If you own exactly one book on the Dallas Cowboys, I’d strongly suggest this one be your book.
The essential oral narrative of the Dallas Cowboys.
Peter’s book is an oral narrative, composed of dozen of interviews of the “critical players”, and thus similar to, say, Studs Terkel’s “The Good War“. The book is organized in chronological order, from the foundation of the franchise to the middle 1990s. It’s not really a tell all book, though it interviews people who were very pro franchise and others who didn’t care much for their treatment (the linebacker Rodrigo Barnes, for example). It is rich in detail, exhaustive, but an easier read than its 838 pages would suggest. For the historian, comments about the way Tom Landry was blocking when the franchise began would be useful to those tracing the origins of the zone blocking scheme. We’ve talked about the specific quotes involved in our review of Pat Kirwan’s book.
Along with Pete’s book, I would also recommend this set of DVDs
along with this set of 10 Cowboys games.
These videos, along with the book, would aid any fan in tracing the nature and character of the franchise over the years. The one place where the book appears to be lacking is in any coverage of the Miami 4-3. While a ton of interviews touch on Tom Landry’s contribution to the 4-3 defense, such as the flex defense, coverage of Jimmy Johnson’s Miami 4-3 just isn’t there at all. That, I’d suggest, is the largest open hole in the Golenbock book.
July 26, 2011 at 1:16 am
Great choice, although the book is getting a bit out of date.
July 26, 2011 at 12:56 pm
Thanks Fred. Pete’s more a Yankees writer, so we can’t expect him to get Cowboys fever in the near future, and I’m not sure that Dallas metro is really developing the kinds of writers that would write long expansive tomes about the boys. They seem to be breeding candidates for ESPN Dallas more than anything else.
Thanks for writing!
David.
July 26, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Golenbock wrote “Landry’s Boys” in 2005 which was sort of an update (I haven’t read it) that I assume from the title did not include the Jerry Jones-era Cowboys.