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Apr 29, 2025
American Dude Ranch
A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West
Summary
In American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West (U Oklahoma Press, 2022), historian Lynn Downey offers a cultural history of the dude ranch as a distinctly American invention—one that sits at the crossroads of fantasy and labor, leisure and land, myth and modernity. Instead of treating dude ranches as a kitschy "cowboy for a week" retreat, Downey situates them within the larger history of how the American West has been imagined and sold. Dude ranching reflected the romanticism of cowboy masculinity, even as it helped produce it, yet still carved out a space where women could shape their own adventures.
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Your Host
Ryan Tate
Ryan Driskell Tate writes on fossil fuels, climate change, and the American West. He holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University, and is completing a book on fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin.
