Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity (review)

Perhaps the most striking feature of Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity is that so often there appears to be only one voice in the “debate.” Such an observation is not a criticism of Ely’s work—far from it. It is, however, a noteworthy commentary on the fact that Texas identity has so seldom inspired serious discussion, especially for a state that projects such a cocksure sense of self. Rejecting the idea of exceptionalism, which drives popular stereotypes and typically lowbrow discussions of Texas identity, the author examines the historical record and the formation of a distinct West Texas culture through the lens of environmental determinism. Juxtaposed alongside his evidence are contrasting examples that demonstrate how Texans have manipulated events of the past to manufacture historical memories that serve any number of purposes. Ely insists that while these tendentious motives can be distracting, they do not diminish his proposition that in Texas, the American West begins at the 100th meridian.

At the center of the debate, Ely positions the idea that a “shatterbelt” region, a geographic and ecological transition zone between the 98th and 100th meridians, represents an area where Texas possesses a mixed identity. Here, he explains, “America’s Old South collides with the Old West, scattering and comingling fragments of each over a broad area” (11). East of this shatterbelt lies an unequivocal South; to the west lies an indisputable American West. While race relations provide a revealing “Barometer of Western Identity,” as heralded in the chapter title on this issue (75), perhaps an even more compelling, if minor, point supports his main thesis. In the “longue durée” of West Texas, the intrusion of southern culture, along with irrigated agriculture and even ranching in its traditional forms, will ultimately represent little more than blips on the region’s timeline. The harsh environment that prevails there, the author contends, will assure it.

Ely makes a convincing case based on the criteria he proposes. Like any intellectual postulation, of course, that criteria will become as much a part of the ensuing debate as the evidence that comprises his case. For example, he makes an impressive argument that disloyalty toward the Confederacy, widespread in West Texas during the Civil War, helped cultivate a separate identity that environmental issues would complete. Yet, if the South did not become a “City of the Soul” until after the Civil War, as Robert Penn Warren has suggested, then the question remains open regarding the extent by which such factors as continued southern migration and the Lost Cause helped repair kindred ties.

Even where there is room for disagreement, the points of reference Ely establishes will require the kinds of thoughtful responses from Texas and regional historians that are capable of moving the conversation forward. Presently, the poverty of meaningful debate between historians of the South and the West over the role that Texas has played in the development of these regions is bewildering. Where the West Begins is an important book, one that is imminently capable of providing the spark that cultivates some meaningful and long-overdue dialogue.