Henry A. Wallace Award, The Agricultural History Society, 2018 Brazil has the second-largest cattle herd in the world and is a major exporter of beef. While ranching in the Amazon—and its destructive environmental consequences—receives attention from both the media and scholars, the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul actually host the most cattle. A significant beef producer in Brazil beginning in the late nineteenth century, the region served as a laboratory for raising cattle in the tropics, where temperate zone ranching practices do not work. Mato Grosso ranchers and cowboys transformed ranching’s relationship with the environment, including the introduction of an exotic cattle breed—the Zebu—that now dominates Latin American tropical ranching. Cattle in the Backlands presents a comprehensive history of ranching in Mato Grosso. Using extensive primary sources, Robert W. Wilcox explores three key aspects: the economic transformation of a remote frontier region through modern technical inputs; the resulting social changes, especially in labor structures and land tenure; and environmental factors, including the long-term impact of ranching on ecosystems, which, he contends, was not as detrimental as might be assumed. Wilcox demonstrates that ranching practices in Mato Grosso set the parameters for tropical beef production in Brazil and throughout Latin America. As the region was incorporated into national and international economic structures, its ranching industry experienced the entry of foreign investment, the introduction of capitalized processing facilities, and nascent discussions of ecological impacts—developments that later affected many sectors of the Brazilian economy.

This book offers a critical reinterpretation of male violence, patriarchy, and machismo in rural Latin America. It focuses on the lives of lower-class men and women, known as sertanejo/as, in the hinterlands of the northeastern Brazilian province of Ceará between 1845 and 1889. Challenging the widely accepted depiction of sertanejos as conditioned to violence by nature, culture, and climate, Santos argues that their concern with maintaining an honorable manly reputation and the use of violence were historically contingent strategies employed to resolve conflicts over scant resources and to establish power over women and other men. She also traces a shift in the functioning of patriarchy that coincided with changes in the material fortunes of sertanejo families. As economic dislocation, environmental calamity, and family separation led to greater female autonomy and an erosion of patriarchal authority in the home, public—and often violent—enforcement of male power maintained patriarchal order in these communities.

After the deaths of his wife and brother, John Kerney gives up his West Texas ranch and heads south in search of a new home. Soon Kerney is offered work trailing cattle to the New Mexico Territory--a job that will forever change his life.

Situated in the center of a state renowned for its abundant and varied birdlife, the Texas Hill Country provides habitat for 420 resident and migratory species, including the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo. Mark Lockwood, a biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, has monitored these and other bird populations throughout the Hill Country for many years. In this book, he offers a complete, up-to-date guide to the status and distribution of every bird species reliably reported on the Edwards Plateau. The species accounts focus on four key characteristics of each bird: relative abundance, distribution within the region, habitat, and timing of occurrence. In addition, Lockwood discusses species that have been reported, but not documented, in the Hill Country, as well as those that might be expected to occur. For birders and ornithologists less familiar with the region, Lockwood also gives a general introduction to the ecology of the Edwards Plateau and to the flora and birdlife found in eighteen parks and birding areas.

Offers a guide to the frogs, toads, and salamanders of Texas, including size, description, distribution area, and more for each.

In the New York Times bestselling Hard Country, Michael McGarrity gave readers “an expansive, lyrical period Western in the tradition of A. B. Guthrie Jr. and Larry McMurtry” (Hampton Sides). Now McGarrity continues his richly authentic epic of life on the last vestiges of the twentieth-century American frontier. Scarred by the loss of an older brother he idolized, estranged from a father he barely knows, and deeply troubled by the failing health of a mother he adores, young Matthew Kerney is suddenly and irrevocably forced to set aside his childhood and take on responsibilities far beyond his years. When the world spirals into the Great Depression and drought settles like a plague over the nation, Matt must abandon his own dreams to salvage the Kerney ranch. Plunged into a deep trough of dark family secrets, hidden crimes, broken promises, and lies, Matt must struggle to survive on the unforgiving, sun-blasted Tularosa Basin.

From the legendary, fear-inspiring Western Diamondback rattlesnake to the tiny, harmless Plains blind snake, Texas has a greater diversity of snake species than any other state in the country. Recognizing the public's need for a complete guide to identifying and understanding Texas' snakes, two of the state's most respected herpetologists have joined forces to create this definitive reference to all 109 species and sub-species of Texas snakes. Well-written species accounts describe each snake's appearance, lookalikes, size, habitat, behavior, feeding, and reproduction. The authors also include color photos and finely detailed line drawings to aid field identification, along with accurate range maps, a checklist of Texas snakes, a key to the species, and a brief discussion of classification and taxonomy. The authors round out this volume with essays on snake myths and misinformation, snakebite and its prevention, conservation, Texas biotic provinces, and a brief history of Texas herpetology.