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352Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary by the late BarryA. Crouch. Constituting die core ofCrouch's work on Reconstruction , diis anthology is an invaluable research tool for scholars of die period and ofTexas, generally. The foreword by Amoldo De León and introduction by Larry Madaras not only highlight Crouch's extensive academic career but also pay tribute to a respected colleague and mentor to a generation ofTexas historians. Number nineteen in theJack and Doris Smodiers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture, TL·Dance ofFreedom includes previously published essays written over the last quarter century. The collection is organized topically and divided into four parts: Historiography, Freedom, Reaction, and Freedmen's Bureau Agents and African American Politicians. Most Texas historians will be familiar with Crouch's influential essay on Reconstruction historiography, "'Unmanacling' Texas Reconstruction : ATwenty-Year Perspective" (chapter one) . Likewise, die essay on the Texas Freedmen's Bureau agents and the black community (chapter nine), originally published in 1992, was incorporated that same year into Crouch's seminal work, TL·Freedmen's Bureau and Black Texans. Probably less familiar, however, are the essays on African Americans and the Texas penal system (chapter eight) and the three essays on black politicians (chapters ten, eleven, and twelve). A prodigious researcher and prolific writer, Crouch relied heavily upon the Records of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands at the National Archives, particularly Record Group 105. Each ofdie essays included in this collection demonstrates how these records can reveal history "from die bottom up." For example, in "Seeking Equality: Houston Black Women during Reconstruction " (chapter four), Crouch uses the Freedmen's Bureau records to demonstrate the many and varied difficulties women faced in dieir first years offreedom, from reuniting with their apprenticed children, to asserting dieir marital and economic rights. In "A Spirit ofLawlessness" (chapter five), the records illustrate die enormous amount ofviolence perpetrated upon African Americans. And in "Reconstructing Black Families" (chapter two) , Crouch demonstrates specifically how Record Group 105 gives more than an administrative history of die bureau—it also reveals die inner workings of the black community. Mostofthe essays in diis collectionbeginwith abriefhistoryofdie bureau inTexas and the importance of the Freedmen's Bureau Records as a source. Thus, a reading from cover to cover can seem quite repetitive. The editors ofthis volume should be applauded , however, forsufficiendypiecingtogetheragroup ofessays diatdo notnaturally flow smoouily from one to the next The "Post-scripts" at the end ofeach section are particularly helpful, as diey not only tie the essays together but also add a brief, up-todate historiography on each topic. These small criticisms aside, TL·Dance ofFreedom is an important collection for any historian ofdie Reconstruction period in Texas. Texas Lutheran UniversityRebecca A. Kosary Indian War Veterans: Memoirs ofArmy Life and Campaigns in tL· West, 1864-1898. Compiled and edited byjerome A. Greene. (NewYork: Savas Beatie, 2007. Pp. 624. Illustrations, color plates, maps, notes, suggested readings, index. ISBN 193271426X. $45.00, clotii.) 2??8Book Reviews353 A group of retired officers met at the Philadelphia United Service Club on April 23, 1896, to form a Society ofVeterans of Indian Wars. Concerned over the absence ofpensions for disabled veterans of Indian Wars dating from the 1 870s to the 1890s, these men sought to create an organization similar to die Grand Army of die Republic, which served as a fraternal and political organization winning recognition for veterans of the Civil War with sizeable pensions for die disabled veterans and widows. Promotion oftheir service to die nation compelled die society, which had changed its name to Order of Indian Wars of the United States, to create a periodical diat would publish memoirs ofits servicemen widi die appellation Winners oftL· West. The organization and other splinter groups continued meeting and publishing until 1947, when attrition ofits members made its continued existence unfeasible. Jerome Greene has compiled and edited many of these articles along widi a few diary entries into a rather lengthy single volume appropriately tided Indian Wars Veterans. Greene has divided die book into two main parts: "Army Life in the West" and "Batdes and Campaigns." The firstsection, although die most colorful, has scant representation oflife in Texas military posts. It does provide insight into the daily...

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