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AWARD-WINNING NEW TEXAS HISTORY AT ITS FINEST

Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity

By Glen Sample Ely
Foreword by Alwyn Barr

Texas Tech University Press
Plains Histories Series

224 pages, 7 b/w photos, 11 maps, 6 X 9 cloth hardcover book
Available at www.TexasHistory.com - ~~$34.95~~ - Sale Price: $25.99

Some historians insist that Texas, with its heritage of slavery, segregation, and historic dependence upon cotton, is southern. Another group argues that Texas is western, as evidenced by its cowboys, cattle drives, mountains, and desert. Still others brand it unique, having won its independence from Mexico during the Texas Revolution and existing as an independent republic for ten years prior to joining the Union. With its immense land area, diverse environment, cultures, colorful history, and larger-than-life legends, Texas does indeed seem "like a whole other country." Throughout its existence, the Lone Star State has juggled a complicated assortment of identities. Its multiple characteristics often confuse observers and scholars—to the point that some ignore it altogether. Award-winning historian Glen Sample Ely seeks to set the record straight. Taking a fresh look at what exactly Texas is and what it is not, his groundbreaking work tackles these thorny questions by examining the tangled and fascinating strands that make up the DNA of Texas's identity.

2011 Southwest Book Award Winner
Border Regional Library Association

Read "Contending Visions of the Lone Star State: Debating Texas' Identity," Reviews in History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, January 2012. Click here to read.

"Well argued, often thought provoking, fully documented." Journal of the West, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Winter 2011)

Read Zack Shlachter's detailed review of Where the West Begins in the Fort Worth Weekly, Sept. 7, 2011. Click here to read.

Listen to Jennifer Stayton's 's 25-minute interview with Glen Sample Ely about Where the West Begins on KUT Austin/NPR from July 13, 2011. Click here to listen.

Listen to Krys Boyd's hour-long interview with Glen Sample Ely about Where the West Begins on her KERA/Dallas NPR book show "Think," from June 1, 2011. Click here to listen.

Read Mike Cox's Austin American Statesman's detailed review of Where the West Begins, "Where the West Begins illuminates forces that helped shape West Texas identity," from May 14, 2011. Click here to read.

Listen to Texas Public Radio's ten-minute segment on Where the West Begins from their April 29, 2011 "Texas Matters" weekly news program (Program #557). Click here to listen.

Read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's in-depth piece on Where the West Begins, "One State or More? Fort Worth’s Glen Sample Ely inspects Texas' historical DNA," from April 6, 2011. Click here to read.

Read the Midland Reporter-Telegram's article on Where the West Begins, "Texas Native finds Where the West Begins," from May 12, 2011. Click here to read.

Read the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's article on Where the West Begins in their March 16, 2011 "New and Notable" section. Click here to read.

"Wide-ranging and sparkling with keen insight, Glen Ely's Where the West Begins should instantly take its place on the short list of indispensable works on Texan identity." —Gregg Cantrell, author of Stephen F. Austin: Empresario of Texas, and co-editor of Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas

"With this book, Glen Ely establishes himself as ranking among the very best of a new generation of Texas historians." —Robert Wooster, author of The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900, and The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865-1903

"Glen Ely's Where the West Begins is big--Texas big--myth-busting. Challenging the trend of recent Texan historians who have emphasized the state's southern roots, Where the West Begins is a thoughtful and therefore controversial examination of how the western part of the state really is part of the West." —Jesus F. de la Teja, former State Historian of Texas, author of San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain's Northern Frontier, and co-author of Texas: Crossroads of North America

"In the seemingly endless arguments about just where and what the American West is and has been, West Texas has too often been ignored. But no longer. Drawing on the land itself, on its snarled relations with the American South and with its deep Hispanic past, and on the experiences of its many peoples struggling to persist amid daunting challenges, Glen Sample Ely places this elusive country firmly in the West yet affirms it as an utterly distinctive part of its state and nation." —Elliott West, author of The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story, and The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, and the Rush to Colorado

"One of the most original, clearly expressed, and compelling analyses of the differences between East Texas and Western Texas to appear in decades. His fresh account is backed by extensive research. A truly notable addition to the Plains Histories Series."
—Howard R. Lamar, Yale University Sterling Professor of History Emeritus; Editorial Board-Howard Lamar Series in Western History, Yale University Press

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