SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY最新文献

{"title":"The German Texas Frontier in 1853: Ferdinand Lindheimer's Newspaper Accounts of the Environment, Gold, and Indians by Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham (review)","authors":"James Bernsen","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936685","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>The German Texas Frontier in 1853: Ferdinand Lindheimer's Newspaper Accounts of the Environment, Gold, and Indians</em> by Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> James Bernsen </li> </ul> <em>The German Texas Frontier in 1853: Ferdinand Lindheimer's Newspaper Accounts of the Environment, Gold, and Indians</em>. By Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham. ( Denton: University of North Texas, 2024. Pp. 256. Illustrations, maps, notes bibliography, index.) <p>The Germans who settled in the Texas Hill Country in the mid-1800s lived <strong>[End Page 104]</strong> mostly apart and independent of Anglo Texans, forging their own settlements on the frontier, with their own language, customs, and unique perspectives, all of which informed their relations, particularly those with Native Americans. Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham bring into focus this unique intersection of Texan, native, and European cultures through the lens of a keen observer, a newspaper editor who chronicled the struggles, fears and hopes of German settlers as they sought to build a new life on the Texas frontier.</p> <p>Ferdinand Lindheimer was a German botanist of some repute who had already traveled extensively on the frontier when he settled down to take up the editorship of the New Braunfelser Zeitung (NBZ), the chief newspaper of the German colonists in Texas. In doing so, he became, in the assessment of one historian, the \"political barometer of the Germans in Texas.\" In their work, Gelo and Wickham focus on the crucial first year of Lindheimer's newspaper, and what it says about the atmosphere of the German frontier.</p> <p>The topics addressed in the newspaper demonstrate how different the Germans truly were from Anglo settlers. When, for instance, rumors of gold and silver deposits in the Hill Country of Texas began to spread in 1853, the German population—as reflected through Lindheimer—was not, or pretended not to be, seduced by the lure of easy riches. Instead, they took pride in a sober, disciplined work ethic. \"I'd prefer it if they found a lot of good iron,\" Lindheimer writes, \"[then] there would be mines and factories with a hard-working and honest class of people,\" rather than rough prospectors.</p> <p>Environmental factors and their effects on populations—settler and Indian—are recurring themes in Lindheimer's newspaper, providing a scientific glimpse into frontier life that is often lacking in Anglo accounts. Similarly, cultural factors and anthropology are topics that appear far more readily in the NBZ than in Anglo newspapers.</p> <p>By far, the most important topic is Indian relations. While the NBZ presents stories of atrocities, Lindheimer's newspaper is far more understanding of the Indian need for trade and the impact of white encroachment on their lands. The auth","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Indigenous Autonomy at La Junta de los Rios: Traders, Allies, and Migrants on New Spain's Northern Frontier by Robert Wright (review)","authors":"Matthew S. Taylor","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936681","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936681","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Indigenous Autonomy at La Junta de los Rios: Traders, Allies, and Migrants on New Spain's Northern Frontier</em> by Robert Wright <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Matthew S. Taylor </li> </ul> <em>Indigenous Autonomy at La Junta de los Rios: Traders, Allies, and Migrants on New Spain's Northern Frontier</em>. By Robert Wright. ( Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2023. Pp. 334. Illustrations, appendix, notes, bibliography, index.) <p><em>Indigenous Autonomy at La Junta de los Rios</em> is a history of Native American and Spanish colonial relationships in an understudied area of the Spanish Borderlands. The geographic area of study is the area around the confluence of the Rio Grande with the Rio Conchos (today occupied by the cities of Presidio, Texas, and Ojinaga, Chihuahua). The book's eleven chapters trace the events between initial Spanish contact to dissolution and abandonment of the region by Native American groups in the latter half of the eighteenth century.</p> <p>Prehistorically, the La Junta area was home to desert farmers and hunters, who occupied a cultural crossroads between the Rio Conchos Valley, the Rio Grande, and the arid interior to the northeast. It is likely that Cabeza de Vaca visited La Junta in 1535, but only a few entradas came before the establishment of missions in the 1680s. Local revolts led to temporary abandonment of the missions in 1689 and 1716, but Spanish authority successfully returned. A common theme of the book is the relative isolation of the La Junta area. Even with the establishment of missions, local peoples continued their religious and civil traditions. The Juntans had a degree of autonomy that was lacking in other portions of the Spanish Borderlands.