McGarrity draws upon his experience as a police officer, a psychotherapist, and a social worker to offer an informed and fresh perspective on the urgent social issues of the day: the militarization of police departments, banning assault weapons, and rape in the military.

From his perspective as a historian, he explains how new approaches to drought and water use are imperative. “The droughts that we had in the state in the 50s were terrible. The only difference was they were more manageable because we had half the population. So we had half the demands on our resources.” McGarrity continues, “As long as population grows, as long as there is the demand on our natural resources and as long as there is a sinking supply of those resources, we are in trouble.” He also analyzes the important role of horses in building the west, and how in today's world horses have become expendable.   “McGarrity is an accomplished storyteller, and he writes with clarity, perception, and authenticity.”   N. Scott Momaday, Pulitizer Prize-winning author of “House Made of Dawn”   “An expansive, lyrical, period Western in the tradition of A.B. Guthrie, Jr. and Larry McMurtry. Savor this one—they don’t make cowboy epics like this anymore.”  Hampton Sides, author of “Blood & Thunder,” describing McGarrity's “Hard Country”  “Hard Country is aptly titled, and the reader will take a spectacular journey with real people settling the West. There is inescapable action of the gun, the earth, the sky, and the heart.”       Max Evans, author of “The One Eyed Sky,” “The Rounders,” and “The Hi Lo Country”