In Cowboys and Kansas, Jim Hoy educates and entertains us with essays and tales about cowboy life that are based on personal experience, folklore, and history. Introduced to cowboys—famous and obscure, historical and contemporary—we hear them tell about troublesome horses they have ridden, rattlesnakes they have encountered, and outlaws they have met. We experience the details of the cowhand's daily work (roping, counting, and shipping cattle, riding with a trail herd) and play (rodeos, horse races, roping contests, poetry). We meet women drovers, Wild West show riders, and jockeys in a section on cowgirls, and we learn the history of cowboy boots, pants, hats, and saddles.