</p> <p>Of particular interest were the long-running attempts by Spanish officials, both secular and Catholic, to establish a presidio at La Junta. Franciscan missionaries requested a military presence as early as 1715, and government officials were cognizant of the strategic position of the Rio Conchos valley and Rio Grande. In the early eighteenth century. there were no Spanish military outposts along the Rio Grande between El Paso and San Juan de Batista de Rio Grande (near modern day Guerrero, Coahuila). Concern for the security of La Junta developed from two points: possible French intrusion and the appearance of hostile Native American groups like the Apache. The author details the political intrigues that surrounded the establishment of a presidio, including strong opposition by native Juntans and some local priests.</p> <p>The best aspect of the book is its thorough descriptions of what happened, to whom, and what changes it caused. The work tries to focus upon the facts <strong>[End Page 100]</strong> and is remarkably free of personal commentary or attempts to fit the data into a theoretical mode","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Two Counties in Crisis: Measuring Political Change in Reconstruction Texas by Robert J. Dillard (review)","authors":"Kenneth W. Howell","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936686","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Two Counties in Crisis: Measuring Political Change in Reconstruction Texas</em> by Robert J. Dillard <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Kenneth W. Howell </li> </ul> <em>Two Counties in Crisis: Measuring Political Change in Reconstruction Texas</em>. By Robert J. Dillard. ( Denton: University of North Texas, 2023. Pp. 241. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index). <p><em>Two Counties in Crisis</em> provides new insights on the political history of Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras by utilizing \"an interdisciplinary approach that blends political science theory and the traditional primary-source evidence\" to offer a \"broader perspective on the persistent questions of Reconstruction's failure\" in the Lone Star State (p. xii). In a concise examination of local politics, Robert Dillard convincingly argues that the political culture of Collin and Harrison counties went through major changes between 1861 and 1876. According to the author, these transformations resulted from reactionary politics triggered by statewide events, including the Secession crisis in 1861, support for the Confederacy between 1861–1865, and the adoption of the 1876 Texas Constitution.</p> <p>Dillard explains that political culture was initially forged by geographical locations and migration patterns. For example, the citizens of Collin County lived on the frontier and had migrated from the Upper South, circumstances that led them to place more faith in rugged individualism than in \"southern concepts of elitism\" commonly associated with traditional southern plantation societies of the Lower South (p. 32). Conversely, Harrison County, situated in East Texas, was heavily populated with Lower South migrants, who were more economically dependent on the use of slave labor and embraced the cultural values of the Old South. These cultural differences led the voters of Collin County to vehemently oppose secession in 1861, while their eastern counterparts strongly favored disunion.</p> <p>Once the Civil War erupted, however, Collin and Harrison counties accepted the fact that they faced a common enemy, prompting them to support the Confederacy. Furthermore, after the war ended, the counties embraced the concept of a new threat—the Republican Party. For the citizens of Collin and Harrison counties, Texas Republicans, especially prominent party leaders such as Gov. Edmund J. Davis, became the new symbols of federal tyranny. In response, these counties became politically aligned against Republican policies, including legislation related to the militia bill, the state police, railroad development, and a state school system. These positions were consistent with the majority of voters in Texas and eventually led to Democratic victories in the elections of 1872 and the complete dismantling of Governor Davis's policies.</p> <","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"76 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor by Thomas Ray Garcia and Aurelio Manuel Montemayor (review)","authors":"Gonzalo Guzmán","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936691","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor</em> by Thomas Ray Garcia and Aurelio Manuel Montemayor <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Gonzalo Guzmán </li> </ul> <em>El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor</em>. By Thomas Ray Garcia and Aurelio Manuel Montemayor. ( College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2023. Pp. 208. Illustrations, appendix, notes, index.) <p><em>El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor</em>, coauthored by educators Aurelio Manuel Montemayor and Thomas Ray Garcia, details the educational experiences and political awakening of Montemayor, a South Texan educator and community activist. While it is a memoir, the book engages in deep discussion with historical documentation and secondary literature on the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (<em>El Movimiento</em>) in Texas. The book chronicles Montemayor's contributions to Mexican-American/Chicano civil rights progress in South Texas that included a community political engagement course (<em>El Curso De La Raza</em>) and co-founding one of the earliest known Mexican-American-centered colleges in the United States, Colegio Jacinto Treviño. <em>El Curso</em> is not only an autobiography highlighting the development of Montemayor's critical consciousness (<em>conscientización</em>) but offers an intimate reflection on the impact of <em>El Movimiento</em> in Texas and the American Southwest during the 1960s and 1970s.