tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17464525159671739422024-03-19T00:35:41.523-04:00Westward...Oh!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-89450379032064488722014-12-07T18:57:00.000-05:002014-12-07T18:57:45.318-05:0019th Century German Immigration to the Texas Hill Country: Laying the Groundwork for a Successful International Novelty Business<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The 19th century witnessed a significant influx of immigrants from Germany into the central Texas Hill Country. Initially encouraged by a consortium of German princes and nobility in the 1840s, these immigrants arrived to a country and climate that was very, very different from their own, forcing them to learn anew everything they thought they already knew. In this, the Germans were highly successful due to several key qualities:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">their ability to adapt;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">their willingness to assimilate;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a strong ethic for hard work; and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">a proclivity for experimentation and ingenuity.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Into this milieu, Carl "Charles" Apelt (my great-grandfather) arrived from Mühlberg, Germany, in 1887 for a visit with relatives. A family tragedy during his trip resulted in his decision to remain in Texas, where he later started and successfully operated an international novelty business, the Apelt Armadillo Company. I believe that the German people and communities of which he was a part provided a vital and solid foundation on which he could build his company. He both benefited from and possessed himself the qualities listed above, all of which proved so important to his (and his critters') success.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-89584181365388428092014-11-30T18:59:00.003-05:002014-11-30T18:59:37.188-05:00Blog CommentThis week I commented on <a href="http://www.davidmckenzie.info/musings/2014/11/30/aint-from-around-here/#comment-5586" target="_blank">David McKenzie's blog</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-79678616129082435912014-11-29T16:59:00.000-05:002014-11-29T16:59:13.231-05:00Tourism Comes for the Hill Country<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Hal K. Rothman's book, <i>Devil's Bargains: Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West</i> (University Press of Kansas: Lawrence, Kansas. 1998. Pp. xi, 434.), speaks to me on a very direct, personal level. Early on, Rothman writes that "Tourist workers quickly learn that one of the most essential traits of their service is to mirror onto the guest what that visitor wants from them and from their place in a way that affirms the visitor's self-image." (12) The tourist of Rothman's study is not ultimately seeking to learn about the truth and history of a place, but rather to see in that place their version of it as seen in their mind's eye. I know what that's like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">How? Five little words: I grew up in Texas.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Texas is one of those places about which everyone seems to have an opinion. What's more, they think they know what Texas is, what it looks like, feels like, who Texans are. Here's a sampling of the comments I've heard <i>ad nauseum</i> over the years:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Is it like the TV show <i>Dallas</i>? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you have a ranch like Southfork?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I bet you ride your horse to school.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you have a belt buckle with your name on it?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Where are your boots?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What do you <i>mean</i> you don't have a cowboy hat?!?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you drive a pickup truck?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Do you speak Spanish?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You don't like tomatoes or spicy food? Aren't you from Texas?</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The list goes on, but you get the idea. And then there's the other part of it, the assumptions people make about Texans that they're too polite to say: that we're puffed up, loud, prideful, bombastic rednecks who think we're the best at everything and are racist, homophobic jerks. I remember when I moved to Chicago at the age of 22, I gradually realized how non-Texans apparently saw us with something nearing shock. I had no idea. Really. None.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">So I grew up just like a lot of other American kids did, but with this little <i>thing</i> in the back of my mind that told me that when I was not in Texas, I needed to fill a certain mould, walk, talk, act a certain way because that's what people expected. (To this day I am regularly asked why I don't have an accent. If you <i>must</i> know, it comes out when I'm tired, angry, tipsy or around my family. Or talking to someone with a southern accent.) And there are times when, often without thinking, I agree to give the person I'm speaking with what they want: yes, I have boots, and yes, I can ride a horse, and yes, my family has a ranch. But in my mind, I'm thinking, I haven't worn those boots in a decade, haven't been on a horse since 2006, certainly never barrel raced, and our ranch looks nothing like Southfork.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Texas, especially Austin, has remade itself to reflect visitors' expectations back at them, just as Santa Fe did in Rothman's account. Being an Austin native, I constantly hear affirmations of how hip and cool my hometown is, yet I find its hipness to be manufactured, created and very self-consciously nurtured. In the 1970s and 1980s, before the rest of the country discovered Austin, it was truly cool, with an authentic vibe that just <i>was</i> without trying. Then it began attracting technology businesses like Dell and Intel, and a grungy little music and film festival called South by Southwest, and an iconic film called <i>Dazed and Confused</i> came out, and the rest of the country started paying attention. And then moving there in droves. And these newly arrived folks loved Austin so much that they started remaking it into the Austin they imagined it to be. (And don't even get me started on San Antonio...Riverwalk, anyone?)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Today, my hometown is in many ways unrecognizable to me. It's a nice place to visit, and there are pockets that remain strangely, wonderfully untouched, but its retail developments and ridiculous sprawl are unfamiliar. It's in the same geographic location where home used to be, but it's not <i>my</i> Austin. I imagine this must be how the longtime Santa Fe residents Rothman discusses felt after watching Edgar Hewett, Mary Austin and their acolytes repackage their town: equal parts bewilderment, nostalgia, and alienation from a town that is, and yet is not, theirs.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-71024404326438818882014-11-23T20:06:00.001-05:002014-11-23T20:06:21.486-05:00Blog CommentThis week I commented on <a href="https://capturehistory.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/post-12-bridging-cultural-divides/comment-page-1/#comment-43" target="_blank">Megan's blog</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-70645218929203295112014-11-22T18:30:00.003-05:002014-11-22T18:30:41.355-05:00Interpreting and Using History
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I’ll just
right out with it: I loved Ari Kelman’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek </i>(Harvard
University Press: Cambridge, London. 2013. Pp. xiii, 363). Somewhere in my
progression through graduate study, I began to realize that history is not
static, not universal, not one <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">correct</i>
version of facts in the midst of other <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">wrong</i>
versions. It is, rather, a set of histories, interpretations of a time or event
with which we each engage through the lens of our varied experiences and viewpoints.
Kelman’s profiling of Sand Creek’s journey to memorialization illustrated that
in delicious detail.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As I
progressed through <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Misplaced Massacre</i>,
I frequently found that two works repeatedly rose to my consciousness. <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://history.yale.edu/people/jay-winter" target="_blank">Jay Winter</a></span>’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sites of Memory, Sites of
Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History</i> (Cambridge University
Press: Cambridge. 1995. Pp. x, 310) assesses the ways in which Europeans
attempted to understand, mourn and come to terms with their losses in World War
I. He examines a broad array of coping mechanisms, including art, architecture,
film, literature, body recovery, and spiritualism; he also spent a good deal of
time analyzing the meanings and politics of memorial sites. He states that,
“war memorials [serve as] foci of the rituals, rhetoric, and ceremonies of
bereavement. This aspect of their significance has not attracted particular
attention from scholars in this field. Most have been drawn to war memorials as
carriers of political ideas…or the multiple justifications of the call to
arms.” Quite simply, says Winter, “War memorials were places where people
grieved, both individually and collectively.” (78-79)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The opening
of a memorial site at Sand Creek holds with Winter’s analysis. It was clearly a
place where the Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples could (and do) bury and mourn
their slain ancestors, both individually and as nations, with rituals and quiet
personal moments. It was also a politically charged site from the moment
Chivington’s soldiers finished firing. Not only was it the site of violence, it
also held vastly different meanings for different people…</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">…which
caused me to revisit <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/jerome.degroot/research" target="_blank">Jerome de Groot</a></span>’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Consuming
History: Historians and heritage in contemporary popular culture (sic)</i>
(Routledge: New York. 2009. Pp. xii, 292). I think historians, with their
methodologies and standards and quests for unpacking what happened, can forget
sometimes that people – all people, not just historians – use history in varied
ways. History has meaning; “fact” and “truth” are not synonymous. De Groot
opens his book with a challenging question: “Who, then, tells the public what
‘history’ is and what it means? If ‘the past’ is after all an empty signifier,
just what are the semiotic processes involved in constructing, perpetuating and
consuming purported meaning – what strategies are in place for pouring sense
into such representational aporia?” (1) He proceeds to explore the various ways
in which we “use” history, the ways in which it has (or finds) meaning to us as
humans; he discusses historical films and reality shows, genealogies and
Ancestry.com, video games, historical reenactments, museums, documentaries,
literature…the list goes on.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I thought
about this as I read Kelman’s account of the many missteps and blunders that
the National Park Service (NPS) made as it tried to work with Arapahoes,
Cheyennes, and local Kiowa County residents to navigate toward opening a
federal memorial site. The Indians who worked with NPS on this effort had
strong “memories” of the massacre (I say “memories” because none of them were
there, yet they cherish these “memories” as though they had been, much as an
American of my generation might treasure “memories” of, say, a grandfather’s
exploits during World War II; <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/people/alandsb1" target="_blank">Alison Landsberg</a></span> would call this “<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BIm-AwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=alison+landsberg+prosthetic+memory&ots=A5amQxAT2K&sig=nXOkqkdLWPKsjDbCiQDDGkllgu8#v=onepage&q=alison%20landsberg%20prosthetic%20memory&f=false" target="_blank">prosthetic memory</a></span>”) that the NPS failed to understand. Not because the NPS folks were bad
people or out to get the Indians, but simply because they were human and viewed
the massacre through an entirely different lens, a lens which, I believe, was
not less valuable or “right” than the Indians’, only different.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">History is
messy. As de Groot concludes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Consuming
History</i>, “The fact that history pervades contemporary culture demonstrates
the keen importance for the scholar in understanding the ways that it is
manifested and in which it is conceptualised <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(sic)</i>…The past is fantasy, lifestyle choice, part of the cultural
economy, something which confers cultural capital, something to win or desire,
a means of embodying difference and a way of reflecting on contemporary life.
