Other editions of book With the Makers of Texas; a Source Reader in Texas History

"Excellent… has a human interest and appeal…of varied interest and real merit…should become a standard supplementary reader and a widely accepted and useful source book." -The University of Texas Record, 1906First published in 1904, "With the Makers of Texas" is a Texas contribution to the modern historical means of teaching local history written by famous Texas historian Herbert Eugene Bolton, PH.D. along with Eugene C. Barker, M.A.According to Bolton, "With the Makers of Texas" may serve either as a reader or to supplement the history text. To fit it for a reader, selection has been made of pieces with literary merit and of varied character. And yet, they possess, withal, a unity and localization of interest which few ordinary readers can claim.The compilers have gathered copiously from every period of the State’s history, and those who helped to make Texas what it is are allowed to tell in their own words of the hardships and dangers, triumphs and pleasures, of the life they lived.The selections have been arranged in six groups, corresponding with the large periods in Texas History:I. The Spanish and FrenchII. The FilibustersIII. Anglo-American ColonizationIV. The RevolutionV. The RepublicVI. The StateThe book opens with the period of the Spanish and French explorations and settlements in Texas. This is a shadowy period to most lay minds, but an alluring one by reason of the dim light in which men of arms and dreamers of empire move and missionaries advance the cause of Christianity. The documents selected to illustrate this period are drawn from the most authoritative sources. Some of them have not appeared before in translation, and many of them are made for the first time easily accessible. Their representative selection is a useful supplement to the part of Texas histories covering this period, and should define loose ideas as to the presence and purpose, the failures and accomplishments of the French and Spanish upon this soil.Upon the stage of the military and mission rule of the Spanish, the Anglo-American is introduced as a filibuster, and the chronicle becomes full and fast with great conceptions and bold deeds. The Anglo-American becomes successively a colonist, a fighting patriot, the citizen of an independent Republic, and a citizen of a State. The documents are well selected to unfold this drama of the birth and progress of a State. In them may be read the character and purpose of the Texas pioneers, and throughout all there is breathed the spirit of noble sacrifice, and those Anglo-Saxon characteristics of love of home and liberty which are given illustrious exemplification in real characters.About the authors:Herbert Eugene Bolton (1870 –1953) was an American historian at the University of Texas who pioneered the study of the Spanish-American borderlands and was a prominent authority on Spanish American history. He originated what became known as the Bolton Theory of the history of the Americas which holds that it is impossible to study the history of the United States in isolation from the histories of other American nations, and wrote or co-authored 94 works.Eugene C. Barker, M.A. (1874 –1956) was an Instructor in History at the University of Texas where he was a colleague of Bolton.Other books by Bolton include: •The Colonization of North America: 1492-1783•Spanish Exploration in Texas•The Jumano Indians in Texas, 1650-1771•Coronado; Knight of Pueblos and Plains•New Light on Manuel Lisa and the Spanish Fur Trade •The Spanish Borderlands

This is the good stuff. Back in 1904, Eugene Barker and Herbert Bolton gathered up ninety-one firsthand accounts spanning over three centuries. These accounts were written by people whose feet were on Texas soil at the time of pivotal historical events. They are accounts written by participants in our history, not just observers. People like Sam Houston, James Fannin, Ben Milam, Stephen F. Austin, Reuben Potter, and William Wharton. And accounts written by people you probably never heard of, but who left us some fascinating stories. It's real Texas history without any academic filters. No egghead with an agenda had any part in assembling this uncommon core of historical Texas source material. It is raw history.