Description
Book SynopsisNever Caught Twice offers a comprehensive cross-cultural study of horse theft as a crime, a transactional activity, and an intercultural phenomenon on the Great Plains of western Nebraska.
Trade Review"
Never Caught Twice is highly recommended to western scholars and other persons interested in western Nebraska history. Luckett's witty character makes for an engaging conversation between the author, the reader, and the past."—Broc Anderson,
Nebraska History“This is an intriguing and deeply significant contribution to the ongoing effort to demythologize the Wild West and adds an important new layer to the search for an identifiable legal culture in Nebraska and Great Plains history.”—Mark Scherer, coauthor of
Echo of Its Time: The History of the Federal District Court of Nebraska, 1867–1933"Luckett has produced a fascinating study, which deserves our attention."—Chuck Parsons,
Tombstone Epitaph“
Never Caught Twice shows how ‘creating and protecting private property’—livestock on the hoof—rather than ‘the advent of law and order’ defined America’s frontier settlement. Matthew Luckett is an excellent writer, deep thinker, and brave scholar.”—Will Bagley, author of
So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California“Despite what we think we know about horse theft, this is the first effort to pull it all together into a single study. It is good stuff!”—Mark R. Ellis, author of
Law and Order in Buffalo Bill’s Country: Legal Culture and Community on the Great Plains, 1867–1910Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
List of Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Maps, Meridians, and Mounts in Western Nebraska
1. You Must Watch Your Horses
2. Theft Cultures
3. The Horse Wars
4. A Most Tempting Business
5. From Thieves to Villains
6. When Horse Thieves Were Hanged
Epilogue: The Old West in Miniature
Notes
Bibliography
Index
