Cult of Glory

Praise

Advance praise for Cult of Glory:
 
“[Cult of Glory] rigorously chronicles two centuries of Ranger misadventures and atrocities, as well as commendable operations undertaken by the Rangers in recent decades . . . [and] strives to be as panoramic as possible, telling a big story on a big canvas . . . it also strives to supplant the Ranger narratives of yore by synthesizing decades of others’ research as well as Swanson’s own findings.” —John Phillip Santos, Texas Monthly

“This boldly revisionist account takes no prisoners.” 
—Publishers Weekly

“Cult of Glory is a masterpiece of American history. Period. Doug Swanson has taken on the Texas Ranger legend in all of its terrifying magnificence, disassembled it, and created in its place a real, true, and shockingly new history.”
—S.C. Gwynne, author of Empire of the Summer Moon
 
“Utterly absorbing and sweeping in scope. Doug J. Swanson has stripped away the clichés and mythology of the Texas Rangers and written a meticulous and propulsive narrative that’s a delight to read.”
—Gilbert King, Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Beneath a Ruthless Sun

“The conquest of the American West was a ruthless, sanguinary affair. At long last, Doug J. Swanson’s Cult of Glory resurrects the truth about the Texas Rangers and their complicated history, and it’s a far stranger, more fascinating tale than any you’ve ever read about the storied lawmen. A revelatory masterpiece.” —Melissa del Bosque, author of Bloodlines: The True Story of a Drug Cartel, the FBI, and the Battle for a Horse-Racing Dynasty

“The Rangers in Swanson’s Cult of Glory are, by turns, heroic, villainous, astonishingly brave and sometimes breathtakingly inept. Every chapter—and I mean every single one—contains a character who could have been sprung straight out of a screenwriter’s imagination.”
—Skip Hollandsworth, author of The Midnight Assassin

“Cult of Glory is a remarkable feat of reporting, conjuring the crimes and courage of the Texas Rangers while dismantling toxic American myths—from the romanticized anti-hero to American exceptionalism. Swanson refuses to reduce the Texas Rangers to a monolith, instead breathing cinematic life into their diverse makeup of white supremacists, cold-blooded murderers and heroes. In gripping prose, he reveals the contradictions that forged America and fueled the earliest border wars. It’s a wild and timely ride you need to go on—adrenaline-packed and enlightening.”
—Jean Guerrero, Emmy-winning journalist and author of Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir and Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda 

“[A] big story . . . to tell, expanding on, updating, and sometimes correcting works by writers such as Walter Prescott Webb and John Boessenecker . . . Revisionist history done well.”
—Kirkus Reviews