The Day the Cowboys Quit is a novel based on the events that occurred in old Tascosa in the Texas Panhandle in 1883. The Day the Cowboys Quit" is a novel written by Elmer Kelton, in 1971. Kelton was born on April 29, 1926 in West Texas. During the early years of his life, Kelton grew up on a ranch and attended college at the University of Texas to study journalism. For fifty years Kenton toiled writing Western novels, most of them set in Texas. The novel The Day the Cowboys Quit received the 1971 Spur Award for Best Western Novel. This is just one of approximately forty novels written by Kelton who has received prestigious awards for many of his novels. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. The book portrays social reality in a truly unique and interesting way. political and economic changes that were occurring in the years before and after the Civil War in Texas. It showed how cowboys, who had long been men who in a sense represented freedom itself, could go wherever they wanted, at any time, and could survive with little or no money on them. Even though they all looked great, they fell victim to the stereotype of being a bunch of drunks and downgraded to regular employees. In the story, Hugh Hitchcock, who is the main character, and his friends Rascal and Law McGinty, also worked for another friend named Charlie, owner of the W ranch. This was back when being a rancher and cattle owner was one of very few ways to get rich and every cowboy knew how to get rich if he really wanted to. It wasn't until big corporations and bankers got involved in the beef market that cowboys like Hugh Hitchcock and his friends were initially unable to own cattle and had things they considered "birthrights" taken away from them. For example, they were lowering their wages to a very low amount and were being exploited by being forced to work long hours, which pushed them to a breaking point that made them band together and go on strike so they could get all their stuff back. The degradation is such that even cowboys who previously believed in each other's word, now, in the name of large multinational corporations, doubt each other's word and, if necessary, even enter into arguments and fights, if necessary, over the ownership of cattle ; all in the name of the ranch they worked for. The story begins with a dispute over an old cow and the intervention of the general manager who shows up shortly after to discuss changes in the business with Charlie Waide. One of the major changes was the proposal that any man hired for money would not be allowed to own livestock; due to the fact that it would be too easy for a cowboy to brand an unbranded maverick with his own brand, instead of the brand of the rancher he worked for, a common practice in the old days that had produced many successful ranchers in the past, thus making believe to big corporations that cowboys couldn't be trusted; in the end with their political and economic power they managed to pass severe laws that not only took away the right to own livestock, but also the right to have one's own horse on the breeder's property, making the cowboy an easy prey for horse thieves . Because of all these severe and ridiculous laws, many cowboys organize and go on strike, refusing to work for the ranchers and big companies that enforce these rules. The strike fails to save the old cowboy way of life, but it does not leave the big bankers and investors with a clear victory.