|
 |
|
Mike Cox
Mike Cox is the author of 13 nonfiction books including a study of Texas disasters, three books on the Texas Rangers, one collection historical stories, one true crime story, a biography, a memoir and three local histories, as well as numerous magazine articles, essays and introductions for other books. He has been an elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1993.
Mike’s latest work, The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900, is the first of a two-volume comprehensive history of the Rangers published by Forge in March, 2008 (496 pages, $25.95). The second volume will release in 2009.
Since 2000, he has written a syndicated weekly newspaper column called “Texas Tales” on interesting, little-known incidents in Texas history. In 1982 he began writing “Texana,” a Texas book review column for the Austin American-Statesman. He has written travel articles for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and for more than two years wrote a weekly column on legislative and statewide news for the Texas Press Association.
His byline regularly appears in a number of national and statewide magazines, including Texas Highways, Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine and Texas Sportsman. In addition, he has written articles and monographs for a wide variety of Texas historical associations, museums and non-profit organizations.
Mike is also an accomplished and experienced public speaker, on such topics as the Texas Rangers, free-lance writing, leadership and media relations.
He retired in the fall of 2007 as Communication Manager for the Texas Department of Transportation, where he handled media and internal relations on highways and other transportation issues.
Prior to that, he spent more than 15 years with the Texas Department of Public Safety as Chief of Media Relations and Public Information Officer. In between, he was Director of Member Services for the Texas Press Association.
Earlier, he was an award-winning newspaper reporter for nearly 20 years, most of that time with the Austin American-Statesman.
Visit Mike at
|
|
|
|
Synopsis: The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900
by Mike Cox (Forge, 2008)
In the first of two books that took ten years to write, Texas journalist/historian Mike Cox explores the inception and rise of the famed Texas Rangers. Starting in 1821 with just a handful of men, the Rangers' first purpose was to keep settlers safe from the feared and gruesome Karankawa Indians, a cannibalistic tribe that wandered the Texas territory. As the influx of settlers grew, the attacks increased and it became clear that a larger, better trained force was necessary.
From their tumultuous beginning to their decades of fighting outlaws, Comanche, Mexican soldados and banditos, as well as Union soldiers, the Texas Rangers became one of the fiercest law enforcement groups in America. In a land as spread-out and sparsely populated as the west itself, the Rangers had unique law-enforcement responsibilities and challenges.
The story of the Texas Rangers is as controversial as it is heroic. Often accused of vigilante-style racism and murder, they enforced the law with a heavy hand. But above all they were perhaps the defining force for the stabilization and the creation of Texas. From Stephen Austin in the early days through the Civil War, the first eighty years of the Texas Rangers is nothing less then phenomenal, and the efforts put forth in those days set the foundation for the Texas Rangers that keep Texas safe today.
The first book ends in 1900.
The second book releases Summer '09.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