</p> <p>In the prologue, Montemayor argues that the purpose of his memoir is to unpack the development of his <em>conscientización</em> and to \"infuse a personal dimension into an otherwise historical insight into the past\" (p. xxli). The book succeeds on all fronts. Divided into nine chapters and an appendix of historical documents from Montemayor's career, <em>El Curso</em> offers insights into the author's identity as a son of the Texas-Mexican borderlands (<em>fronterizo</em>) whose identity was always in flux but always committed to his community.</p> <p>Chapters 1–4 focus on the early development of Montemayor's political consciousness and exposure to community activism before 1968. Here, Montemayor's identity as a <em>fronterizo</em> shines as the author describes his identity negotiations while attending a private Catholic school, experiences as a student at St. Edward's University in Austin, and return to South Texas to be a high school teacher in San Felipe Independent School District. These chapters capture the growth of Montemayor's liberatory pedagogy that he would try to implement as a high school teacher and would later expand into a larger community activism <strong>[End Page 112]</strong> drive. Chapter 3 (\"The <em>Cursillo de Cristiandad</em>\") is a standout chapter because it speaks to the political and identity awakening of Mont","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"10 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199122","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"White Man's Work: Race and Middle-Class Mobility into the Progressive Era by Joseph O. Jewell (review)","authors":"Michael Frawley","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936689","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>White Man's Work: Race and Middle-Class Mobility into the Progressive Era</em> by Joseph O. Jewell <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Michael Frawley </li> </ul> <em>White Man's Work: Race and Middle-Class Mobility into the Progressive Era</em>. By Joseph O. Jewell. ( Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Pp. 210. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.) <p><strong>[End Page 109]</strong></p> <p>In <em>White Man's Work: Race and Middle-Class Mobility into the Progressive Era</em>, the author, Joseph O. Jewell, defines \"White man's work\" as \"work that provided clear social and economic advantages to those who performed it\" (p. 9). Through his work, Jewell explores the boundaries of \"White man's work\" and the blurring of racial and social lines through the push of minority groups to gain the advantages that White Americans had from the work they were doing. The author does excellent work in his introduction about both the state of the field and his research methods, grounding his work in the historiography of social mobility and explaining why this book was very much needed.</p> <p>In his first chapter, Jewell reviews the overall ideas of what made up the middle class during the Progressive Era and how racial and social boundaries developed. A combination of changes in the economy that created new jobs above the working class, mostly filled by White workers, and new groups either finding freedom for the first time, such as African Americans, or experiencing immigration, such as Mexican Americans and Chinese Americans, resulted in the creation of shifting boundaries and small gaps that allowed others to try to achieve the American Dream. Jewell uses the work of social scientists to define the terms appearing in his book and to create a framework for understanding the different ways that racial and social boundaries are created and how they function. This excellently framed the rest of his book, especially around the ideas of brightening and blurring boundaries.</p> <p>Jewell then moves on to case studies of middle-class mobility in three cities—Atlanta, San Antonio, and San Francisco—while focusing on the same three groups attempting to move up into the middle class: African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Chinese Americans. Jewell argues that in urban areas such as these, lines were drawn around race and social structure, and they became battlegrounds for the debate over social mobility. As he states, \"Within the racial context of the late nineteenth century, the visible effort of Black, Mexican, and Chinese men to secure both middle-class jobs and middle-class lifestyles became the subject of intense public debate among White populations\" (p. 7). Whites believed that their lifestyle and place in society was being threatened by the attempts of other groups to gain the same level o","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Southwestern Collection","authors":"","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936693","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> Southwestern Collection <!