History Commons^™

Don Francisco Yturria: Beginnings Of A South Texas Entrepreneur, Lilia M. Garcia

History Faculty Publications

The life and legacy of South Texas pioneer Francisco Yturria remains a fascinating study of a remarkable individual who made powerful and lasting contributions to the region's history. Lilia M. Garcia, a descendent of Don Francisco, consulted family papers and a variety of other primary sources to chronicle his story while pursuing a graduate degree at Southern Methodist University. The following article is the first installment of what will be a four part history of Don Francisco Yturria--South Texas Entrepreneur.

The World That Made William Johnson, Timothy J. Shannon

History Faculty Publications

Readers of the Atlantic Monthly may have been taken aback when they received their December 2006 issue of that venerable journal of American arts and letters. In a pitch more appropriate to People or some other celebrity magazine, the Atlantic offered a list of "The 100 Most Influential Americans of All Time," and right there on the cover, posing as eye-candy for the intelligentsia was none other than #1 himself, Abraham Lincoln, the sexiest most dead American alive, or something like that. Had the high brow finally gone low brow? Had pop culture's fascination with list-making found a new frontier? …

Suburban Swamp: The Rise And Fall Of Planned New-Town Communities In New Orleans East, J. Souther

History Faculty Publications

This paper examines the emergence, development and abandonment of ‘new town’ communities in eastern New Orleans in the half century after 1957. Containing about two-thirds of the land area in the New Orleans city limits, much of it wrested from swamps using emerging drainage technologies, eastern New Orleans promised municipal leaders, planners and citizens an alternative to crowded city and sprawling suburb. This paper also considers how planners and many local citizens viewed planned communities in the eastern stretches of the city as an antidote to population exodus from New Orleans. It explores the influences, design characteristics, social planning aspirations …

Religion And Culture In Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800 (Book Review), John B. Roney

History Faculty Publications

Book review by John B. Roney.

Greyerz, Kaspar von. Religion and Culture in Early Modern Europe: 1500-1800. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

9780195327656; 9780195327663 (pbk.)

Review Of Cortina: Defending The Mexican Name In Texas. By Jerry Thompson. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007. Pp. 344. Introduction, Notes, Bibliography, Index. Isbn 1-58544-592-4. $32.50), Jose A. P. Alaniz

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Invading Mexico: America’S Continental Dream And The Mexican War, 1846-1848. By Joseph Wheelan. (New York: Carrol And Graf Publishers, 2007. Pp. 490. Cast Of Characters, Prologue, Epilogue, Bibliography, Notes, Index, Acknowledgments. Isbn-13: 978-0-786719-4. $27.95), Anthony K. Knopp

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Dead Reckoning (Book Review), Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Long before she became the first female president of Harvard University in July 2007, Drew Gilpin Faust showed herself to be an inventive, energetic, and restless historian. Her first book, in 1977, focused on a subject many people had doubted was a subject, "the intellectual in the Old South." Five years later, she produced what is still the fullest — and most disturbing — portrayal of a white Southern planter, a man who sought complete mastery over the white women in his charge as well as over the enslaved people he claimed as property.

Soon after that, in a series …

A Response To John Sommerville’S 'The Decline Of The Secular University', William Vance Trollinger

History Faculty Publications

Introduction to William Vance Trollinger's plenary presentation:

I agree with Prof. Sommerville that in too many places the secular university has trivialized religion and religious commitment, and that it is high time for religion to be welcomed into our academic debates. I say this even while I take issue with some of the particulars in Prof. Sommerville’s book. I will give two examples related to our discipline of history.

First, Prof. Sommerville decries that “secularist humanities have declared war on metanarratives because of their hegemonic power.” But I confess that I am very pleased to see the demise of metanarratives …

‘A Mob Of Women’ Confront Post-Colonial Republican Politics: How Class, Race, And Partisan Ideology Affected Gendered Political Space In Nineteenth-Century Southwestern Colombia, James Sanders

History Faculty Publications

This essay explores why some groups of women in nineteenth–century Colombia were able to engage in public, political action but others were not. Elite conservative women (mostly white) and popular liberal women (mostly black and mulatta) found ways to participate publicly in republican politics, but elite liberal women (mostly white) and some popular conservative women (mostly Indian) were largely absent from the public sphere. I argue that colonial gender roles, elite and popular visions of citizenship, the contest between the Liberal and Conservative Parties, the structure of indigenous communities, and popular liberal women's access to independent economic resources all helped …

