Policing the Great Plains

Published in Cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.
In the late nineteenth century, the Texas Rangers and Canada’s North-West Mounted Police were formed to bring the resource-rich hinterlands at either end of the Great Plains under governmental control. Native and rural peoples often found themselves squarely in the path of this westward expansion and the law enforcement agents that led the way. Though separated by nearly two thousand miles, the Rangers and Mounties performed nearly identical functions, including subjugating Indigenous groups; dispossessing peoples of mixed ancestry; defending the property of big cattlemen; and policing industrial disputes. Yet the means by which the two forces achieved these ends sharply diverged; while the Rangers often relied on violence, the Mounties usually exercised restraint, a fact that highlights some of the fundamental differences between the U.S. and Canadian Wests. Policing the Great Plains presents the first comparative history of the two most famous constabularies in the world.

Andrew R. Graybill is an assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

"Admirably clear, concise, and humane, this is the kind of comparative and transnational history that many historians have called for, but few have written."--David J. Weber, author of Barbaros: Spaniards and Their Savages in the Age of Enlightenment "This lively, engaging history throws new light on old myths by comparing two icons of the North American West. The book will appeal to all readers with an interest in the connected past of the Great Plains that Canada and the U.S. share."--Sarah Carter "Graybill's book is both an essential contribution to the history of the North American West and a testament to the wonders of comparative history."--Stephen Aron, author of American Confluence: The Missouri Frontier from Borderland to Border State