Prep School Cowboys: Ranch Schools in the American West. By Melissa Bingmann.

Abstract

Prep School Cowboys: Ranch Schools in the American West . By Melissa Bingmann. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015. xxvi + 230 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $45.00.) Melissa Bingmann’s Prep School Cowboys looks at a narrowly specialized industry during a brief period in the history of the American West and makes it seem significant and infinitely interesting. As Bingmann explains, “The ranch school story is about how the elite, assisted and influenced by a cadre of experts, dealt with the issue of cultivating the next generation of leaders amid a period of social and cultural change by looking to the West to provide an environment conducive to making men out of boys and instilling character traits many worried were lost by the end of World War I” (p. xxiv). Utilizing an array of sources that includes both archival work and deep … mberry{at}gregoryschool.org