gain, our resident librarian at work...Where would we be without
Vicki This one sounds really good.
_The Fate of Texas: The Civil War and the Lone Star State_, edited by Charles D. Grear. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2008.
Chapters:
1. "Texas, Jefferson Davis, and Confederate National Strategy," by Joseph G. Dawson III.
2. "Warriors, Husbands, and Fathers: Confederate Soldiers and
Their Families," by Richard Lowe.
3. "'If We Should Succeed in Driving the Enemy Back Out of My
Native State': Why Texans Fought East of the Mississippi River
During the Civil War," by Charles D. Grear.
4. "The Price of Liberty: The Great Hanging at Gainesville," by
Richard B. McCaslin.
5. "The Civil War and the Lives of Texas Women," by Angela Boswell.
6. "Slaves Taken to Texas for Safekeeping during the Civil War" by Dale Baum.
7. "New Perspectives on Texas Germans and the Confederacy," by
Walter D. Kamphoefner
8. "After the Surrender: The Postwar Experiences of Confederate
Veterans in Harrison County, Texas," by Randolph B. Campbell.
9. "'I Seem to Have No Thought of the Past, Present, or Future':
Texans React to Confederate Defeat," by Carl H. Moneyhon.
10. "Causes Lost but Not Forgotten: George Washington Littlefield,Jefferson Davis, and Confederate Memories at the University of Texas at Austin," by Alexander Mendoza (faculty at UT-Tyler)
11. "'Tell It Like it Was': Texas, the Civil War, and Public
History," by Julie Holcomb
Each article is footnoted, of course, and there is also a six page selected bibliography.
The first footnote for the chapter on Texas women says "This chapter is a slightly edited version of Boswell, _Her Act and Deed_, chap. 5" and her book focuses *only* on Colorado County. As such, is it not "new." On a purely selfish note, I'm relieved, because my chapter in the UNT Press book will go head to head with hers as the designated "women's history" chapter. Mine is not as analytical as hers, but is more state-wide and anecdotal. (It's on private and public assistance to Texas soldiers' families, mostly female headed.) Anyway, there goes my last real hesitation with it--until I saw it in print I wasn't positive what Dr. Boswell's focus would be. Now I can't wait to see our book in my own hands.
Vicki Betts
Hey! What a blast from the past! I was there when the original
research took place and Dr. Boswell was merely Angie. Its a
distillation of her dissertation later published in book form. She lived in Columbus, TX for a year while she researched it. We were in the same group of 6 that entered the doctoral program at Rice in '92. Obviously, she finished. I left and went to library
school...
While Angie's writing is scholarly, Vicki's will certainly stand up to it. I can't wait to read it!
Jennifer P.
I met Angela Boswell at a Texas State Historical Association meeting in San Antonio year before last. Since the editors of both books are at Prairie View A&M, we had a joint gathering of the writers at the hotel bar. I knew several of them--I currently work with Alexander Mendoza and had previously
worked with James Smallwood at UT-Tyler. I found out he was the one who had pushed to include me in "our" book. I had been driving my editor crazy with doubts that I, who didn't even have an MA in history, could come up with something worthy of a university press book, particularly when I found out that Angela Boswell was doing the other "women's" article. I, of course,
had already read her book (I bought it as soon as it came out), saw the series she was editing, etc. What if we took exactly the same focus, and her article made mine look like a high school copy of hers, since hers would be out first? Well, I met Angela in person at that meeting and she immediately put me at ease. She assured me that a Ph.D. was not necessary for the kind of careful research that university librarians with years of
experience could do. She told me up front that she was planning to submit a version of her research on Colorado County. I felt more competent, jumped right into the research, narrowed my topic about half way through, got it submitted on time, and it has gotten good reviews (with minor revisions, of course) by advance readers and editors. I've still got all of my sources in
a separate file behind me, however, just in case I get a last minute "we need more on that" or "would you recheck this source." But I'm so excited! I've had stuff published before, from local history to reenacting journals to Southwestern Historical Quarterly, but this is different.
