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    Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World's Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West
    Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World's Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West
    Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World's Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West
    Audiobook6 hours

    Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World's Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West

    Written by David Wolman and Julian Smith

    Narrated by Kaleo Griffith

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    About this audiobook

    In August 1908, three unknown riders arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, their hats adorned with wildflowers, to compete in the world’s greatest rodeo. Steer-roping virtuoso Ikua Purdy and his cousins Jack Low and Archie Ka’au’a had travelled 4,200 miles from Hawaii, of all places, to test themselves against the toughest riders in the West. Dismissed by whites, who considered themselves the only true cowboys, the native Hawaiians would astonish the country, returning home champions—and American legends.

    An unforgettable human drama set against the rough-knuckled frontier, David Wolman and Julian Smith’s Aloha Rodeo unspools the fascinating and little-known true story of the Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo, whose 1908 adventure upended the conventional history of the American West.

    What few understood when the three paniolo rode into Cheyenne is that the Hawaiians were no underdogs. They were the product of a deeply engrained cattle culture that was twice as old as that of the Great Plains, for Hawaiians had been chasing cattle over the islands’ rugged volcanic slopes and through thick tropical forests since the late 1700s.

    Tracing the life story of Purdy and his cousins, Wolman and Smith delve into the dual histories of ranching and cowboys in the islands, and the meteoric rise and sudden fall of Cheyenne, “Holy City of the Cow.” At the turn of the twentieth century, larger-than-life personalities like “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Theodore Roosevelt capitalized on a national obsession with the Wild West and helped transform Cheyenne’s annual Frontier Days celebration into an unparalleled rodeo spectacle, the “Daddy of ‘em All.”

    The hopes of all Hawaii rode on the three riders’ shoulders during those dusty days in August 1908. The U.S. had forcibly annexed the islands just a decade earlier. The young Hawaiians brought the pride of a people struggling to preserve their cultural identity and anxious about their future under the rule of overlords an ocean away. In Cheyenne, they didn’t just astound the locals; they also overturned simplistic thinking about cattle country, the binary narrative of “cowboys versus Indians,” and the very concept of the Wild West. Blending sport and history, while exploring questions of identity, imperialism, and race, Aloha Rodeo spotlights an overlooked and riveting chapter in the saga of the American West.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 28, 2019
    ISBN9780062836038
    Author

    David Wolman

    DAVID WOLMAN is a Contributing Editor at Outside. He has written for the Wired, the New York Times, New Yorker, Nature, and many other publications, and his work has been anthologized in the Best American Science and Nature Writing series. He is the author of The End of Money, Righting the Mother Tongue, and A Left-Hand Turn Around the World. David lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family.

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    Reviews for Aloha Rodeo

    4/5

    28 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Interesting book about the life of cowboys in Hawaii and the western/central USA. The Hawaiian historical parts made the book worthwhile. I am curious to visit the places mentioned on the Big Island. The US parts were a bit of a slog to get thru. Too much detail about non-important things such as the train ride West. The Rodeo in Wyoming is a highlight that the book ends with. Who will win the toughest events? This is another place that might be interesting to visit. I did not know about the Hawaiian cowboys and the Rodeo before reading the book for our book club.
    • 3/5
      Solid audiobook, and I learned a lot. This is a quick read, but if you're remotely curious about the topic it's definitely worth it.
    • 4/5
      A short account of the history of cowboys in Hawaii and of three Hawaiian cowboys who competed in a famous rodeo in Wyoming in the early 20th century. I learned some things I didn't know, and the end, where we get some good descriptions of the action at the rodeo in question, was quite thrilling. This never quite pulled me in as much as I expected it to, but the subject matter was compelling enough for me to stick with it, especially as the book is fairly short. In the end, I am glad I read it.