It is engaged with on a personal, group and family level; it can be experienced
in a range of ways at the same time.” (249) Kelman’s book demonstrates how
challenging it can be to marry popular consumption and scholarly exactitude for
today’s historian.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-58376987949753687442014-11-16T20:35:00.002-05:002014-11-16T20:35:40.150-05:00Blog CommentThis week I commented on Megan's post, <a href="http://capturehistory.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/post-11-a-very-complex-empire/comment-page-1/#comment-41" target="_blank">A Very Complex Empire</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-34012379812216789472014-11-15T15:38:00.001-05:002014-11-15T15:38:33.529-05:00Filling the Void (or, Today Carol Goes Off the Reservation)
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Several
years ago, I helped create and oversee a Federal program that provided funds to
organizations that were attempting to eradicate gangs from their communities. I
knew nothing about gangs; thus began my education. I remember spending a few
days in Chicago, conducting site visits with some grantee organizations to see
how their government-funded efforts were progressing. I met with community
advocates, some of whom were former gang members who had served considerable
prison time for their activities, including murder. They told chilling stories
from their gang days, and then shared the reasons why they now worked so
selflessly and diligently to help stop gang violence. It was one of those
amazing, humbling experiences that dramatically changed my worldview. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">During a
drive through a rundown, gang-ridden south Chicago neighborhood with an
activist pastor who was pointing out various gang boundaries and sites of past
violence, I ignorantly asked how it was that gangs had made such a stronghold
of the area. I took for granted that everyone knew how awful gangs were, and
couldn’t understand how they came to be so powerful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This patient
pastor explained that the area was so blighted that it was ignored by most:
there were no businesses, no jobs, little public or other transportation
options for the welfare families who lived there. Most of the commercial
buildings were abandoned and deteriorating, as were many of the residences,
though many of those still housed families struggling to survive. There were no
human services organizations, no food pantries, nothing but the few brave
churches like his who remained to care for the people there. When you have no
transportation, no job options within walking distance, and no ability to
travel to where the jobs are elsewhere in the city, what do you do? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It was a
hard question, but it revealed the answer to my question: the gangs saw a need,
and they filled it. They provided food and other necessaries to those
struggling in the neighborhood. They were the human services agency that the
local government had failed to make available. As such, gangs won the people’s
gratitude, loyalty and affection, enabling them to cultivate and harvest a
fertile recruiting ground for new members.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Why am I
sharing this with you? Because Pekka H</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">m</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">l</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">inen’s fascinating book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Comanche Empire</i> (Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2008.
Pp. viii, 500), has brought that afternoon with the pastor to mind. Just as
gangs create complex systems of trade and community relationships to further
their own interests, so too did the Comanche manipulate Spanish, Mexican and
Texan citizens into reliance and even near-subjection to meet the Indians’
material needs and imperial goals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Popular
American history would have us believe that big, bad imperialist Europeans
wiped out all Indians, and the Indians were helpless before the onslaught. H</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">m</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">l</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">inen proves
that, for the Comanche, at least, this is untrue. She restores Comanche agency
and, indeed, effectively demonstrates just how capable they were at beating the
Europeans at their own game: “By 1810, the real nerve center of the Southwest
was not Santa Fe, but the western Comanche rancher</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">í</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">as along the
upper Arkansas, Red, and Brazos valleys, where peoples from numerous nations
congregated to exchange goods, forge and maintain political alliances, and
organize large-scale multiethnic military campaigns. New Mexico’s economic and
political ties to Comancher</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">í</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">a endured, but they had come to reflect its
dependence on, not control over, the Comanche nation.” (202) H</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">m</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">l</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">ä</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">inen goes on
to show how New Mexicans ultimately rejected their own government’s directives,
choosing instead to nurture and maintain their vital trade relationships with
the Comanche. (212-213)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It is the
New Mexicans’ rejection that triggered my memory of the blighted south-side
Chicago slum. A community pursues that which best takes care of the needs of
its people. In the 19<sup>th</sup> century, the Mexican government failed to
strengthen and protect its New Mexican citizens, opening the door for the
Comanche to fill the void, just as gangs do in impoverished American
neighborhoods today. It is, to me, a striking parallel.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-20378891417859172292014-11-08T15:34:00.001-05:002014-11-08T15:34:41.029-05:00Hiding in Plain Sight: Federal Support of the Transcontinentals
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Being still
in the midst of Richard White’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Railroaded:
The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America</i>, I cannot pretend to
write effectively yet regarding its overall impact, success or themes. That
said, as I progress, I find my thoughts repeatedly turning to another work that seems to offer a fascinating companion viewpoint to that White seems to be
putting forth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Brian
Balogh’s book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Government Out of Sight:
The Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America</i>, argues
that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">laissez-faire</i> style of
government we all learned about in high school, that hands-off approach favored
by the American government during the Gilded Era, was a myth. The federal
government may have governed differently than its more pro-active European
counterparts, Balogh says, but that does not mean it governed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">less</i>. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Balogh asserts that,
despite embracing an attitude of American exceptionalism founded on strong
beliefs of individualism and free market self-reliance, Americans frequently
looked to the federal government throughout the 19<sup>th</sup> century, and
that “the national government proved to be most influential when it was least
visible.”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><sup>1</sup></span>
Americans expected their national government to play an active role in their
communities, in westward expansion, in economic development, and in other areas
of American life; they just did not wish to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">see</i>
that activity. Hence Balogh’s theme of a “government out of sight”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Balogh’s position resonates as one reads White’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Railroaded</i>. The United States government
was so deep in bed with the railroad companies that there was hardly room for
everyone under the covers. White demonstrates just how crowded that bed was
when he unpacks the Cr</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">é</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">dit Mobilier scandal, which “implicated
not only the leadership of the Union Pacific Railroad but also Schuyler Colfax,
the vice-president of the United States; James A. Garfield, a congressman who
would be a future president of the United States; James G. Blaine, a Speaker of
the House who desperately wanted to be president; and a covey of leading
senators and representatives who scattered like so many quail for shelter.”</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And that was just one railroad.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Not only were a number of elected officials on the
railroads’ lucrative dole, but their assumptions about the projected success of the
railroads (when they would eventually be built) and their utter lack of
understanding of how the railroad companies operated (due to the
railroads’ intentional opacity and outright lies regarding their financial activities)
led them to enact legislation favorable to the railroads, unfavorable to the federal
coffers, and that the railroads would ultimately manipulate to their further
advantage using another federal entity: the courts.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><sup>3</sup></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Most
Americans, I suspect, were not aware of the intricacies of Congress’s
activities with regard to railroad financing or, if they were, probably did not
understand them. How could they, when Congress did not?
