 American Rodeo
From Buffalo Bill to Big Business
Kristine Fredriksson
Narrated by Todd Curless
Available from Audible
Book published by Texas A&M University Press
The working cowhand of old was a dusty laborer, but today's rodeo performers can hone their skills before small-town crowds and be stars in urban coliseums.
Historian Kristine Fredriksson follows the evolution of rodeo from the range to Buffalo Bill's Wild West to the extravaganzas in modern times. How an ordinary, low-paying job became an entertainment that attracts thousands of spectators is a lesson in American culture and a story that will appeal to anyone who spells "western" with a capital W.
Kristine Fredriksson is a former curator of the Museum at Texas Tech University.
REVIEWS:
“In this entertaining and informative work, Fredriksson has written the first detailed historical account of rodeo as organized entertainment in the United States.”
—Library Journal “... facts about an American sport with a long and interesting history ... [a] conspicuous success.”
—American Historical Review “ ... belongs in the rodeo buff's library alongside such classics as My 50 Years in Rodeo and Man, Beast, Dust.”
—The Wild Bunch “As an up-to-date, carefully-researched, and clearly-written history of the development of professional rodeo into a national sport, the book makes a valuable and significant contribution to rodeo literature. It fills an important niche, both for devotees of the sport who will welcome it as a long-needed source of data, and for the uninitiated who need to know more about a fascinating sport that still seems foreign to many. American Rodeo will be useful for scholars in diverse disciplines who wish to compare rodeo organization and development to the history of other American sports that, out of humble beginnings, have also become not only entertainment but `big Business.'”
—New Mexico Historical Review, Vol. 61, no. 2 “Here is a well-written and thoroughly documented scholarly narrative of the rodeo's evolution from its amateur origins to its present status as a professional Sport.”
—American Studies, Vol. 27, no. 1. “This is a well documented, clearly written account of a subject that has not been of great interest to scholars. Fredriksson understands and likes her topic, and it is obvious that she has devoted years of careful study to rodeo and rodeo People.”
—Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 89, no. 4 “This is one of those books that you always hoped someone would write. It covers the history of the professionalization of rodeo from the early days on up to the present. It examines the relationships between the cowboys and the promoters, the fans and the publicity mongers, the stock handlers and the humane societies, the ranchers and the dude wranglers... For anyone interested in the development of the rodeo event as we know today, this is the Book.”
—Wyoming Library Roundup “... facts about an American sport with a long and interesting history ... conspicuous Success.”
—American Historical Review “Fredriksson is to be congratulated on her research and clearly written exposition, which, together with a well-chosen selection of contemporary photographs, provides insights into an activity which has hitherto escaped the attention of historians of Sport.”
—Journal of British Sports History “Fredriksson has certainly contributed the major study about rodeo organizations, specifically, the Prca.”
—Western Historical Quarterly
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