"The transformation of the American West is one of the key topics in the study of United States history and global environmental history. It is also central to the growing field of animal history. The full story of the ranching in the American West is about the expansion of new animals, people, and political and economic systems into a vast and diverse human and animal landscape, and the struggles over how that would take place. It spans from early Indigenous acquisition of horses in the 18th century, to the introduction of Hispanic horsemanship techniques and market cattle in the "Old West," and finally the work of twentieth-century ranching families to sustainably grow cattle in the face of a growing environmental and animal rights movements. It links global migrations of horses, cattle, and people, settler colonialism, environmental change, American cowboy mythology, and the transformation of animals and the land from beings and entities with intrinsic value to entities taken to be property or commodities. This volume provides readers with a survey of first-hand accounts, contemporary media, and many images exposing the complexity and diversity of the ranching West from the eighteenth century to the present. The documents reveal not simply the human past, but also the distinct histories of cattle, horses, and the land. Readers will explore intersecting themes of capitalism and beef, environmental change, rural labor, gender, and racial politics as debated by westerners themselves, as well as the meaning and power of the cowboy myth in American life. The introduction incorporates recent scholarship and provides a fresh look at this key topic in American history, along with the informative headnotes and rich annotations help orient the reader within the historical sources."--