Thus, it seems plausible, even despite contemporary newspaper expos</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">é</span>s, that Americans did not recognize just how embroiled in
the railroads their government truly was, nor could they understand the
enduring and damaging repercussions of that entanglement on the federal
treasury. The lack of a sustained and substantial public outcry (at least
through the portion of the book that I have completed) would seem to indicate
the truth of my suspicion, though perhaps my continued reading will disabuse me
of this notion. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Balogh tells
us that Americans expected much from their national government, but that they
avoided large bureaucratic federal efforts in favor of less visible governing
styles, where “the law, the courts, trade policy, fiscal subsidies – supported by
indirect taxes – and partnerships with nongovernmental partners” shaped the
nation’s economic development.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><sup>4</sup></span> This
appears evident in the narrative White is unfolding: out of sight, out of mind,
coupled with an “if you build it, they will come” enthusiasm that appears to
have been chimeric. </span></div>
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<u><i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Bibliography</span></i></u></div>
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<div class="MsoBibliography" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Balogh, Brian. <i>A Government Out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in
Nineteenth-Century America</i>. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span><div class="MsoBibliography" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">White, Richard. <i>Railroaded:
The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America</i>. New York: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2011.</span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Balogh, <i>A Government Out of Sight: The
Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America</i>, 2.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">White, <i>Railroaded: The Transcontinentals
and the Making of Modern America</i>, 64.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Ibid., 22–23.</span></div>
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<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Balogh</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">, 379.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-37965985878740945672014-11-01T20:33:00.003-04:002014-11-01T20:33:34.118-04:00Blog CommentThis week I commented on <a href="http://dianegmu.blogspot.com/2014/11/montana-memory-project-big-timber.html?showComment=1414888327409#c41375904273587398" target="_blank">Diane Haight</a>'s blog post.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-65159325892843456942014-11-01T20:12:00.004-04:002014-11-01T20:12:58.006-04:00“We traveled without firearms, to the regret of the boys.” – Margaret Rumsey Wright, reminiscing about her family's 1916 road trip in 1966.
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In June of 1916,
37-year old widow Frances Rumsey and her three children – Hammond, age 15,
Margaret, age 13, and Francke, age 12 – set off from Seattle for a road trip
across the country in their new Model T Ford. Destination: Boston, where the
children would be attending school. And oh what a road trip it was!</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Margaret, or
Margs, as her family called her, was charged with keeping a diary of the trip,
a responsibility she adhered to faithfully. The result is a charming, often
humorous, sometimes harrowing account of early 20<sup>th</sup> century road
travel. It is easy to forget when reading Margs’ highly literate tale that it
occurred 98 years ago. Her prose and humor feel contemporary, except for the
very occasional jarring anomaly. For instance, on June 15<sup>th</sup>, the
family dines at a Chinese restaurant, where Margs twice refers to the
proprietor as a “chink” without a hint of sarcasm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The family’s
trip eastward spans three months and includes several days visiting Yellowstone
National Park (where Margs twice comments on their feeding of the bears), only
recently opened to vehicles at the time, Niagara Falls, and nearly every auto
mechanic’s garage between Washington and Massachusetts. Margs’ reader quickly
learns that flat tires and blowouts were daily occurrences, as were other
mechanical failures. If there is one constant to Margs’ story, it is the
constant coddling and care that their Model T demanded on an hourly basis. This
is likely due to two main reasons: 1) the poor conditions of the roads,
especially in the western states (once they get to Ohio and Pennsylvania, they
seem to have far fewer problems, likely because of the presence of more paved
roads), and 2) the apparently delicate nature of the parts and assembly of the
Model T. Overall, though, the tires were by far the most vexing issue. After a
mosquito-plagued night camping in Yellowstone on July 3<sup>rd</sup>, Margs
wryly remarks, “A flat tire was the first thing we noticed as we stretched [in
the morning] and we were sure the mosquitos <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[sic]</i>
had done it.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Surviving
both a head-on collision with a driver that lost control of his vehicle and a
serious wreck that overturns their vehicle (requiring several days of repairs),
the Rumseys make it to Lake Forest, just south of the Wisconsin border in
northern Illinois. Here they spend nearly two weeks with family, swimming in
lakes and visiting Chicago. Margs particularly enjoys visiting Marshall Field’s
department store, where Cousin John is President. I was especially gratified
when she paused to remark on the store’s employees’ Choral Society, which is
occasionally accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a venerable
institution that I had the immense joy of working for from 1999-2001.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Continuing
their journey east, Margs’ August 25<sup>th</sup> entry details their stop at
the headquarters of Firestone, where they let that company know just how flimsy
they’ve found Firestone tires to be. The company gives them new tires at
reduced rates, but I suspect Margs has not high expectations that they will be
any better than their predecessors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">On September
2<sup>nd</sup>, they finally arrive in Boston.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As I read young Margaret Rumsey's account, I was repeatedly struck by how very different the Rumsey
family’s road trip experience was from such trips we embark upon today. Aside
from the constant tire and mechanical trouble and poor roads, what stuck out
most to me was the interactiveness of the trip. The car would get stuck or have
trouble, and other drivers or people in the neighborhood would come help.
Farmers would invite the travelers to camp on their property and share their
company on the porch. The Rumseys would solicit news about road conditions from
other travelers at gas stations and garages. At Yellowstone, they spoke with
other park visitors, upon which Margs would comment in her diary. There was
only one instance where the Rumseys encountered an inhospitable family, but
that was quickly forgotten when another family a little further down the road
proved kind and generous. This community approach to travel is alien to us
today: we isolate ourselves in our cars, with our cell phones and satellite
radios, engaging in minimal verbal interaction with gas station clerks and fast
food employees, allowing ourselves to be guided by interstate signage and
flashy billboards declaring must-see attractions rather than by knowledgeable
locals (who might not give us the time of day if we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i> ask).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Margs’ diary
of this three-month trip feels accessible and familiar, and yet wholly
unrecognizable too. This is what makes her account so special and fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Wright,
Margaret Rumsey. “Margaret Rumsey Wright Diary”. 1916. Letters, Diaries and
Documents from the Montana Historical Society. Contributed to the Montana
Memory Project by the Montana Historical Society Research Center. <a href="http://www.mtmemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p267301coll2/id/1443/rec/69">http://www.mtmemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p267301coll2/id/1443/rec/69</a><a href="http://www.mtmemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p267301coll2/id/1443/rec/69" target="_blank">http://www.mtmemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p267301coll2/id/1443/rec/69</a>,
accessed November 1, 2014.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-59357194499047269902014-10-26T21:33:00.000-04:002014-10-26T21:33:17.142-04:00Blog CommentThis week I commented on Diane's post, "<a href="http://dianegmu.blogspot.com/2014/10/california-and-reconstruction.html?showComment=1414373518188#c8964007186995317873" target="_blank">California and Reconstruction</a>".Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-91305727492047780362014-10-25T21:35:00.001-04:002014-10-25T21:35:06.958-04:00The Evolution of Race Relations in Antebellum California
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">D. Michael
Bottoms’ book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Aristocracy of Color:
Race and Reconstruction in California and the West, 1850-1890</i>, makes me
angry. It is an interesting look at the evolution of race relations in 19<sup>th</sup>
century California, engagingly written, in which Bottoms delves into social,
legal and legislative analysis, demonstrating their importance to the evolution of racial constructs both separate of
and in relation to each other. Despite Bottoms’ careful study, though, I'm angry at the injustices that my 21<sup>st</sup>
century sensibility finds in this otherworld. With both hands quickly held up in
supplication, I say that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I know</i> I am
not to judge people then based on modern values. From the historian’s perspective, I understand that is a no-no. But from the human
perspective, the one that feels the slings, humiliations and privations
of the persecuted, I assert my right to fume. I shall now descend from my soapbox.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Bottoms is
fuming too – it is easily discernible in his tone. That does not detract,
however, from the success of his work. Rather, it lends to it a fellow-feeling
of compassion with which his reader can identify. We feel the mortification of
African Americans whose children the state repeatedly abuses with regard to
their education. We are livid at the inhumanity of the treatment of the
Chinese. His conclusion that California’s handling of the extensive racial
diversity that made it unique in the antebellum era foreshadowed the way that
the nation as a whole would handle the same challenges in the late 19<sup>th</sup>
century and well into the 20<sup>th</sup> is well argued and worth considering.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Yet <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Aristocracy of Color</i> is not without
its problems. Although California was a Mexican state until mid-century, Bottoms gives
little more than lip service to the Hispanic population’s shifting position
among the various races. His whole focus is almost exclusively on African Americans and the Chinese. Yet despite this laser focus, he periodically fails to provide details
that would underscore his points. For example, he mentions the queue,
that long pigtail that Chinese men wore, noting that white
tormenters were encouraged to shave them off in an act that caused serious
distress to their victims. Yet he does not explain why the queues are worn or
why their loss is so emotionally destructive. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Similarly,
while he notes several times that Chinese emigrants continue arriving in
California, he does not pause to explain <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why</i>
they continue coming despite outright American hostility, few legal
protections, and the degrading living conditions that await them. Surely those
already in California, who clearly traveled back to China periodically and
conducted business with their home country, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">surely</i>
they must have written letters home that conveyed the reality of their lives in
California? So what was the situation in China that made America attractive
despite all that? Inquiring minds would like to know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Ultimately,
however, these are minor dissatisfactions. In toto, Bottoms’s work is a
remarkable look into Californians’ increasingly contortive efforts to maintain
white supremacy in the face of a rapidly changing nation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Bottoms, D.