Panaderías En La Ciudad De México De Porfirio Díaz: Los Empresarios Vasco-Navarros Y La Movilización Obrera, Robert Weis

History Faculty Publications

This article examines the insertion of Basque immigrants from the Baztan Valley, in the province of Navarre, into the wheat-flour-bread complex of late-nineteenth century Mexico City. Additionally, it describes labor conditions in the bakeries they owned and analyzes the place of workers in the Mexico of Porfi rio Díaz. In contrast to the historiographical tendency to present immigrant entrepreneurs, and the Porfirian state, as forces of capitalist modernization, the article shows that, with important exceptions, bakeries remained archaic and pre-capitalist in order to permit the integration of the constant stream of nephews that linked Mexico City and the Baztán Valley. …

Chow, Kai-Wing: Publishing, Culture, And Power In Early Modern China, Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Chow, Kai-wing.Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8047-3367-8.

Brokaw, Cynthia J., Commerce In Culture: The Sibao Book Trade In The Qing And Republican Periods (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Brokaw, Cynthia J. Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods. Cambridge:. Harvard University Asia Center, 2007.

ISBN 9780674024496

New Approaches To The Founding Of The Sierra Leone Colony, 1786–1808, Isaac Land, Andrew M. Schocket

History Faculty Publications

This special issue of the Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History consists of a forum of innovative ways to consider and reappraise the founding of Britain’s Sierra Leone colony. It originated with a conversation among the two of us and Pamela Scully – all having research interests touching on Sierra Leone in that period – noting that the recent historical inquiry into the origins of this colony had begun to reach an important critical mass. Having long been dominated by a few seminal works, it has begun to attract interest from a number of scholars, both young and established, from …

Open Adoption And The Politics Of Transnational Feminist Human Rights, Karen Sotiropoulos

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Momentous Events In Small Places": The Coming Of The Civil War In Two American Communities, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Historians, professional and otherwise, have written thousands of regimental histories, county histories, and town histories of the Civil War years. These studies make the coming of the war concrete and compelling. Inspired by such accounts, it seemed to me that two local portrayals could be even better than one, that exploring communities on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line as they each confronted the events from the late fifties to the late sixties might make both sides more comprehensible.

Why Have You Come Here? The Jesuits And The First Evangelization Of Native America. By Nicholas P. Cushner, Charlotte M. Gradie

History Faculty Publications

The article reviews the book "Why have you come here? The Jesuits and the first evangelization of Native America", by Nicholas P. Cushner.

The People's Peking Man: Popular Science And Human Identity In Twentieth-Century China, Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Schmalzer, Sigrid. The People's Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

ISBN 978-0-226-73860-4.

Between Heaven And Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1985-1937 (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Carroll, Peter J. Between Heaven and Modernity: Reconstructing Suzhou, 1985-1937. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006.

Nicholaas H. Gootjes, The Belgic Confession: Its History And Sources, John B. Roney

History Faculty Publications

Book review by John Roney.

Gootjes, Nicholaas H. The Belgic Confession: Its History and Sources. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007.

ISBN 9780801032356

China And The Great War: China's Pursuit Of A New National Identity And Internationalization (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran Ph.D.

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Xu, Guozt. China and the Great War: China's Pursuit of a New National Identity and Internationalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Slavery-Era Disclosure And Atlantic Commerce, Keith R. Allen, Jelmer Vos

History Faculty Publications

Explores the connections between greater Atlantic Ocean commerce and those northern European businesses that invested in and profited from the slave trade, from the 16th century to 1888, the year that Brazil outlawed slavery - the last country in the Americas to do so. Presents the results of an in-depth case study of the predecessors of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO regarding their financial involvement in the Atlantic slave trade and its extensive commercial network in the Western Hemisphere, which was centered on the Americas.