BTW, I would consider Angela Boswell the "queen" of Texas women in the Civil War research. I really, really think she should do a statewide study, book length. Anglo/African American/German/Hispanic, recent Texans to old Texians, refugees in/refugees out, Confederate/Unionist, flag wavers to
whiners, plantation to bleeding frontier, rural/urban, slave to illiterate hardscrabble farm wife to newspaper editress, the whole wonderful range of Texas women during the war. Hey, it could happen....
What a wonderful "lift" and incentive! Congratulations, Vicki!
Anita
This is so cool. The editor, Charles Grear, was at the Texas in the War symposium I attended today. So I got a copy...signed...the inscrïption says I'm to brag to you Vicki .
Annette
Ha! Well, I've written in mine so much with pencil that I don't think anyone would want to autograph it now. But I finished reading it, and all of the endnotes, today.
Vicki
There are endnotes, and then there's the selected bibliography. Apparently, if the source in the endnote is NOT in the bibliography, then it is complete. If the source in the endnote IS in the bibliography, then it's in short form, even the first time it appears. That's not a problem, except there's no note at the beginning of the endnotes telling you about that arrangement. I must have gone through a page or two of writing cite? cite? cite? before I figured that out on my own. I'd like all of the endnotes to be complete the first time the source appears. Well, to tell the truth I really prefer footnotes so I don't have to flip to the back, but those seem to have gone the way of the woolly mammoth.
The book could have used a little closer proofreading, too. That's more U of Arkansas's problem, though. See the list of contributors in the back, where you find that Julie Holcomb is "form[er] director of the Pearce Collections Museum. Currently she is currently completing her Ph.D...."
Just finished reading The Fate of Texas. Some very good essays about Texas during the Civil War including a look at the refugeeing of slaves from other states and the participation or lack of of the German population.
The final essay is on interpretation and incorporating more of the African-American story in the interpretation of the war, very
interesting read.
Vicki This one sounds really good.
_The Fate of Texas: The Civil War and the Lone Star State_, edited by Charles D. Grear. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2008.
Chapters:
1. "Texas, Jefferson Davis, and Confederate National Strategy," by Joseph G. Dawson III.
2. "Warriors, Husbands, and Fathers: Confederate Soldiers and
Their Families," by Richard Lowe.
3. "'If We Should Succeed in Driving the Enemy Back Out of My
Native State': Why Texans Fought East of the Mississippi River
During the Civil War," by Charles D. Grear.
4. "The Price of Liberty: The Great Hanging at Gainesville," by
Richard B. McCaslin.
5. "The Civil War and the Lives of Texas Women," by Angela Boswell.
6. "Slaves Taken to Texas for Safekeeping during the Civil War" by Dale Baum.
7. "New Perspectives on Texas Germans and the Confederacy," by
Walter D. Kamphoefner
8. "After the Surrender: The Postwar Experiences of Confederate
Veterans in Harrison County, Texas," by Randolph B. Campbell.
9. "'I Seem to Have No Thought of the Past, Present, or Future':
Texans React to Confederate Defeat," by Carl H. Moneyhon.
10. "Causes Lost but Not Forgotten: George Washington Littlefield,Jefferson Davis, and Confederate Memories at the University of Texas at Austin," by Alexander Mendoza (faculty at UT-Tyler)
11. "'Tell It Like it Was': Texas, the Civil War, and Public
History," by Julie Holcomb
Each article is footnoted, of course, and there is also a six page selected bibliography.
The first footnote for the chapter on Texas women says "This chapter is a slightly edited version of Boswell, _Her Act and Deed_, chap. 5" and her book focuses *only* on Colorado County. As such, is it not "new." On a purely selfish note, I'm relieved, because my chapter in the UNT Press book will go head to head with hers as the designated "women's history" chapter. Mine is not as analytical as hers, but is more state-wide and anecdotal. (It's on private and public assistance to Texas soldiers' families, mostly female headed.) Anyway, there goes my last real hesitation with it--until I saw it in print I wasn't positive what Dr. Boswell's focus would be. Now I can't wait to see our book in my own hands.