Michael, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Aristocracy of Color: Race
and Reconstruction in California and the West, 1850-1890</i>, Race and Culture
in the American West, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2013.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-11235063663227175212014-10-25T12:19:00.002-04:002014-10-28T21:15:04.351-04:00Armadillos: An Unusual Mammal Links the Histories of Texas and the German Immigrant Experience<style>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There are
several iconic images that people the world over associate with Texas, several
of them promoted by the state itself: longhorn cattle, the Lone Star, cowboys,
the Alamo, “Don’t Mess with Texas”. Natives, though, know there is a little
critter that has become a beloved state totem unlike any other: the humble
armadillo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Texans love
these little guys, at least the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">idea</i>
of them. Austin’s annual run, the Capitol 10K, has prominently featured a
<a href="http://mychiptime.com/logos/20130103011440.jpg" target="_blank">running armadillo in sneakers</a> in its logo since the 1980s, and you can find
armadillos – or “dillies”, as my grandmother used to call them – everywhere if
you pay attention, on t-shirts, <a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61MdOWaPuuL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" target="_blank">advertisements</a>, <a href="http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/17207/16877311_2.jpg?v=8D055D1D19F16F0" target="_blank">neon signs</a> in bars, you name it.
The <a href="http://commo.de/images/drinking_armadillo.jpg" target="_blank">drunken dilly</a> has always been a favorite
of mine. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.storyvilleapparel.com/media/catalog/product/cache/2/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/r/armadillo_web2.jpg" target="_blank">Charming graphics</a> and tchotchkes aside, Texans most often come into contact with
armadillos as roadkill on the highway. Ranchers generally consider them pests:
the tunnels armadillos dig can be dangerous for livestock, for whom a broken
leg, the result of blindly stepping into a tunnel entrance in the ground, has
no remedy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Armadillos
and my family go way back. To the 19<sup>th</sup> century, as a matter of fact:
the Apelt Armadillo Farm was opened by German immigrant Charles Apelt, my
great-grandfather, in 1898 in Comfort, Texas, today about 45 miles northwest of
San Antonio. Articles have appeared from time to time in newspapers and
magazines, and it is striking how they tend to follow a similar structure:
marvel at the novelty and variety of the product, recount the story of how
Charles lit on the idea to make baskets out of armadillos, then discuss what
makes Texas armadillos unique. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">First, the
novelty and variety of products offered by the Farm: nose-to-tail baskets lined
in satin, plain and beaded armadillo lampshades for floor, desk and bedside
lamps, ashtrays, paperweights, and more. Catalogues were available to potential
customers that showed all the various ways one might decorate one’s home with
dilly products. </span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNXtj_Xij8bkrQuV56GQjPfMFdlRrjlX1CSimAv_XQGy3htbImLC4fyIT5qpSCsgTZea81c2YCyY9oMRuCLydyjy2ySUEKaf_ejyg7CXkXRht2X1Ou3tuAbqRY4bmV8XCVmZReyFa0wWQ/s1600/Catalogue1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNXtj_Xij8bkrQuV56GQjPfMFdlRrjlX1CSimAv_XQGy3htbImLC4fyIT5qpSCsgTZea81c2YCyY9oMRuCLydyjy2ySUEKaf_ejyg7CXkXRht2X1Ou3tuAbqRY4bmV8XCVmZReyFa0wWQ/s1600/Catalogue1.jpeg" height="494" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Need a lamp? (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhibCPFn7MFCIYAI0sx5tEwK_NZZUsTYMlWye9iR_Mt3IleCVST7Ky0BUGDH16Ks0AeFoW_8U-IzsnXW6Snl8l1xVUw7OHcUcXEYOMZA5dGVdbu_krKibXc3FEtJp8jcGP_8RnU7u4R6Ck/s1600/Catalogue.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhibCPFn7MFCIYAI0sx5tEwK_NZZUsTYMlWye9iR_Mt3IleCVST7Ky0BUGDH16Ks0AeFoW_8U-IzsnXW6Snl8l1xVUw7OHcUcXEYOMZA5dGVdbu_krKibXc3FEtJp8jcGP_8RnU7u4R6Ck/s1600/Catalogue.jpeg" height="492" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From one of the Apelt Armadillo Farm catalogues. Unfortunately, the catalogues give no indication of their year(s) of publication. (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My great-grandmother Martha even made the dillies into handbags, items difficult to find on the antique markets today.</span> <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq3zR1dMdE3LNZph0WnTfN9ehO0lPhdS43FDGBJ9vPu0n9e_ykAm-vCttRX7XNRBIdqKKE9K8MAnqVMKYRxml6x-H1GNtt_0c5Fm32fhy7dTFhJDHBgoVuljfz7BAadkNVVZegX8_aME0/s1600/DSC_0180.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq3zR1dMdE3LNZph0WnTfN9ehO0lPhdS43FDGBJ9vPu0n9e_ykAm-vCttRX7XNRBIdqKKE9K8MAnqVMKYRxml6x-H1GNtt_0c5Fm32fhy7dTFhJDHBgoVuljfz7BAadkNVVZegX8_aME0/s1600/DSC_0180.JPG" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">To open the handbag, just flip the head back. (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Then comes the
story of how such distinctive items came to be. The November 14, 1925, issue of
the <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19251114&id=s1EtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=d9cFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2989,143723" target="_blank">Miami News</a>, featured a story on the Apelt Armadillo Farm. It is worth quoting at some length:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Charles
Apelt…one day years ago was going to the house for the midday meal when a
strange animal jumped from the tall grass and went hopping away. Picking up a
rock, Mr. Apelt threw at [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sic</i>] the
strange being and hit it on the head, whereupon, it rolled over, dead. He
picked it up and examined it, his wonder growing. Never had he seen anything
like it, with its long snout and jointed tail and a jointed house on its back.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">He had been
used to skinning every animal he killed, however, and preserving the hide, so
he began to consider way and means to skin this one. But this was different.
Finally he decided to take the animal out of the hide instead of taking the
hide off the animal. This plan proved successful, but when he tried to nail the
shell to the barn to dry he discovered it would not stretch out flat.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">About that
time his wife called him to lunch and he picked the shell up and carried it to
the house, leaving it in the sun while he ate. When he came out the sun had so
dried the shell that it began to cup up. “Basket!” instinctively thought Mr.
