It seems that every generation must have its own take on Daniel Boone, both as a man and and as a symbol of the American thrust into the trans-Appalachian wilderness. We’re about to get another one... Boone: An Unfinished Portrait by Daniel Firth Griffith. Who was Daniel Boone? Was he a woodsman-philosopher or American Patriot? In this … [Read more...] about ‘Boone: An Unfinished Portrait’

Ordinarily, I would plow through a 272-page borderland thriller from James Carlos Blake in handful of days. Maybe two. I haven’t done that with The Bones of Wolfe. The demands of work — newspaper and Frontier Partisans — have forced me to slow it down and read in small chunks. Not necessarily the best way to let the momentum of Story sweep you … [Read more...] about The Big, Bad Wolfes Are At The Door

By Rick Schwertfeger, Captain, Frontier Partisans Southern Command I must be crazy. I’m writing about Ernest Hemingway, one of the most studied, well-known, complex, deeply flawed, and yet extraordinary Americans. And many Frontier Partisans may know much more about the man than I do. But, we’ll see that author Chris Warren found more to … [Read more...] about Hemingway In The Yellowstone High Country

I wasn’t going to weigh in at all on the Washington, DC NFL team’s decision to drop the “Redskins” moniker after years of pressure. The matter is in my territory — the popular culture’s ever-evolving relationship with frontier history — but I just can’t get worked up about it. I know Indians who hate it and Indians who could give a shit about it. … [Read more...] about Redskins, Rangers And Revisionism

The cowboy campfire at Frontier Partisans is active these days. As Craig Rullman works on the trailer for the Len Babb Movie Project and Paramount TV gets set to drop Season 3 of Yellowstone (aka Jim’s Cowboy Soap Opera), Colter Wall has announced his third album Western Swing & Waltzes and Other Punchy Songs. I won’t dwell on the fact that … [Read more...] about Western Swing & Waltzes

Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers is now on the shelves. My bookstore gave me an advanced reader copy back in February, and I will be popping for the HC for the library — which should give you an indication of its quality. As I noted in the March trapline, it’s revisionist history of the best kind — the kind that gazes … [Read more...] about Wild Things — More From The Trapline

Our compañero Lane Batot filled a significant hole in the Frontier Partisans library. The Pony Express arrived last week with his gift of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ two Apache novels (plus a bonus book on lions in Africa). They will be my nightstand reads in the coming weeks. So THOSE Apaches are here. We’ll have to wait till May 27 for Black … [Read more...] about Where Are The Apaches?

I’ve probably given Tecumseh short-shrift here at Frontier Partisans. He is widely regarded as the most talented leader of the indigenous resistance to American power and the pan-Indian movement he sought to create in the early years of the 19th Century was the last best chance to establish a genuine (non-reservation) native sovereignty in the … [Read more...] about There’s A Panther In The Sky

Haggard stands at the fountainhead and nexus of what I call “exotic adventure fiction.” Such fiction moves beyond the sort of stories told up until that time —adventures of pirates, cowboys, swashbucklers, explorers and whatnot —  and adds something extra, something over the top, something truly exotic. One strand leads to tales of Indiana Jones, … [Read more...] about Burnham & Haggard On The Imperial Frontier