Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity

Plainsword

1 Western images came to dominate the popular memory and mythology of Texas and Texans in the twentieth century, and continue to hold sway in the twenty-first. For a striking example, one need look no further than the names of most professional sports teams created in the state during the late 1900s—Cowboys, Texas Rangers, Spurs, and Mavericks. Movies , and later television shows, about cattle drives and ranching helped create, then reinforce, popular perception of Texas as part of the West. Even as film and television portrayals of the Battle of the Alamo seemed to generate Anglo American and Anglo Texan nationalism or exceptionalism , the battle’s frontier setting lent its story a western theme. In part those dramatizations rested upon the works of nineteenthcentury historical writers, who often combined a romantic style with the concept of manifest destiny. Professional historians of the late 1800s and early 1900s provided more research as a basis for their studies, while continuing to reinforce ideas of Anglo dominance. Some prominent historians of the early to mid-twentieth century, including Eugene C. Barker and Walter Prescott Webb, emphasized Texas in its nineteenthcentury frontier period. Popular writers even in the early 2000s continue to devote much of their attention to lively tales of that era. Other Texas historical writers in the late 1800s and early 1900s focused attention on the southern and Confederate heritage of most Anglo Plainsword PLAINSWORD xvi Texans. These views led to romantic images about the antebellum South and the Confederacy, reflected in numerous statues and memorials in East and Central Texas. One monument, however, in Comfort, in the Hill Country west of Austin, honors Texans of that area who died fighting for the Union. Beginning with Charles Ramsdell, professional historians began to examine the cultural and economic interest of Anglo Texans in cotton production based on slavery and later sharecropping. According to historian Walter Buenger, that southern and Civil War mythology of a Lost Cause began to be replaced in Texas during the early to mid-twentieth century by more positive accounts of the Texas Revolution and a frontier that advanced westward. Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson provided a practical example when he emphasized his western ranching background, allowing him to more easily establish an appealing national image as a presidential candidate in the 1960s. Still other historians and historical geographers sought to solve conflictingsouthernandwesternimagesofTexasbyanalyzingwhichregions of Texas might fall more clearly into one category or the other. Interest in regionalism also led to the creation of historical organizations that focused on West, East, or South Texas. Furthermore, several historians have contributed specialized studies of subregions. Books about areas in West Texas have focused on the Panhandle, the South Plains, Northwest Texas, and the Big Bend, while almost none have encompassed the entire region. Glen Sample Ely offers thoughtful and thought-provoking new approaches to these debates. First he challenges the view that all of Texas has been dominated by southern attitudes. To support that conclusion he presents evidence that such concepts break down in a transitional region across west central Texas where the natural environment altered economic activity and cultural ideas. There he finds mixed views of the Confederacy and problems with frontier defense during the Civil War. Thus he offers further perspective on discussions of whether the frontier receded while that conflict raged. His most important revelation is the development of trade between Confederates in Texas and the Union forces in New Mexico. xvii PLAINSWORD Ely is not content to defend old, popular images of West Texas. Instead he presents new views of the region that are more complex and analytical as he explores issues and questions raised by the new Western historians including Patricia Limerick and Richard White. Nevertheless, he chides them for not devoting more attention to West Texas in their studies. Two valuable elements that distinguish this study from earlier histories of West Texas are Ely’s emphasis on the Trans-Pecos border region and his long-term view of western Texas history. Both lead to an expanded awareness of Tejano history as well as ethnic and religious diversity in West Texas. The lengthy presence of Mexican Americans also narrows the concept of Anglo domination in West Texas to a limited period. While Anglo assumptions of superiority led to discrimination, cultural exchange and cooperation also occurred. Patterns of racial violence are undeniable, but far less extensive than in other parts of the state, which...