Review of Fehrenbach's "Lone Star"

Since the first edition in 1968, T.R. Fehrenbach's Lone Star has been the authoritative text for the history of Texas. Academics "have blasted away at the scriptural authority" of the book, writes Michael Ennis for Texas Monthly. "But these 'revisionists' (read 'heretics' if you’re a Texas history traditionalist) have scarcely dented Fehrenbach’s appeal to readers outside the ivory tower."

I just completed the (c) 2000 edition, coming in at 730 pages. The book is largely sympathetic to its "Anglo-Celtic" subject, seen as the main population driving Texas history. The book traces the history of Texas through interaction with the Indian and Spanish-Mexican populations that Anglo-Celts encountered as they moved West, largely from Appalacia. Fehrenbach puts the actions of 19th-century Texans in historical context, a helpful counter to those ready to make shallow jdugments on men and women from the distant past. He also shows how the outrages of Reconstruction following the Civil War contributed to the Texan's suspicion of expectations imposed by distant outsiders, especially those from the Northeast--a suspicion that lasted deep into the 20th century and (arguably) still tinges the Texan mood in the new century.