Apelt his [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sic</i>] early training [as a
basketmaker] prompting the thought, doubtlessly. So he brought the tail around
and joined it to the snout and hung it up on the porch to finish drying.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One does not have to look hard to find elements of storytelling
here. For example, armadillos are fast runners. That Apelt could have been
startled by one as it began running away, then have the wherewithal to bend
down, pick up a conveniently located rock and hurl it at the still rapidly
moving creature with such precision that it knocks the animal on the head hard
enough to kill it instantly seems unlikely. However, it is a story oft
repeated, and one suspects that both the Apelt family and the journalists
enjoyed the telling of it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In addition
to the armadillo products offered by the Farm, the Apelts also sold live
animals to zoos and individuals desiring unique pets; they also sold them to
scientists and laboratories wishing to study their odd reproductive qualities
(they always give birth to four babies per litter that are either all male or all
female) or the disease leprosy, which they can develop similar to humans. In fact, family
records include this sheet of paper, the draft of a 1971 letter written by my
mother at Kathryn’s request, which was to be typed up and sent to individuals
in Geneva, Switzerland, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, that had inquired about
armadillo ownership and shipping fees. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheJcvMBWz3psyB10t4hOMOHxJPAjGlavwZWvacKxez5MDrpIXnLcn9CiepXr1gdkwr-8zuUXEeQ5dKd6_kZpq4AqgwFAWpbChyphenhyphenw02wDAoM1JJvTspRaqWM6DBq9boL8SawsIMOWMeEKSw/s1600/Geneva+Ltr+Pg1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheJcvMBWz3psyB10t4hOMOHxJPAjGlavwZWvacKxez5MDrpIXnLcn9CiepXr1gdkwr-8zuUXEeQ5dKd6_kZpq4AqgwFAWpbChyphenhyphenw02wDAoM1JJvTspRaqWM6DBq9boL8SawsIMOWMeEKSw/s1600/Geneva+Ltr+Pg1.jpeg" height="640" width="492" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Draft of a letter replying to international inquiries about armadillos as pets, written by Kathleen Adams Apelt in 1971. (From the author's personal collection.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEY2lCLgxYPfMHRykrlmJxK_T5a-cBvq0viwg6SSawy-hV5CAJuQVzhm-RH4T7JhBH4pUawrcoVtG5YqpxfnbTX-o0Gp7D5E6Szgv4ITtoUbv4u-kVppRtv20PG9BWcs54ttc1HAIojPM/s1600/Sao+Paulo+Ltr+Pg1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEY2lCLgxYPfMHRykrlmJxK_T5a-cBvq0viwg6SSawy-hV5CAJuQVzhm-RH4T7JhBH4pUawrcoVtG5YqpxfnbTX-o0Gp7D5E6Szgv4ITtoUbv4u-kVppRtv20PG9BWcs54ttc1HAIojPM/s1600/Sao+Paulo+Ltr+Pg1.jpeg" height="640" width="494" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Page 2. (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Old family
photographs show plenty of activity and well maintained buildings at the Farm, as well a family seemingly
well-to-do. I know little of those people or the operations in those days, but
it appears that novelty items and farming in south-central Texas in the late 19<sup>th</sup>
and early 20<sup>th</sup> centuries could provide a comfortable living.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajwmPSZr8lZT6Sf8SrHXYKu0tGpH677JohEZYLDUz2emCE62IpZRWmWPpzR77mG6lRWtB5Mfbkl-MQv75OqcFJdhBRy3ZF7a6RESk1kpv0YoEXDZrWnWlXv6HCSd_WGXF-yf69YkqCBo/s1600/Armadillo+Display+Room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiajwmPSZr8lZT6Sf8SrHXYKu0tGpH677JohEZYLDUz2emCE62IpZRWmWPpzR77mG6lRWtB5Mfbkl-MQv75OqcFJdhBRy3ZF7a6RESk1kpv0YoEXDZrWnWlXv6HCSd_WGXF-yf69YkqCBo/s1600/Armadillo+Display+Room.jpg" height="436" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Charles Apelt. Year unknown. (From the Apelt Family's private collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwPIevN0rjepFOsybbbMnI5juzJnHf8oBBYGKM7ZEI-_N0SdtL_hDrjMVbmBO5-bLy-pHIt0IlrTKsfUFeLDEljvEipTG3M30GS6K1vVlN3F_BkCrzWZJz1V41V4yt3KE8wvYlqhLS-0c/s1600/Armadillo+Showroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwPIevN0rjepFOsybbbMnI5juzJnHf8oBBYGKM7ZEI-_N0SdtL_hDrjMVbmBO5-bLy-pHIt0IlrTKsfUFeLDEljvEipTG3M30GS6K1vVlN3F_BkCrzWZJz1V41V4yt3KE8wvYlqhLS-0c/s1600/Armadillo+Showroom.jpg" height="432" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The showroom. (From the Apelt Family private collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiurLbXXXCjqM-uPG24BBHuHVRAK_AyAK6GEGLxgUEHo3F5lgjSDduViZoj2k4sSpjm3U_RTeSXPfqKgGls0bEeVGxYd4qs2v1IJFRl0c2GtGfm73oYCmw_nt1AA_xuFpdZ1HkgT_L3zJY/s1600/Family+Photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiurLbXXXCjqM-uPG24BBHuHVRAK_AyAK6GEGLxgUEHo3F5lgjSDduViZoj2k4sSpjm3U_RTeSXPfqKgGls0bEeVGxYd4qs2v1IJFRl0c2GtGfm73oYCmw_nt1AA_xuFpdZ1HkgT_L3zJY/s1600/Family+Photo.jpg" height="364" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(From the Apelt Family private collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM9V4x9gf7CYE_eN_3MBmPgZqZjE4O4SExxRitb-J7hzYzWS12zTIKZziRCiOLSk7hdZz2vFgAR_IEO9_EtSPYrKOAepY49pEMDxcK59IdS9XQli6UxBWn5M0JM_hHx8hDy_dT-y0pK6w/s1600/Postcard+Chas+Apelt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM9V4x9gf7CYE_eN_3MBmPgZqZjE4O4SExxRitb-J7hzYzWS12zTIKZziRCiOLSk7hdZz2vFgAR_IEO9_EtSPYrKOAepY49pEMDxcK59IdS9XQli6UxBWn5M0JM_hHx8hDy_dT-y0pK6w/s1600/Postcard+Chas+Apelt.jpg" height="640" width="504" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitB4_PzxPZIqIedscUqrkKkkbqSSHzDXwT9XmWNoU3FzFkWVOTRwbsTIqXyZG0BmQn_uVS1LcF1Enggu8hF087VfwWCYlKqZRLq_cjfo5Hj1WW15Wa4n2MN9xshUDfvP7_YYwSz3nlsY8/s1600/Postcard+of+House.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitB4_PzxPZIqIedscUqrkKkkbqSSHzDXwT9XmWNoU3FzFkWVOTRwbsTIqXyZG0BmQn_uVS1LcF1Enggu8hF087VfwWCYlKqZRLq_cjfo5Hj1WW15Wa4n2MN9xshUDfvP7_YYwSz3nlsY8/s1600/Postcard+of+House.jpg" height="446" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This may be the most widely reproduced photograph of the Apelt Armadillo Farm. The author's grandfather, Kurt Charles, is not pictured here because he was not yet born. The two children shown are his older brothers, Armin (left) and Willie (right). (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I have a
confession: I took the armadillos and the Farm for granted all my life. The old
photographs show a lovely house with lots of people and
buildings surrounding it, but after the Farm was closed in the early 1970s, the property was abandoned for decades. Growing up, I remember driving by it
occasionally with my grandmother, Kathryn, or my parents and wondering why we always had to stop on the side of the highway, leave the air conditioned comfort of the car for the awful Texas heat, and go walk through the high grass and weeds, full
of grasshoppers and goodness knew what else, to look at an old ruin. I have heard the stories from various
members of my family for so long that I cannot keep straight from whom I
learned what. Now, as I attempt to view the Farm through an historian’s eyes, I
find it challenging to marry family lore with empirical fact. I suppose that
makes the exercise all the more valuable, and I embrace the journey. I consider
this post my first step along this familiar yet new yellow brick road.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Apelt
Armadillo Farm received some fresh attention in 2010, when Texas recognized its
impact on the Comfort community with an <a href="http://dailytimes.com/multimedia/youtube_434f2ff6-ac9b-11df-8065-001cc4c002e0.html?TNNoMobile" target="_blank">historical roadside marker</a> following
the Farm’s painstaking restoration by antique enthusiast Harriette Gorman, who
now owns and resides on the property. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFIsxjvF6pSOYHN_BM8MismLpjfwLBOWWNEFNpPiktqOiMrtzGnqzS2w5Z4FLvU9K3DtyiFUNH545W67xXnZC6wntgDGalDsdKOMf_oNOCwGNhrTqvgDertTlk3Tci0551f2Q75YaKETY/s1600/DSC00556.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFIsxjvF6pSOYHN_BM8MismLpjfwLBOWWNEFNpPiktqOiMrtzGnqzS2w5Z4FLvU9K3DtyiFUNH545W67xXnZC6wntgDGalDsdKOMf_oNOCwGNhrTqvgDertTlk3Tci0551f2Q75YaKETY/s1600/DSC00556.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> In its heyday, the Apelt Armadillo Farm
employed local residents, both for armadillo production and for its non-dilly
operations as well (it was a fully functional farm and ranch in addition to its
novelty products). </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The day
before the historical marker dedication in 2010, my father, Kurt Apelt, Jr., and I visited Mrs. Gorman to
tour the restored property. She loved to talk about the place, and about its
history, and I remember she commented on how the Farm helped struggling locals
during the Great Depression: the Farm would buy armadillos from the locals,
providing needed income during that difficult time. That was new information to
me, and it instilled a little nugget of pride that my family had been able and
willing to help their community in such a way. I am excited to continue digging
into the Farm’s past, a past that represents a small part of the history of the
