Book excerpt: This collection of essays presents a variety of scholarly explorations of the nature and role of the Mounties in the Prairie Provinces from the formation of the North West Mounted Police in 1873-74 to its transformation into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1919-20. The essays are grouped into five broad themes: relations with First Nations; law enforcement; social issues, including relations with minority groups and labour movements; characteristics of the police force; and crisis and change (police-immigrant relations, response to labour unrest, and the origins of domestic intelligence and counter-subversion). An epilogue presents the case for the dramatic change of the force after 1919-20 and the new force's use of the positive image created by the old force.