Product Description

At the end of Reconstruction, the old order reasserted itself, to varying degrees, throughout the former Confederate states. This period--Redemption, as it was called--was crucial in establishing the structures and alliances that dominated the Solid South until at least the mid-twentieth century.

Texas shared in this, but because of its distinctive antebellum history, its western position within the region, and the large influx of new residents that poured across its borders, it followed its own path toward Redemption.

Now, historian Patrick G. Williams provides a dual study of the issues facing Texas Democrats as they rebuilt their party and of the policies they pursued once they were back in power. Treating Texas as a southern but also a western and a borderlands state, Williams has crafted a work with a richly textured awareness unlike any previous single study. Students of regional and political history will benefit from Williams' comprehensive view of this often overlooked, yet definitive era in Texas history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1881304 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 234 pages

Review
". . . an important book, offering a significant new interpretation of post-Reconstruction state politics. It should be of interest to any serious student of Texas history." -- East Texas Historical Journal, Fall 2007

About the Author
PATRICK G. WILLIAMS has a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is an associate professor of history at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. He also serves as editor of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly.

Customer Reviews

a very different Democratic party
Williams takes us back to the decades after the US Civil War, to look at how the Texas Democratic party struggled to cope with Reconstruction. Not a wonderful picture. We see how the Democrats strenuously opposed civil rights for Negroes. This is the main theme throughout the book. To build up their support amongst whites, the Democrats engaged repeatedly in racist demagogy. Which also included diatribes against Mexicans and Latino citizens.

But not just that. Much of the book documents the maneuverings against the federal government, and many ways, often successful, in which the Democrats took control of the judiciary and local governments.

There are also other threads running through the book. As in fighting native tribes resisting incursions into their lands.