Posse Book Review Program

Currently there are six (6) new books available to review. Yes, that’s right, more books! Come to our monthly meetings to pick a book or two for your fun historical reading. These are new publications from universities where historical research is continually taking place.

New western historical books are available to review for the Denver Posse of Westerners. Send your reading requests to Frank Pilkington, book review editor at Apache313@gmail.com. You may pick up the book at the next meeting or the book you request could be mailed to you for a small $5.00 shipping charge. A review of the authors work needs to be returned for every book taken. The University publishers, the authors and our Roundup magazine will receive a copy of your review. In return, you get to keep the book for your personal library. Here are the current choices on deck.

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  1. Borderlander: The Life of James Kirker, 1792-1852, by Ralph Adam Smith, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman OK., 1999, 326 pgs. $13.76. James Kirker was an immigrant from Ireland who became a villain, a hero, or a scoundrel. When Apache and Comanche Indians from the U.S. began raiding northern Mexico, bounty warfare contracts with effective and inexpensive methods to solve the problems made him famous. This Indian fighter became an infamous frontier figure.

  2. The Last Lookout on Dunn Peak: Fire Spotting in Idaho’s St. Joe National Forest by Nancy S. Hammond, 2024, Pullman WA. Captures that lost era and recounts a life few will now experience - serving as a US Forest Service fire lookout.

  3. Duval County Tejanos: An epic Narrative of Liberty and Democracy, by Alfredo E. Cardenas, U of North Texas Press, Denton TX. 2024, 415 pages, Carenas’s book is the first scholarly history of San Diego and Duval County. This is a new approach primarily because the author’s intensive study of county voting in the 1890’s clearly illustrates his major theme that Tejanos were not merely pawns to an Anglo political boss but viable agents of election activities and results.

  4. Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West Volume 3, by Robert K. DeArment, U of Oklahoma Press, Norman, OK. 2010, 395 pages. Men who in their own time were notorious as frontier gunfighters but have since disappeared into obscurity.

  5. The Reel Thrilling Events of Bank Robber Henry Starr: from Gentleman Bandit to Movie Star and Back Again, by Mark Archuleta, Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2025. 290 pages, footnotes, bibliography, indexed, Hardcover, $9.95

  6. Blood Vessels: Vigilante Violence in The American West, by Patrick T. Hoehne, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2026. 313 pages, bibliography, footnotes, Hardcover, $45.00

Contact Frank Pilkington, Posse Book Review Chairman if you would like a book for reading and review at: apache313@gmail.com

(Reviews limited to 700 words.

Writing a Review -- A Template

So, you have chosen a book; read it and you are ready to write a review. What is a Review?

A Review can be a friendly letter back to your friends, the Posse members, and to the book Publisher. In this friendly letter you start with a standard heading that tells us and the Publisher what it is that you are reviewing:

Heading "Title: Subtitle", by author. University of Somewhere Press, 2022, 234 pp. Tables, graphs, endnotes, index. Hardcover. $39.50. (now you are 1/3 done).

Then tell us what you think the author was trying to tell us. Maybe 3 or 4 sentences. Then wrap it up by adding 2 or 3 sentences as to why this book would be (or would not be) of interest to other Posse members. You are probably at about 300 words, but if a few more happen to be on the page, don’t worry. Posse etiquette says 500 words are too many. Add your name and word count ex.: “Virgil Earp (300 words)” Now you are done!

If you still have doubts about what a review should look like, look at a recent Roundup magazine.  Each edition has a half dozen or so reviews that have made it through the Posse review process.  Pick one you like and model your review after it.

Send your review to the Posse Book Chair and they can take it from there.