The past has long fingers into the present, but they are not just the 
fingers of fact. How we remember the past is at least as important 
as the objective facts of that past. The memories used by a people 
to define itself have to be understood not just as (sometimes) bad 
history but also as historical artifacts themselves. Texas' pasts are 
examined in this groundbreaking volume, featuring chapters by a 
wide range of scholars.

    Current historians' views of Texas in the nineteenth century and 
especially the significance of the Alamo as a site of memory in 
architecture, art, and film across the years comprise a major 
element of this volume. Other nineteenth-century historical events 
are also examined through their memorializations in the twentieth 
century: the construction of Civil War monuments by the United 
Daughters of the Confederacy, public and private Juneteenth 
celebrations, and the Tejano memorial on the Capitol grounds 
commemorating the history of Mexicans in Texas. Twentieth-
century chapters include collective memories and meaning 
attached to the Ku Klux Klan, the significance of the civil rights 
movement in the eyes of different generations of Texans, and the 
lasting (or fading) Texan memories of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

    The volume editors offer these studies as a model of how Texas 
historians can begin to incorporate memory into their work, as 
historians of other regions have done. In the process, they offer a 
more nuanced and even a more applied version of Texas history 
than many of us learned in school.

_________________________________________________________

GREGG CANTRELL is the Erma and Ralph Lowe Professor of 
History at Texas Christian University and the author of Stephen 
F. Austin: Empresario of Texas. ELIZABETH HAYES TURNER, 
an associate professor at the University of North Texas, is the 
author of Women, Culture, and Community: Religion and Reform 
in Galveston, 1880–1920.


Number Twenty-seven: Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the 
West and Southwest


What people are saying about this book

". . . if you enjoy questioning the past and exploring your own 
assumptions about how history is made, this book is a must read. 
Lone Star Pasts negotiates the land mines of Texas history, 
all while trying to remind the public that revisionist history is not 
just about myth busting."—Legacies, Fall 2007

“For Texas worshippers and historical researchers, this one is for 
you.”—True West, June 2007

". . . a variety of fine essays bring Texas history squarely into 
current debates on popular memory. The authors demonstrate that 
there is not just one past, but many, varying as much by race and 
ethnicity and political persuasions as the state's people. From 
Juneteenth to LBJ, readers will find much to consider about the 
meaning of memory in a state whose motto could be 'Remember 
the Alamo!'"—Rebecca Sharpless, Texas Christian University