The Texas Myth Analysis

“The Texas Myth” in history has been created by many Anglo historians in hopes of creating and perpetuating a history that supports the Anglo cause of expansion during early Texas history. Many of the early Texas historians such as Webb, Dobie, Haley, and Webber have provided many historical accounts as told from the Anglo perspective. However, new historians such as Volanto, Goldman and Ginn have provided new perspectives that have begun to challenge the traditionalist views of history. With different views of history, we can then begin to understand how other cultures have contributed to the creation of the Texan Identity and help in moving away from the Myth. Earlie historians began to change perspectives in which the used to write
His writing focused more on the impact of business on Texas as well as how certain business were impacted by Texas. For Frantz and his generation of western historians, the history of West was basically a story of “settlement” by miners, ranchers, railroad, builders, and farmers. They utilized a model of successive western Anglo migration outlined before the turn of the twentieth century by Fredrick Jackson. 4 Franz wrote about history as relative to business which is different from what many historians wrote about. Another example of is Pekka Hamalainen and the extensive writings about the Native American history in early Texas. At the heart of New Indian History was-and is- a simple shift in perspective with immense implications. Instead of observing things from colonial frontiers outward, the traditional defaults position of historical inquiry, the revisionist scholars placed themselves in Indian country to look how Native people saw and shaped historical
Kay Goldman, is an excellent example of writing from another perspective. Goldman writes about nineteenth-century Jewish immigrants and the assimilation to German Texan identity. The traditional myth and memory of Texas is populated with Anglo European men; however, more current Texas histories accept a pluralist description of the population of Texas and recognized that various immigrant groups not only shape current Texas but also contributed to the early development of Texas.12 His approach was to show that many cultures have come together to impact the Texas Identity and challenge traditional views on immigrants in Texas. German culture strongly influenced Texas culture, it proves that these Jewish immigrants assimilated as equal into Texas and even helped create the Texas identity developing in the state during the 19th century. They claimed their German Identity while living in Texas and became Americans while also creating Texas society13 One of the greatest examples of challenges to the Texian Myth has been by Jody Edward Ginn and his essay on the Texas Rangers and the myth and memory. Her extensive research shows that the history of the Rangers was primarily devolved from conversations and memories of individuals. Myth and memory have often been intermixed with many of the available historical