"An earlier version of chapter 2 appeared as "Rangers, Mounties, and the Subjugation of Indigenous Peoples, 1870-1885," Great Plains Quarterly 24, no. 2 (Spring 2004): 85-99. Reprinted by permission. An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared as "Rural Police and the Defense of the Cattleman's Empire in Texas and Canada, 1875-1900," Agricultural History 75, no. 3 (Summer 2005): 253-80. Copyright 2005 by the Agricultural History Society. Reprinted by permission. An earlier version of chapter 5 appeared as "Texas Rangers, Canadian Mounties, and the Policing of the Transnational Industrial Frontier, 1885-1910," Western Historical Quarterly 35 (Summer 2004): 167-91. Copyright by the Western History Association. Reprinted by permission."

Introduction: "similar organizations in other parts" -- Instruments of incorporation -- Subjugating indigenous groups -- Dispossessing peoples of mixed ancestry -- Defending the cattleman's empire -- Policing the industrial frontier -- Epilogue: "deeds, real and imagined".