-- /html_title --></li> </ul> <br/> Click for larger view<br/> View full resolution <p>Bronze statue of Mirabeau B. Lamar in front of the Fort Bend County courthouse in Richmond, created by Sidney B. Waugh for the Texas Centennial in 1936. <em>Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons</em>.</p> <p></p> <h2><em>TSHA</em></h2> <p>It is not too early to register for the 129th Annual Meeting and reserve your hotel room! We will gather from February 26 to March 1, 2025, at the Royal Sonesta Houston Galleria in Houston, Texas. Arrangements are being made for 150 speakers in more than forty sessions, as well as eight banquets and receptions, offsite tours, and several special engagements. Since 2025 is the 160th anniversary of Juneteenth, we will have a session on this significant event featuring Opal Lee. Known as the 'Grandmother of Juneteenth,' she will speak of her activism that was pivotal in establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. Lee's reflections on her commitment to community should inspire and educate everyone. Joining her will be renowned historians Samuel Collins III and Ed Cotham. Rooms are now available at special rates for conference attendees. For more information, or to register for the meeting, go to https://am.tsha.events/</p> <h3>_______</h3> <p>The TSHA applauds the achievements of Texas students who participated in the National History Day (NHD) contest held at the University of Maryland from June 9–13, 2024. These remarkable young historians, 74 in number, showcased their passion for history, demonstrated their skills in research and presentation, and represented Texas with distinction. Texas History Day (THD) students from various cities across Texas advanced through school, regional, and state contests to earn the opportunity to compete at NHD. Amid a total of approximately 2,900 students from all fifty states, international schools, and U.S. territories, the students from Texas shone brightly, impressing judges with their historical analyses and engaging presentations on \"Turning Points in History.\"</p> <p>The TSHA congratulates the following Texas students for their remarkable achievements at the NHD contest:</p> <p>National 2nd Place:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Tori White, Nimitz High School (Houston), \"Red Light! Gladys West & the Global Positioning System,\" <em>Senior Individual Performance</em>.</p> </li> </ul> <p>National 4th Place:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Aliya Ajani, Ambika Nair, Seleste Banks, and Smrithi Guddeti, The Honor Roll</p> </li> <li> <p>School (Sugar Land), \"Invention of the Smallpox Vaccine: The Birth of Mass Vaccination,\" <em>Junior Group Website</em>.</p> </li> <li> <p>Nora Gillum, Dripping Springs Middle School (Dripping Springs), \"Poisoned Pills: How the 1982 Tylenol Scare Became a Turning Point in Consumer Safety,\" <em>Junior Individual Website</em>.</p> </li> <li> <p>Felicit","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199114","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Building Houston's Petroleum Expertise: Humble Oil, Environmental Knowledge, and the Architecture of Industrial Research","authors":"B. Jack Hanly","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936680","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936680","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> Building Houston's Petroleum Expertise:<span>Humble Oil, Environmental Knowledge, and the Architecture of Industrial Research</span> <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> B. Jack Hanly (bio) </li> </ul> <br/> Click for larger view<br/> View full resolution <p>Humble Oil Building with its open plaza and podium base. <em>From Author's Collection</em>.</p> <p></p> <p>In a 1956 speech to the American Petroleum Institute, noted geologist and geophysicist M. King Hubbert made a series of predictions that would shake the oil industry to its core. Hubbert, a research scientist at Shell Oil, laid out his forecasts for global and domestic crude oil production, calculated via logarithmic functions. Hubbert observed that the industry had done a fairly good job of charting past progress and near-term market conditions. But oil's long-range future remained a riddle. In an effort to solve it, Hubbert used a method of extrapolation drawn from the studies of mining district life cycles by the British economic geologist D. F. Hewett. Hubbert's model found that coal and oil exhibited increasing rates of production for a period before leveling off and then decreasing at a similarly accelerating rate of decline—a bell-curve shape that would become known as \"Hubbert's peak.\" Hubbert's prediction estimated that domestic oil production in the United States would peak in 1970, while global production would do so around 2000. Hubbert's clarion call did not stifle the post-war gospel of plenty; instead, it triggered vehement resistance by the industry that funded his research. Hubbert shared few peers in resource forecasting at this time, but those who did claim to be experts in his field declared market mechanisms and technological innovation would sustain the nation's resources for decades to come.