West, of Texas, and of the immigrant experience. It represents my past.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPrTbLULb3aJgo694sdpXzV0kvZMXJzZErH4mMobRoNL06sTyTTpEPrmpmMx_TfeVM0AZs2CYKChqHeiCafBZmYWuvuwXcq1IHJE8EtcOkjmncj5Hdcd3FRgI2bwQ5hpCR_8hd8FehqE/s1600/DSC00555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlPrTbLULb3aJgo694sdpXzV0kvZMXJzZErH4mMobRoNL06sTyTTpEPrmpmMx_TfeVM0AZs2CYKChqHeiCafBZmYWuvuwXcq1IHJE8EtcOkjmncj5Hdcd3FRgI2bwQ5hpCR_8hd8FehqE/s1600/DSC00555.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The main house in May, 2010. (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmYo397khyphenhyphene666EzGJiDZ-GMgaJ42ZltP3xw7s5xYDJA4Cdc3jZfDCs3Pamamo_BqSE19mKAabQnPEaLwxEztuPX5bBCsuMFxX7HicOLgulm7sLkjOKzCnefwLNKJ40rYyoBl_55jKR0/s1600/DSC00558.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijmYo397khyphenhyphene666EzGJiDZ-GMgaJ42ZltP3xw7s5xYDJA4Cdc3jZfDCs3Pamamo_BqSE19mKAabQnPEaLwxEztuPX5bBCsuMFxX7HicOLgulm7sLkjOKzCnefwLNKJ40rYyoBl_55jKR0/s1600/DSC00558.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-TQXZPfElymlmMsaX2xnIpSHZ4QT9xVCi-d6T4DFms11XCbO6UZ7x8KZ1EpZRsbwfjoRioXaQal7GwY7JClOns3KlIHh_04dZPoT5B7WZqW61vfk3WQS-GJ0I9txl-STkkrgSOMunyE/s1600/DSC00559.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-TQXZPfElymlmMsaX2xnIpSHZ4QT9xVCi-d6T4DFms11XCbO6UZ7x8KZ1EpZRsbwfjoRioXaQal7GwY7JClOns3KlIHh_04dZPoT5B7WZqW61vfk3WQS-GJ0I9txl-STkkrgSOMunyE/s1600/DSC00559.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The restored novelty showroom building in May, 2010. (From the author's personal collection.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-18445115954072483652014-10-19T22:11:00.003-04:002014-10-19T22:11:25.777-04:00Blog commentThis week I commented on <a href="http://nschneie.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/post-6-now-for-something-completely-different/comment-page-1/#comment-37" target="_blank">Nick's post</a>, "Now for Something Completely Different".Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-10981429523211985502014-10-18T20:50:00.002-04:002014-10-18T20:50:33.826-04:00Love It or Hate It: Reviews of Nature's Metropolis
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I received my undergraduate degree in the performing arts. When I decided to pursue a degree in history, I quickly realized I had entered a new and alien world. I had to learn to read historical works critically
rather than for pleasure. It was an outright revelation when I grasped that bibliographies
could have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">utility</i> -- an
entirely foreign concept! </div>
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One of my early lessons was the value not only of reading
an historian’s work, but also of reading book reviews to see what <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</span> historians had to say about the
work. I learn almost as much from the criticism
as I do from the author him- or herself, especially when the critiques are not
uniform. </div>
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Such is the case with William Cronon’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great
West</i> (W.W. Norton & Company: New York, London. 1991. Pp. xxv, 530). The
reviewers vary widely in their estimations of Cronon’s book. Lawrence H.
Larsen, of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, reviewing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature’s Metropolis</i> for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wisconsin Magazine of History</i> (Vol.
76, No. 1, Autumn, 1992, pp. 54-55), foe example, chastises Cronon rather extensively for
“pretentious phrasing” that adds nothing to what is otherwise a “useful
monograph.” (55) With that out of his system, he then praises Cronon’s research
and innovative use of sources, asserting that the book successfully
achieves its author’s intent to explore the relationship between Chicago and
the Great West.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Reviewing for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Journal of American History</i> (Vol. 79, No. 2, Sep., 1992, pp. 612-613),
Samuel P. Hays of the University of Pittsburgh provides a more careful, nuanced
critique. He focuses his attention on the value each chapter brings to the
whole, noting his satisfaction with 3-5, his approval of “subordinate but
integral” chapters 6-7, and his befuddlement regarding the weakest chapters,
1, 2 and 8: “This mélange of collateral subjects seems to be held together, not
by their inherent connection as historical subjects, but by Cronon’s own
personal journey through the urbanization of modern American life.” (612) Hays
concludes with praise for Cronon’s analysis of urban mercantilism and its
shaping of hinterland commercial relationships, despite his “highly selective”
approach and some important missing factors (e.g., population shifts between
rural and urban communities during this time). (613)</div>
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While Larsen and Hays identify some frustrations with
Nature’s Metropolis but overall give Cronon props for his contribution to the historical
canon, Peter A. Colcanis goes hard for the jugular in his review, “Urbs In
Horto”, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reviews in American History</i>
(Vol. 20, No. 1, Mar., 1992, pp. 14-20). Like Hays, Colcanis feels Cronon’s
best work is found in the middle chapters (2-7), which he applauds for their
“informative discussions”. (15) Having dispensed with the niceties, however, Colcanis
then bares his fangs: his issues with the book arise from its “imbalance, and
its author’s lack of empathy with man, his cities, and his desire for material
gain.” He takes Cronon to task for indulging a self-important, smug tone,
calling the book “vainglorious and preening”, “didactic” and “condescending”,
and pointing out Cronon’s tendency to focus on himself, as Hays did in his review. (16) He observes that
Cronon ignores other prominent Chicago industries that may counter his thesis, industries like textiles, steel, and machine-shop products. (17) Colcanis is
clearly offended by Cronon’s starkly environmentalist tone and his lack of feeling for the pioneers and capitalists who felt the
need to try to better their circumstances. “In
pushing and pushing his green line, the author fundamentally distorts both the
nature of capitalist development in the Great West and Chicago’s history.” He dissents
from Larsen and Hays in the overall value of Cronon's work, deeming <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature’s Metropolis</i> “disappointing”. (19) Of course, we must be mindful that Colcanis is not only an historian at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, but that he explicitly notes in his byline that he is
a card-carrying teamster, an affiliation that offers insight into his priorities.</div>
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Such wide differences among scholars gives me pause. Has
the author inserted too much of himself into his work? Where is the line
between editorial license and self-indulgence? Should we not as historians
acknowledge the baggage we bring to a subject? I believe Colcanis is overly
harsh in his polemic, yet I also think that Cronon’s narrative does feel as though it is trying too hard to ensure that we indict these 19<sup>th</sup> century Americans as
evil environmental rapists. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-3279421215922178042014-10-04T20:38:00.002-04:002014-10-04T20:38:56.123-04:00West's West
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Way to the West: Essays on the Central
Plains</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> by Elliott West (University of
New Mexico Press: Albuquerque. 1995. Pp. x, 244.) is enormously readable,
entertaining and insightful. West approaches the history of the central plains
through an inclusive methodology, masterfully incorporating environmental
history, the zoological and botanical sciences, and anthropological scholarship
into a concise narrative that feels both revolutionary and romantic: West cares
deeply about his topic, an affection that shines through his prose, while
simultaneously demonstrating that some of the “facts” we take for granted about
the history of the west are in reality poorly informed and inaccurate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Originally a
series of lectures at the 1993 Calvin Horn Lectures on Western History and
Culture at the University of New Mexico, West’s essays focus on four separate
yet related aspects of the plains: Land, Animals, Families and Stories. Leading
off with “Land”, West examines how Native Americans and westbound settlers each
contributed to the deterioration of the plains ecosystems. Perhaps his
strongest essay of the four, this is where West deploys environmental history
and an understanding of plants and ecologies most effectively. Clearly having
done his homework, he capably and deftly surveys the information before him,
drawing convincing linkages and conclusions that appear difficult to dismiss,
such as the assertion that Native Americans probably caused more harm to the
land they depended on than the emigrants from the east, a sharp divergence from
typical blame-the-white-people tropes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">His second
essay, “Animals”, follows a similar approach to that employed in “Land”. West
shows how the crowding of Native American tribes further and further west
resulted in an increased reliance on the bison, the near-extinction of which is
another tragedy often laid at the feet of westward bound Euro-Americans, and
other fauna. He crunches the numbers, noting that there is no reasonable way
that so many millions of bison could have died in so brief a period strictly
from Indian and white hunting, offering an alternative scenario that plausibly
explains the other forces likely at work. (One bone to pick: for all his
thoroughness, West frequently refers to bison as “buffalo”. <a href="http://www.diffen.com/difference/Bison_vs_Buffalo">Diffen</a> offers a
side-by-side comparison of bison versus buffalo that is very helpful – for
instance, buffalo do not have a hump and are only found in Africa and Asia –
and that shows quite incontrovertibly that bison are not buffalo.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">West delves
into the importance of families in his third essay, examining the relationships
between families, community, society and survival in the west. West considers
not only how one’s family influenced and shaped one throughout one’s lifetime,
but also how families shaped the communities and towns western emigrants
erected. He also considers how the plains and western culture reshaped some
ideas of family, demonstrating that influence flows both ways.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">West
concludes with “Stories”, looking at the varied ways that the west is portrayed
in films, literature, and even in our own memories. It is an essay quite
