Recommended Reading
Online
Texas Adjutant General Service Records 1836-1935
The records are not entirely complete, but do have copies of the original documents for members of different organizations, including the Texas Rangers, who served under the authority of the State Adjutant General. To visit this site, please click here.
Books
Walter Prescott Webb
Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense
First published in 1936, this book is a slightly dated narrative history of the Rangers through the 1930s.
Robert M. Utley
Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers
Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers
Two-volume history of the Texas Rangers that does not avoid the darker periods of Ranger history. A good starting point for learning the basic history of the Rangers.
Mike Cox
The Texas Rangers Volume I: Wearing the Cinco Peso 1821-1900
Texas Rangers Volume II: Time of the Rangers from 1900 to the Present
A two-volume history of the Texas Rangers and is written in a popular history, anecdotal style.
Stephen L. Moore
Savage Frontier: Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas
Volume I: 1835-1837
Volume II: 1838-1839
Volume III: 1840-1841
Volume IV: 1842-1845
This series is on the Rangers and other Republic of Texas forces on the frontier during the 10 years of the Revolution and the Republic. It includes extensive rosters for units as well as detailed descriptions of actions.
Frederick Wilkins
The Legend Begins: The Texas Rangers, 1823-1845
Defending the Borders: The Texas Rangers, 1848-1861
The Law Comes to Texas: The Texas Rangers 1870-1901
A three-volume history of the Texas Rangers during the 19th Century.
Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler
The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution: The Bloodiest Decade, 1910-1920
This book is an in-depth history of one of the most controversial and difficult periods in Texas Ranger history. It includes an appendix with extensive personnel lists of names as well as types and dates of service for known Texas Rangers of the era.
Julian Samora, Joe Bernal, and Albert Peña
Gunpowder Justice: A Reassessment of the Texas Rangers Through Their History
An account of the changing character and functions of the Texas Rangers throughout their history, as well as their reorganizations in the early decades of the 20th Century. It focuses on incidents in Ranger history where the civil liberties and rights of Mexican-Americans were violated. Gunpowder Justice was written as an argument in favor of the movement to disband the Texas Rangers in the 1960s and 1970s.
Books
Charles H. Harris III, Frances E. Harris and Louis R. Sadler
Texas Ranger Biographies: Those Who Served 1910-1921
A book of thumbnail biographies of the known Texas Rangers during the period of 1910-1921. These are drawn from and expanding on the personnel lists in its appendix.
Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler
The Texas Rangers in Transition: From Gunfighters to Criminal Investigators 1921-1935
This book continues the story of the Texas Rangers in the early 20th Century from the point where The Bloodiest Decade ended and carries it through to the establishment of the Texas Department of Public Safety in 1935. It is a detailed narrative of the Rangers’ evolution into a professional law enforcement agency.
Bob Alexander and Donaly Brice
Texas Rangers: Life, Legends, and Legacy
A new one-volume history of the Texas Rangers from inception to early this year, by two noted Western historians who have written extensively on the Texas Rangers’ history, personnel and operations.
Darren L. Ivey
The Texas Rangers: A Registry and History
A collection of Texas Ranger history, including organization, commanding officers, and known posts and camps.
The Ranger Ideal: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, Volume 1 1823-1861
The first volume in a projected three-volume set giving biographies of the 31 Texas Rangers who have been inducted into the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. Volume 1 includes: Stephen F. Austin, John Coffee Hays, Ben McCulloch, William A.A. “Bigfoot” Wallace, Samuel H. Walker, John S. “Rip” Ford and Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross.
The Ranger Ideal: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, Volume 2 1874-1930
The second volume of Ivey’s set of biographies of the Hall of Fame Texas Rangers includes: John B. Jones, Leander H. McNelly, John B. Armstrong, James B. Gillett, Jesse L. Hall, George W. Baylor, Bryan Marsh, Ira Aten, James A. Brooks, William J. McDonald, John R. Hughes and John H. Rogers.
The Ranger Ideal: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, Volume 3 1898‐1987
The last volume of Ivey’s monumental 2,300 page study of Hall of Fame Rangers includes twelve inductees who served Texas in the twentieth century. They are: William L. Wright, Frank A. Hamer, Thomas R. Hickman, Charles E. Miller, Manuel T. Gonzaullas, Marvin Burton, Robert A. Crowder, John J. Klevenhagen, Clinton T. Peoples, James E. Riddles, Bobby Paul Doherty and Stanley Keith Guffey.
For a PDF version of this list, please click here.