The lives of American cowboys have been both real and mythic; hence our continuing fascination with their history and culture. In sixteen essays and an annotated bibliography, scholars explore cowboy music, dress, humor, films, and literature. Some examine the cowboy s powerful symbolic life. Others look at African American, Hispanic, Native American, French, and English cowboys, the great cowboy strike of 1883, and even the origins of the term cowboy itself. Celebrating the cowboy way, the essays also come to grips with false images and the make-believe world that surrounds cowboy culture....