Book excerpt: An easily accessible and comprehensive summary of current studies on the Canadian ranching frontier. This collection of essays provides an excellent perspective on the latest developments in the historiography of the range, drawing from topics such as Wild West shows, artistic depictions of the cowboy, and the economic and practical aspects of early cattle ranching. The essays anthologized here fall into three general areas: the working cowboy, the performing cowboy and the imaginary cowboy, and the academics, ranchers, poets and cowboys who authored them hail from backgrounds as diverse as history, geography, political science, and literature. This book makes an important contribution to the study of the ranching frontier, and will continue to be of value to researchers and readers of western history, plains studies and historical geography.