<sup>1</sup> <strong>[End Page 63]</strong></p> <p>While the story of Hubbert's peak oil prediction and subsequent vindication are well known, less attention has been paid to the broader urban dynamics and architectural supports that set the stage for his insights. Hubbert carried out his research within a landscape of burgeoning Sunbelt oil research centers. By the 1970s, Houston became the prime location for all manner of oil industry research activity due to executive oversight and the proximity of extraction points. Indeed, the city transformed into a global capital of energy research and expertise, even as the tremors of resource scarcity began to puncture its cornucopian imagination. This paper addresses the architectural and urban configurations of the postwar oil industry in and around Houston, Texas with particular attention to structures for knowledge production. If Hubbert's thesis presented an existential threat to industry leaders anticipating a future of incredible prosperity, this paper analyzes the buildings and landscapes that mediated or resisted","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Minority View: Reynell Parkins and Creative Tension in the Civil Rights Movement of Texas, 1965–1975","authors":"Moisés Acuña-Gurrola","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936679","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936679","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> A Minority View:<span>Reynell Parkins and Creative Tension in the Civil Rights Movement of Texas, 1965–1975</span> <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Moisés Acuña-Gurrola (bio) </li> </ul> <br/> Click for larger view<br/> View full resolution <p>Portrait of Rev. Reynell M. Parkins, circa 1968. <em>Courtesy of Reynell M. Parkins Collection, Corpus Christi Public Libraries</em>.</p> <p></p> <p>T<small>wo protracted civil rights movements changed the face</small> of Texas politics in the 1960s and 1970s. While African Americans dismantled Jim Crow, ethnic Mexicans grappled with the institutionally enforced methods of discrimination that targeted Mexican immigrants, Mexican Americans, and Spanish-surnamed citizens, a system often retroactively referred to as \"Juan Crow.\"<sup>1</sup> Following the Civil Rights and Economic Opportunity Acts of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African Americans and ethnic Mexicans focused their efforts toward breaking down the remaining structural barriers that hindered the quality of life that the new laws promised to deliver. Each group met a unique set of circumstances, but the amount of their overlap regularly compelled ethnic Mexicans and African Americans to cooperate on local issues like educational reform, workplace equality, and neighborhood improvement. The rate of change was slow but steady. A major reason for the slow rate of change was because of leaders' reliance on respectability politics, or what one historian called the \"politics of civility,\" in which the rules of the establishment shaped the movement. Under this strategy, leaders found victory defined by courts, laws, and opportunities for personal upward economic mobility.<sup>2</sup> Such tactics, according to historians and contemporary radical <strong>[End Page 41]</strong> activists, resulted often in minority activist leaders eventually falling under the control of Anglo liberal elites.</p> <p>Radical—often high-school and college-aged—activists who grew impatient with the slow rate of change by the middle to late 1960s created a new language of protest that stressed Black Power and Chicano Power. The language was direct and confrontational. It demanded equal representation in an Anglo-dominated political and economic system, the very one that had historically marginalized both groups. As historian William H. Chafe explains about radical Black activist language, \"Black Power was revolutionary precisely to the extent that it rejected traditional White definitions of success, achievement, political dialogues, and social manners\" held by the minority community leaders who believed in the effectiveness that gradualism promised.<sup>3</sup> Thus, a clash between the leadership of radical youths and \"civil\"-minded veteran community leaders resulted in a chasm between the two generations.</p> <p>But from 1965 to 1975, one leader","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199113","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Six Constitutions Over Texas: Texas Political Identity, 1830–1900 by William J. Chriss (review)","authors":"Matthew K. Hamilton","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936682","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Six Constitutions Over Texas: Texas Political Identity, 1830–1900</em> by William J. Chriss <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Matthew K. Hamilton </li> </ul> <em>Six Constitutions Over Texas: Texas Political Identity, 1830–1900</em>. By William J. Chriss. ( College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2024. Pp. 330. Illustrations, notes, index.) <p>In <em>Six Constitutions Over Texas</em>, legal historian William J. Chriss explores how Texans forged their political identity, and how that identity exhibited itself in Texas's six governing charters. Arranged chronologically into six chapters, this book guides the reader through the constitutional history of Texas, from the rebellious Constitution of 1836 through the reactionary Constitution of 1876. Along the way, Chriss offers insights into the legal history of Texas with a thoroughly researched, well-written narrative that should appeal to academics and non-academics alike.