writing at Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas, and the University of Texas at Austin. As of 2021,Swanson is a Research Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Pittsburgh.[ citation needed ]
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers and also known as Los Diablos Tejanos, is an investigative law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in the U.S. state of Texas. It is based in the capital city of Austin. In the time since its creation, the Texas Rangers have investigated crimes ranging from murder to political corruption, acted in riot control and as detectives, protected the governor of Texas, tracked down fugitives, served as a security force at important state locations, including the Alamo, and functioned as a paramilitary force at the service of both the Republic (1836–1846) and the State of Texas.
Lester Ben Binion, better known as Benny Binion, was an American career criminal who established illegal gambling operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area. In 1931, Binion was convicted of shooting and killing a rum-runner, Frank Bolding. In the 1940s he relocated to Nevada, where gambling was legal, and opened the successful Binion's Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas.
The Lone Star Series is a Major League Baseball (MLB) rivalry featuring Texas' two major league franchises, the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. It is an outgrowth of the "natural rivalry" established by MLB as part of interleague play as the Rangers are a member of the American League (AL) and the Astros were a member of the National League (NL) until 2012. During interleague play, the winner of the six game series was awarded the Silver Boot, a 30-inch (760 mm) tall display of a size 15 cowboy boot cast in silver, complete with a custom, handmade spur. If each team had won three games each for a tie, the declared winner was the team that scored the most runs over the course of the series. In 2013, the Astros joined the American League West with the Rangers and changed their rivalry from an interleague to an intradivision one; until 2023, nineteen games were played in every year minus 2020, but rule changes mean that the two teams will play each other thirteen times a year.
Samuel Hamilton Walker was an American army officer. He served as a Texas Ranger captain and officer of the Republic of Texas and the United States armies. Walker served in several armed conflicts, including the American Indian Wars and the Mexican–American War.
Jeffery Todd Banister is an American former professional baseball player and manager. He is the bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Before that, he was a special assistant for the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. He served as the manager of the Texas Rangers from 2015 through 2018. Before joining the Rangers, Banister spent 29 years within the organization of the Pirates as a player and coach in both the Pirates' major and minor league system. After leaving the Rangers, Banister served the Director of Player Development with the University of Northern Colorado Bears baseball program in 2021 before landing with the D-backs.
Douglas Brinkley is an American author, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities, and professor of history at Rice University. Brinkley is the history commentator for CNN, Presidential Historian for the New York Historical Society, and a contributing editor to the magazine Vanity Fair. He is a public spokesperson on conservation issues. He joined the faculty of Rice University as a professor of history in 2007.
Texxas Jam was the informal nickname of an annual summer rock concert called the Texxas World Music Festival (1978–1988). It was held in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl, and in Houston, at either the Astrodome or the Rice Stadium on the campus of Rice University.
Texas Monthly Talks was a thirty-minute interview show on public television networks across the state of Texas hosted by Evan Smith, then Editor Emeritus of Texas Monthly magazine. Produced by Dateline NBC veteran Lynn Boswell, the show addressed contemporary issues in Texas politics, business and culture. Premiering in February 2003, the show was an original production of KLRU-TV, the PBS station serving Austin and Central Texas. In 2010 the series was succeeded by Overheard, with the same format, host and producer; the renaming was necessary because Smith had resigned his position at the magazine and had become Editor in Chief of the Texas Tribune.
Douglas Keith Brocail is an American professional baseball pitcher and pitching coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He has coached in MLB for the Astros, Rangers, and the Orioles.
Katherine Sherar Pannill Center is an American author of contemporary fiction.
Texas is home of several national sports league franchises among other professional sports, being the second most populated U.S. state. Since the state is located in the South Central United States, most teams are part of the Central / South or West league divisions, with the notable exception of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, which is an NFC East franchise.
Douglas Alan Mathis is a former professional baseball pitcher and current pitching coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers for their AAA affiliate in Oklahoma City. He played in Major League Baseball, the KBO League, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). Previously he was a coach in the Seattle Mariners, Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers organizations.
The Mansfield school desegregation incident is a 1956 event in the Civil Rights Movement in Mansfield, Texas, a suburb of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex.
The Great Hanging at Gainesville was the execution by hanging of 41 suspected Unionists in Gainesville, Texas, in October 1862 during the American Civil War. Confederate troops shot two additional suspects trying to escape. Confederate troops captured and arrested some 150–200 men in and near Cooke County at a time when numerous North Texas citizens opposed the new law on conscription. Many suspects were tried by a "Citizens' Court" organized by a Confederate military officer. It made up its own rules for conviction and had no status under state law. Although only 11% of county households enslaved people, seven of the 12 men on the jury were enslavers.
Bill Minutaglio is a journalist, educator and author of nine books. He is the recipient of a PEN Center USA Literary Award and has served as a professor at The University of Texas at Austin, where he was given The Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award.
Texas United is an American soccer club that currently competes in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The club plays its home games at the John Clark Stadium.
La Matanza and the Hora de Sangre was a period of anti-Mexican violence in Texas, including lynchings and massacres, between 1910 and 1920 in the midst of tensions between the United States and Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. This violence was committed by Anglo-Texan vigilantes, and law enforcement, such as the Texas Rangers, during operations against bandit raids known as the Bandit Wars. The violence and denial of civil liberties during this period was justified by racism. Ranger violence reached its peak from 1915 to 1919, in response to increasing conflict, initially because of the Plan de San Diego, by Mexican and Tejano insurgents to take Texas. This period was referred to as the Hora de Sangre by Mexicans in South Texas, many of whom fled to Mexico to escape the violence. At least 300 Mexican Americans were killed in Texas during the 1910s, with total estimates of ranging from hundreds to thousands killed. At least 100 Mexican Americans were lynched in the 1910s, many in Texas. Many murders were concealed and went unreported, with some in South Texas, suspected by Rangers of supporting rebels, being placed on blacklists and often "disappearing".
Texas Ranger is a stand-alone novel.
One Riot, One Ranger is a bronze statue of a Texas Ranger, installed from 1961 to 2020 at Dallas Love Field, named for the famous story of Bill McDonald, a captain of Ranger Company B, in the 1900s who by himself broke up an illegal boxing match in the U.S. state of Texas.
The lynching of George Hughes, which led to what is called the Sherman Riot, took place in Sherman, Texas, in 1930. An African-American man accused of rape and who was tried in court died on May 9 when the Grayson County Courthouse was set on fire by a White mob, who subsequently burned and looted local Black-owned businesses. Martial law was declared on May 10, but by that time many of Sherman's Black-owned businesses had been burnt to the ground. Thirty-nine people were arrested, eight of whom were charged, and later, a grand jury indicted 14 men, none for lynching. By October 1931, two men had been sent to prison for two two-year sentences, one year for arson and one for inciting a riot. The outbreak of violence was followed by two more lynchings in Texas, one in Oklahoma, and several lynching attempts.
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