A Workingman's Paradise The Evolution Of An Unplanned Suburban Landscape, Anne E. Krulikowski

History Faculty Publications

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, land speculators laid out numerous unplanned suburban subdivisions in outlying wards of large industrial North American cities, including a group of nineteen such subdivisions in lower Southwest Philadelphia. With few restrictions on building and land use, individual families created businesses, dwellings, and yards to meet their own needs; thus, these subdivisions were characterized by significant variations in access to modern services and in the size, style, and quality of dwellings. Residents took great pride in their neighborhoods but also valued the surviving natural landscape preserved by undeveloped blocks and lots. [ABSTRACT FROM …

Disarming The Allies Of Imperialism: The State, Agitation, And Manipulation During China's Nationalist Revolution, 1922-1949 (Book Review), Thomas D. Curran

History Faculty Publications

Book review by Thomas D. Curran.

Murdock, M. G. (2006). Disarming the allies of imperialism: The state, agitation, and manipulation during China's nationalist revolution, 1922-1949. Ithaca: East Asia Program, Cornell University.

Reports From Fundamentalism’S Front Lines: ‘The Pilot’ And Its Correspondents, 1920-1947, William Vance Trollinger

History Faculty Publications

Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America explores how a variety of print media—religious tracts, newsletters, cartoons, pamphlets, self-help books, mass-market paperbacks, and editions of the Bible from the King James Version to contemporary "Bible-zines"—have shaped and been shaped by experiences of faith since the Civil War. Edited by Charles L. Cohen and Paul S. Boyer, whose comprehensive historical essays provide a broad overview to the topic, this book is the first on the history of religious print culture in modern America and a well-timed entry into the increasingly prominent contemporary debate over the role of religion in …

Rolls Royce Declares Bankruptcy, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

Despite more than sixty years of engineering excellence, Rolls-Royce failed in its attempt to design and manufacture a radically new jet engine to meet contractual obligations with the Lockheed Corp. Consequently, both British and U.S. governments had to step in to avoid an unprecedented economic catastrophe.

Sugar Industry In The South, John Alfred Heitmann

History Faculty Publications

Cane sugar is a key commodity in international trade and an important component of the modern diet. At one time or another, sugar cane was grown commercially in Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. During the 19th century, south Louisiana was the focal point of this dynamic industry; beginning in the mid-20th century, however, the center of innovative activities shifted to Florida.

Citations Of 'Noster' John Pecham In Richard Fleming's Trinity Sunday Sermon: Evidence For The Political Use Of Liturgical Music At The Council Of Constance, Chris L. Nighman

History Faculty Publications

This article examines a sermon for Trinity Sunday that was delivered by Richard Fleming at the Council of Constance in 1417. The author argues that Fleming’s citation of liturgical chant and a homily composed by John Pecham, together with certain external evidence, suggests that he was trying to bolster the reputation of the English Church in order to counter attempts to deprive the English delegation of its status as a ‘nation’ within the council. As such, it constitutes an interesting confluence of pulpit oratory, liturgical music, and ecclesiastical politics at this council.

“Professionalization: Overview” & “Professionalization: Europe”, Charles E. Mcclelland

History Faculty Publications

Two entries in a large encyclopedia of the social sciences.

Review Of Jewish Roots In Southern Soil: A New History, Harriett Denise Joseph

History Faculty Publications

Because the first Jews came to America in 1654, a "stream of books and essays" (p. xi) has been published in recent years to commemorate the 250th anniversary of that event. Among these have been anthologies focusing on specific states and regions, such as Lone Stars of David: The Jews of Texas (2007), edited by Hollace Ava Weiner and Kenneth D. Roseman, and Jewish Life in the American West (2002), edited by Ava F. Kahn. Jewish Roots in Southern Soil (2006) is a "timely contribution" (p. xi) to that genre.

Review Of Tío Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper And Horseman., Thomas A. Britten

History Faculty Publications

Tío Cowboy chronicles the life and achievements of legendary rancher, calf roper, and professional rodeo performer Juan Light Salinas. The son of a prominent South Texas rancher, Juan Salinas was born in 1901 and learned to ride a horse and to rope cattle during his early childhood. During the 1930s and 1940s, he became one of the first Mexican American cowboys to perform on the professional rodeo circuit. Author Ricardo D. Palacios was Tío Juan's nephew and number one fan. The book is a moving tribute to his uncle, who at one time enjoyed celebrity status in the South Texas …