different from the previous three, but a necessary one. I believe it is
important that historians understand how we as humans, both individually and
collectively, use history, how it affects and shapes us, and how our imperfect
memories still give history meaning in our lives and culture. Concluding his
book with such a discussion, West gives us a number of thought-provoking
nuggets to chew on, including our assumptions that the west is devoid of
history (never mind the thousands of years of aboriginal culture predating the
European invasion) and free from eastern corruption and history (we simply
brought that with us).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In all, a
deceptively easy to read work with some hard-hitting, new evidence and
assertions to offer the historiography of the west.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-68057814815783350452014-09-27T19:41:00.002-04:002014-09-27T19:41:40.314-04:00Blog Comments for First Four Readings: Limerick, Turner et al, DeLay, and JohnsonMy comments to others' blog posts can be found <a href="http://nschneie.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/blog-2-western-thoughts-and-turner/#comments" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.davidmckenzie.info/musings/2014/09/27/oral-history-and-memory/#comment-5385" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://dianegmu.blogspot.com/2014/09/3-vengeance-is-mine.html#comment-form" target="_blank">here</a>. My comment on Beth Garcia's blog post for <i>Legacy of Conquest</i> is <a href="http://westwardoh.blogspot.com/2014/09/response-to-beth-garcias-tale-of-great.html" target="_blank">here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-51144916371743910542014-09-27T19:25:00.000-04:002014-09-27T19:25:21.077-04:00The Most Famous Gunfight in History Gets a Lot More Interesting
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Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday. We know who they were without
remembering where or how we learned it. Americans have been steeped in the
story of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral through popular storytelling, books,
and films, just as we have embraced and thrilled to the escapades of Wild Bill
Hickok, Billy the Kid, and Annie-Get-Your-Gun. My favorite was the Discovery
Channel’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Unsolved History</i> episode that
purported not only to reenact the most famous gun battle in American history,
but to reexamine it using modern forensic techniques (“Shoot-Out at the O.K.
Corral”, aired October 9, 2002). The story of the Earps’ showdown with the
Clantons and McLaurys has been explored extensively, first through witness and
contemporary accounts, later through historians’ reviews of the hours leading
up to the event.</div>
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<br /></div>
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This is what makes Steven Lubet’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp</i> (Yale
University Press: New Haven and London. 2004. Pp. 253.) so refreshing. Lubet, a
law professor at Northwestern University, diverges from the usual approach: he
focuses on what happened in the minutes, days and months <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after</i> the smoke cleared. Television shows and movies have lulled us
into assuming that law and order were given mere lip service in the 19<sup>th</sup>
century American west, that cultural heroes like the Earps were given the
benefit of the doubt and everyone went home to supper. Lubet disabuses us of
this notion, demonstrating exactly how the legal system <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">did</i> work in this instance and, by extension, in other similar instances
across the west.</div>
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<br /></div>
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While Lubet’s title is rather misleading – the “trial” was actually
a hearing to establish whether sufficient evidence existed to pursue a trial,
and the hearing was not just about Wyatt, since the prosecution also held
Virgil and Morgan Earp, and Doc Holliday, equally responsible – his substance
fascinates. He brings to the fore the players most important to the
proceedings: the attorneys, the judge, and the evidence presented by witnesses.
Lubet introduces us to Judge Wells Spicer, allowing us to appreciate how his
history as a newspaperman and lawyer, particularly his key role in Utah’s
Mountain Meadows Massacre, would be of tantamount importance in his approach to
the hearing. Lubet shines as he lays out the presumed strategies of defense
attorney Tom Fitch as he navigates the realities of 19<sup>th</sup> century
legal proceedings: we see how Fitch used his knowledge of Spicer to minutely
inform his courtroom tactics, we see the weaknesses and mistakes of the
prosecutorial team, and we understand the differences between modern trial
techniques and those prevalent in 1881.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Lubet’s style is easily readable and entertaining, though some
historians will wince at his frequent musings. He does not hesitate to speculate
about what key individuals may have been thinking (for example, Chapter 11:
“Decision” is full of presumptions about what Judge Spicer may have been trying
to do with the wording of his decision and, indeed, the decision itself).
However, if we release him from the historian’s standard and instead allow him
to function as the lawyer he is, considering the possible motives and outcomes
of every action as he dissects the hearing transcripts and related
contemporaneous records surrounding the event, we are rewarded with an entirely
new perspective on what happened that day in Tombstone. It is a trip worth
taking.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-62346823730954449222014-09-20T21:18:00.005-04:002014-09-20T21:18:54.163-04:00Brian DeLay Blog CommentThis week's blog response comment is posted <a href="http://dianegmu.blogspot.com/2014/09/3-vengeance-is-mine.html" target="_blank">here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-69196280308962579212014-09-20T21:10:00.000-04:002014-09-20T21:10:03.459-04:00Mexico Can't Answer Indian Violence
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<a href="http://history.berkeley.edu/people/brian-delay" target="_blank">Brian DeLay</a>’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">War
of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War</i> (Yale
University: New Haven and London. 2008. Pp. xxi, 473) fascinates me in ways
very similar to the work of <a href="http://www.coloradocollege.edu/academics/dept/history/people/profile.dot?person=hyde_anne_farrar" target="_blank">Anne F. Hyde</a>, <a href="http://history.unc.edu/people/faculty/kathleen-a-duval/" target="_blank">Kathleen DuVal</a> and <a href="http://www.history.upenn.edu/people/faculty/daniel-k-richter" target="_blank">Daniel K. Richter</a>.
Each of these historians has taken a topic we thought we knew – Indian-European
relations in the North American west in the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup>
centuries – and turned it on its ear by offering a thorough reexamination from
a perspective not hitherto explored, thus adding invaluably to our more
accurate understanding of the complicated relationships between the peoples of
the west. Native peoples were as varied and unique in their cultures and
interactions as the Spanish, French, Mexican, British and American peoples were
in theirs, if not more so, and these historians do not allow us to neglect or
ignore those differences. <i>Thank goodness</i>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Like DuVal, Hyde and Richter, DeLay upends our
perspective. He effectively argues that the plains Indians’ raids and violence
in Mexico directly contributed to the weakening of Mexico, emboldening the U.S.
to embark upon, and win, the U.S.-Mexican War, resulting in Mexico’s significant
loss of territory to the U.S. and, ultimately, American success in relegating
those raiding Indian people to impoverished reservations. It is the law of
unintended consequences writ large.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In a manner reminiscent of Patricia Nelson Limerick,
DeLay focuses on place over process, honing in on the northern Mexican states
where the bulk of Indian raids occurred in the 1830s and 1840s. He carefully
examines the intricate trade relationships that each state independently
developed and maintained with different native peoples, the relationships those
peoples had with each other and the bonds of fictive kinship that were regularly
established, and the many challenges that northern Mexican states faced as the
result of Mexican federalism and inadequate response from Mexico City. DeLay
shows us the ill-fated hands these small Mexican communities were dealt, the
often understandable solutions they developed, and the unforeseen consequences
that often resulted in making the Mexicans’ plights worse instead of better.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
A recurrent theme in DeLay’s narrative is the utter lack
of concern or attention of the Mexican central government for the violence and
destruction regularly visited upon its northernmost citizens. I cannot help but
contrast Mexico’s inept, virtually non-existent management of its frontier with
that of the U.S. Mexico’s northern states repeatedly sought the help and
support of their central government, which could not be bothered to care until
the situation had so deteriorated that Indian raids reached states as far south
as San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas. Yet, even then, the Mexican government was
ineffectual, lacking funds and the cohesion of its northern states, which were
not always interested in, and could not be compelled to cooperate with, the
central government’s strategic efforts to engage in diplomacy with the raiders.
