"The first edition of Documents of Texas History had 126 primary 
documents, ranging from a report of the first Spanish exploration 
of Texas to the official meteorological report on Hurricane Carla in 
1961. The 320-page revised edition offers fifteen additional 
documents, from material on the Kennedy assassination to the 
Dallas Cowboys. Documents of Texas History contains a lot of 
useful primary source material"”—Mike Cox, More Basic Texas 
Books

Documents of Texas History, a valuable reference work for 
students, teachers, scholars, and history aficionados, provides an 
in-depth, firsthand understanding of Texas history. The 141 
documents selected for this book are accounts of significant events 
in Texas history, beginning with Cabeza de Vaca’s 1528 
expedition and ending with the national influence of the Dallas 
Cowboys ("America’s Team") and their Super Bowl victory. In 
between these two events, separated by more than four centuries, 
are scores of documents on a broad range of social, cultural, and 
political events which have shaped the history of Texas and often 
affected the nation. Fascinating to read, they relate history as it was 
lived by the participants and their contemporary observers.

    The documents are drawn from a great number of sources: 
archives, historical periodicals, rare books, government 
publications, and newspapers. They are  arranged in chronological 
order and each document is prefaced by an introduction that 
provides background and interpretation of the event or topic at 
hand. The editors’ careful selections provide an excellent overview 
of Texas history in all its depth and diversity.

    This updated edition of the classic Documents of Texas History 
presents Texas history as told by the men and women who lived it 
and watched it unfold. The Texas past comes alive in this superb 
reference volume, a valuable addition to libraries and an 
indispensable supplement to any work of Texas history. Selected 
as one of the 1990s’ best Texas books, Documents of Texas 
History was one of 126 Texas classics included in Mike Cox’s 
More Basic Texas Books. 

_________________________________________________________

ERNEST WALLACE (1906–1985), author of numerous works on 
the history of Texas, was a fellow and president of the Texas State 
Historical Association. DAVID M. VIGNESS (1922–1979), 
chairman of the Department of History at Texas Tech University
from 1961–1978, taught and wrote about Texas and Latin America.
GEORGE B. WARD, who has written about Texas and the
American West, is the assistant director of the Texas State
Historical Association and managing editor of the Southwestern
Historical Quarterly.


Number Twenty-one: Fred H. and Ella Mae Moore Texas History
Reprint Series