Vicki Betts
Hey! What a blast from the past! I was there when the original
research took place and Dr. Boswell was merely Angie. Its a
distillation of her dissertation later published in book form. She lived in Columbus, TX for a year while she researched it. We were in the same group of 6 that entered the doctoral program at Rice in '92. Obviously, she finished. I left and went to library
school...
While Angie's writing is scholarly, Vicki's will certainly stand up to it. I can't wait to read it!
Jennifer P.
I met Angela Boswell at a Texas State Historical Association meeting in San Antonio year before last. Since the editors of both books are at Prairie View A&M, we had a joint gathering of the writers at the hotel bar. I knew several of them--I currently work with Alexander Mendoza and had previously
worked with James Smallwood at UT-Tyler. I found out he was the one who had pushed to include me in "our" book. I had been driving my editor crazy with doubts that I, who didn't even have an MA in history, could come up with something worthy of a university press book, particularly when I found out that Angela Boswell was doing the other "women's" article. I, of course,
had already read her book (I bought it as soon as it came out), saw the series she was editing, etc. What if we took exactly the same focus, and her article made mine look like a high school copy of hers, since hers would be out first? Well, I met Angela in person at that meeting and she immediately put me at ease. She assured me that a Ph.D. was not necessary for the kind of careful research that university librarians with years of
experience could do. She told me up front that she was planning to submit a version of her research on Colorado County. I felt more competent, jumped right into the research, narrowed my topic about half way through, got it submitted on time, and it has gotten good reviews (with minor revisions, of course) by advance readers and editors. I've still got all of my sources in
a separate file behind me, however, just in case I get a last minute "we need more on that" or "would you recheck this source." But I'm so excited! I've had stuff published before, from local history to reenacting journals to Southwestern Historical Quarterly, but this is different.
BTW, I would consider Angela Boswell the "queen" of Texas women in the Civil War research. I really, really think she should do a statewide study, book length. Anglo/African American/German/Hispanic, recent Texans to old Texians, refugees in/refugees out, Confederate/Unionist, flag wavers to
whiners, plantation to bleeding frontier, rural/urban, slave to illiterate hardscrabble farm wife to newspaper editress, the whole wonderful range of Texas women during the war. Hey, it could happen....
What a wonderful "lift" and incentive! Congratulations, Vicki!
Anita
This is so cool. The editor, Charles Grear, was at the Texas in the War symposium I attended today. So I got a copy...signed...the inscrïption says I'm to brag to you Vicki .
Annette
Ha! Well, I've written in mine so much with pencil that I don't think anyone would want to autograph it now. But I finished reading it, and all of the endnotes, today.
Vicki
There are endnotes, and then there's the selected bibliography. Apparently, if the source in the endnote is NOT in the bibliography, then it is complete. If the source in the endnote IS in the bibliography, then it's in short form, even the first time it appears. That's not a problem, except there's no note at the beginning of the endnotes telling you about that arrangement. I must have gone through a page or two of writing cite? cite? cite? before I figured that out on my own. I'd like all of the endnotes to be complete the first time the source appears. Well, to tell the truth I really prefer footnotes so I don't have to flip to the back, but those seem to have gone the way of the woolly mammoth.
The book could have used a little closer proofreading, too. That's more U of Arkansas's problem, though. See the list of contributors in the back, where you find that Julie Holcomb is "form[er] director of the Pearce Collections Museum. Currently she is currently completing her Ph.D...."
Just finished reading The Fate of Texas. Some very good essays about Texas during the Civil War including a look at the refugeeing of slaves from other states and the participation or lack of of the German population.
The final essay is on interpretation and incorporating more of the African-American story in the interpretation of the war, very
interesting read.