Western U.S. states and settlers had their own difficult times with the
natives, but the American government was considerably more attentive to its
frontiers than Mexico City, devoting resources and military support as it could
to the region.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-28884333266694340632014-09-13T14:20:00.001-04:002014-09-13T14:20:49.493-04:00Response to Beth Garcia's "A Tale of the Great American West".Response to Beth Garcia's "<a href="http://journeyintothewest.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/post-1-the-myth-of-the-great-american-west/" target="_blank">A Tale of the Great American West</a>".<br />
<br />
Well, perhaps not a response so much as an add-on. I concur with Ms. Garcia's assessments. Her statement about the "coercive tactics and deceptive measures that Anglos consistently employed" in their dealings with Indians returned me to a thought I have been evolving over the past week. Conquest was not a new thing. Peoples have been conquering other peoples for millennia. Over those millennia, were the conquered always bad people who deserved what they got? Probably not. Conquest and its ugliness is not a phenomenon that sprung up in the 19th Century. It is a fact of human history. Perhaps our problem with it is that it does not jibe with how we Americans prefer to see ourselves. That may be so, but we should be careful about discussing the role of conquest in the American West -- indeed in America, period, since we also conquered Native Americans in the East -- as though it were unique. Conquest is not unique. It might be more interesting to examine how American conquest in the West differed from American conquest in the East, or even from Roman conquest of, well...insert conquered nation here.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-85666114473116214482014-09-13T14:19:00.001-04:002014-09-13T14:19:22.766-04:00Allowing More Folks to Come to the Party
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In several readings, the idea of a single “American”
westward movement experience has been repeatedly shot down. The average
American is most familiar with the Anglo-centric experience, the
much-romanticized process of Manifest Destiny being fulfilled that we learned
in high school social studies classes. Yet as historians have pointed out for
20 years or more, this version ignores the very different experiences of Native
Americans, Mexicans, the French, the Chinese and Japanese, Mormons, and others
who do not fit in the standard mold. How much more interesting and nuanced
western history becomes once we begin to broaden our scope and incorporate
these others!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The challenge with such incorporation, of course, is that
it challenges the American creation myth of the west as a place open to all who
want a chance to make something of themselves based purely on their own hard
work and effort. It correlates nicely with the idea of the American Dream: if
one just works hard enough, one can succeed in America. Yet allowing others to
have a legitimate western experience of their own that does not mirror the
Turnerian model means that the benevolent, strong, inclusive image that we
Americans like to nurture of ourselves becomes endangered. The brave pioneer is
transformed into a paternalistic, greedy land-grabber with no respect for a
nearby tribe’s legally recognized ownership of a parcel of land. The
enterprising miners in California reveal their vicious anti-Asian racism.
Missionaries intent on spreading God’s word to the Indians might instead be
viewed as intolerant invaders.</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
I am a simple girl, so I ask a simple question: <i>so what</i>?
Is it not true that American settlers frequently helped themselves to Indian
land simply because they thought they deserved it more? Is it not true that
Asian immigrants were regular targets of racism and violence well into the 20<sup>th</sup>
century? Is it not true that missionaries sometimes employed less than kindly
tactics to coerce Indians to the Christian faith? Is it really better to
embrace an image of ourselves as Americans that we know to be false than to
admit that, during a period of intensive national growth and expansion, our
forebears often did not behave nobly? I see no utility in propagating this
myth. What does it accomplish? Nothing but self-delusion, it seems to me.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
As I contemplate this question of allowing others agency,
my mind turns to my own people. The Apelts immigrated to Kerr County, Texas,
from Germany in the second half of the 19<sup>th</sup> century; this region of
central Texas remains substantially German today. As historians investigate the
Mexican experience of the west, I find myself asking, well, what was the
German-immigrant experience? What about central Texas attracted so many German
settlers? Once they arrived, what was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i>
experience like? In what ways did they shape and influence their adopted
communities? How were they received by non-Germans in the area? Were they all
as entrepreneurial as my family, creating a <a href="mailto:http://blog.modernmechanix.com/armadillo-farm-is-oddest-money-maker/">commodity</a>
no one knew was needed? </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
These are the questions percolating in my consciousness
just now. As we continue delving into the rich experiences of the many peoples
who chose to give it a go in the west, we will gain a far greater richness of
understanding than we will lose in the demythologization of our own false
self-image.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00116727126459944118noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1746452515967173942.post-76383092795202833892014-09-06T13:11:00.003-04:002014-09-06T13:11:58.469-04:00Taking Aim at the Sometimes Not-So-Obvious Myths of the West
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I am a native Texan, born into a strong, proud ranching
family on one side and an entrepreneurial bunch of 19<sup>th</sup>
Century-immigrant Germans on the other. Hard work, self-sufficiency and a
feeling that the U.S. government is always looking to take more than it should
are religion in my family and remain topics of conversation at holidays. We
could be Patricia Nelson Limerick’s poster children for the Westerners who have
“woven a net of denial” around their carefully nurtured sense of independence,
self-reliance and anti-governmentalism. (96)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
It therefore speaks highly of Limerick that I found <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of
the American West</i> (W.W. Norton & Company: New York, London. 1987. Pp.
396) engaging and frequently convincing. Popular culture often reflects the
history of American westward expansion one of two ways, sometimes in the same
breath: 1) a glorious fulfilling of Manifest Destiny, making something out of
unused, wasted resources, and 2) a decimation of Native Americans and the purity
of western wilderness. Limerick turns both approaches upside down by changing
the nature of the perspective from which we view Americans’ entry into the
West. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Limerick’s goal is to redefine how historians view the
West and approach its history. Dismissing Frederick Turner Jackson’s idea of
“frontier” as the thing that defined Americanism, Limerick offers a new
definition of “frontier”: “Western history has been an ongoing competition for
legitimacy—for the right to claim for oneself and sometimes for one’s group the
status of legitimate beneficiary of Western resources. This intersection of
ethnic diversity with property allocation unifies Western history.” (20, 27)
Susan Armitage observes in “’The Legacy of Conquest’, by Patricia Nelson
Limerick: A Panel of Appraisal” (Donald Worster et al, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Western Historical Quarterly</i>, Vol. 20, No. 3 (August 1989), pp.
303-322), that Limerick renegotiates Western history into a discussion of place
rather than process, expanding the possibilities for discussion. </div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
This focus on place serves Limerick well, allowing her
first to refute Turner’s idea that, in the final years of the 19<sup>th</sup>
Century, the frontier was gone and that chapter of American history had concluded.
She argues that Western history did not end in the 1890s; the nature of
“frontier” may have changed, but it did not die. Western history continued into
the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, and indeed continues today. The Dust Bowl, the
impact of the New Deal on the West, the challenges of agriculture in an arid
climate and the federal subsidizing of farmers, all were encountered (or the
groundwork was laid) during the 1800s, continued well into the 1900s, and would
be disconnected from Western history in Turner’s thesis. This detachment,
Limerick argues, would be inaccurate, omitting much from Western history.</div>
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Limerick examines an extensive set of topics as she
crafts her argument: intentions, the questions of freedom and conquest, racial
and ethnic equality, labor rights, religious intolerance, the role of government,
and land management are just a few. While she holds a specific viewpoint,
Limerick attempts to present the various perspectives fairly. Often she
succeeds; just as often her own opinions creep in, skewing the objectivity of
her narrative. I was admittedly sensitive to her treatment of Western farmers
and ranchers. She effectively demonstrated how seemingly independent,
anti-government-minded Westerners in fact relied heavily on government subsidies
and services in a variety of ways. Yet while she convinced me, I also
recognized tones of judgment, derision and even condescension toward Westerners
in her narrative, tones that were disappointing and unnecessary to her
argument. (Brian Balogh’s assertions regarding the power of “invisible”
government programs and reach in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Government Out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in
Nineteenth-Century America</i> (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, New
York. 2009. Pp. xi, 414) often came to mind as Limerick berated Westerners’
reliance on federal programs while demonizing government support.)</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Legacy of Conquest</i>
provides an insightful, fresh insight on Western history, and is easily
recognizable as a game-changer for the field. Limerick achieved her goal of
resetting the conversation for the future of Western history, and it will be
enjoyable to explore the results of that reset. I will not, however, mention
her work at the table next Thanksgiving.</div>
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