Col. Askins rolls through a variety of stories from the old American West into the 20th Century. Many chapters are devoted to events that shaped Texas and the often uneasy relationship between those above the Rio Grand and Mexico. Some of the language is best described as 'salty' with references our great-grandfathers could identify. Some portions have Charlie bouncing back and forth with events and personalities; overlap is inevitable within a book not necessarily geared as an academic work. It reads more as a novel and that is how I approached reading it.