BE A MAN: Raised in the Shadow of Cowboys

by Russell Rowland

BE A Raised in the Shadow of Cowboys is a memoir with a specific focus on what it means to grow up in the West as a male. Russell Rowland is a fourth generation Montanan whose mother grew up on a cattle ranch in Southeastern Montana. In BE A MAN, Rowland explores how his upbringing and those of his parents shaped their family in terms of how to approach emotional issues like death, alcoholism, domestic violence, and general failure. Rowland also explores how the media and the history of the West create a dynamic that is hard to escape when you absorb certain mixed messages about what it means to be a man. How to treat women, how to deal with conflict, and how to find your own way through the complicated world of success and failure.

Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2025

About the author

I'm a Montana native, and I returned home in 2007. My first novel, In Open Spaces, made the San Francisco Chronicle's bestseller list. I got my MA in Creative Writing from Boston University in 1991, and have been a MacDowell fellow and a fortune cookie writer. The Watershed Years, the sequel to number one, was published in 2007 and was a finalist for the High Plains Book Award. In 2012, WEST OF 98, an anthology I edited with Lynn Stegner, was released by the University of Texas Press. And in 2012r, my third novel, High and Inside, was released by Bangtail Press and was also named a finalist for the High Plains Book Award. In April 2016, Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey came out. This is my first non-fiction effort, about my travels to every county in Montana and what I learned from this journey.

Reviews

[Barbara Joyce-Hawryluk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Be a Man by best-selling author Russell Rowland is a Master Class in bringing history to life and making it relatable to boys, girls, men and women alike.

Be a Man: Raised in the Shadow of Cowboys, a memoir by best-selling author Russell Rowland, is a Master Class in bringing history to life and making it relatable to boys, girls, men and women alike.

Russell draws the reader in immediately with deep dives into the forces that shape people, places, myths and stereotypes, and even though his most recent book focuses primarily on Montana men and boys, it can be applied to anyone living in a situation where limiting and damaging role models are born and bred.

Using examples from his own painful, and at times debilitating experiences, combined with his keen observation of others, Russell examines the toxic consequences of those forces including addiction, abuse and suicide, and then offers a more realistic and holistic vision for men and boys who are indoctrinated into cowboy culture.

He challenges the “template (that) has been fired and made solid and handed down with no room for change or compromise," emphasizing that “it’s a battle we still fight every single day.”

As always, Russell delivers a thoughtful and layered story that will stay with the reader long after the last chapter.