</p> <p>The book's premise is simple: \"Texas should be understood as an imagined community, an identity produced by ideological consensus among economic, cultural, and legal elites\" (p. 218). To Chriss, Texas's six constitutions are not simply laws that limited government action or documents that organized communities; rather, they were \"important artifacts shedding light on the ideologies\" of the Texans that created them (p. xiii).</p> <p>The author's methodology combines theories of \"otherness\" and comparative constitutionalism that allow the reader to see how Texas's constitutions created a dominant cultural and political identity by \"defining those who are outsiders\" (p. 219). For example, an important part of why Texans revolted against the newly centralized Mexican government was the protection of the slave economy. Texian political identity was created, in part, out of fear of an alliance of emancipated slaves, Tejanos, blacks, and Indians that would oust them from the province. As a result, the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas sought to create a bulwark against Tejano and Mexican agitation of racial violence.</p> <p>After Texas's annexation to the United States and the subsequent Mexican-American War, Tejano and Mexican threats ceased. But Chriss contends <strong>[End Page 101]</strong> that Anglo elites in Texas soon identified northerners' agitation of the slavery question as a new threat to white supremacy in Texas, and this attitude continued through the end of Reconstruction in the mid-1870s. Later, as the United States experienced rapid urbanization and industrialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Anglo elites' racial fears were replaced by their concerns about class consciousness. To prevent possible \"cooperation between African Americans and poor whites,\" segregation was imposed and ingrained in Texas in the early twentieth ","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Southwest Train Robberies: Hijacking the Tracks Along the Southern Corridor by Doug Hocking (review)","authors":"Jason Pierce","doi":"10.1353/swh.2024.a936688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/swh.2024.a936688","url":null,"abstract":"<span><span>In lieu of</span> an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:</span>\u0000<p> <span>Reviewed by:</span> <ul> <li><!-- html_title --> <em>Southwest Train Robberies: Hijacking the Tracks Along the Southern Corridor</em> by Doug Hocking <!-- /html_title --></li> <li> Jason Pierce </li> </ul> <em>Southwest Train Robberies: Hijacking the Tracks Along the Southern Corridor</em>. By Doug Hocking. ( Essex, CT: Two Dot, 2023. Pp. 247. Illustrations, Bibliography, Index.) <p><strong>[End Page 108]</strong></p> <p>Some books are a labor of love, and clearly that is the case with Doug Hocking's <em>Southwest Train Robberies</em>. Hocking is not interested in 'big picture' theories about railroads, criminals, or anything else that detracts from recounting fascinating yarns about the early days of railroading in a wilder West. To be sure, he employs a good deal of research in the creation of these stories (relying especially on newspaper accounts from the time), but it is really just in the service of his interest in telling tales of derring-do and occasionally tragi-comic foolishness.</p> <p>Hocking begins with a general discussion of the arrival of railroads in southeastern Arizona and western New Mexico, with the geographic center of his discussion being Cochise County, Arizona. From there, he briefly discusses the motivations of would-be bank robbers, and concludes by defining the general characteristics of train crews. All of this, though, is merely setting the stage for the eleven chapters that follow.</p> <p>The chapters can be a bit heavy with details, but they are unfailingly entertaining and sprinkled with interesting tidbits about life in the era. There are cowboys turned outlaws, outlaws turned lawmen, and dutiful reporters with a penchant for flowery prose recounting it all. There is the tale of Kit Carson Joy and his gang, who stole $800 but in their amateurish haste missed the more valuable registered mail pouch. All but Joy eventually paid with their lives. Or there is the story of Sheriff John Slaughter and his deputy relentlessly tracking a gang through the dry torturous desert country. And then comes the sad story of hapless rancher-turned-robber Tom Dugat, who hoped a successful robbery would help revive his and his daughter's finances after the failure of his goat ranching operation.</p> <p>Hocking estimates that between the laying of the tracks in the 1880s and the end of the train-robbing era in the 1920s, there were at least sixteen robberies between Benson, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas. Some were more successful than others, but each added to the romance and mystique of the period. The era came to an end, of course, for which the author provides several explanations for the decline in robberies: better communication, faster train engines that did not need constant refueling, the ability to wire money rather than sending cash, and the rise of the automobile and the American highway system all contributed to the end of tra","PeriodicalId":42779,"journal":{"name":"SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY","volume":"122 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2024-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142199120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}