WHERE THE WEST BEGINS

Unsure which of its legacies are true and which to embrace, Texas grapples with an identity crisis. One camp insists that the state s roots in slavery, segregation, and cotton make it southern. Another argues that its Native and ranching history make it western. Outside Texas, southern and western historians who don t know what to make of the state ignore it altogether. In his innovative settling of the question, Glen Sample Ely examines the state s historical DNA, making sense of Lone Star identity west of the hundredth meridian and defining Texas s place in the American West.Focusing on the motives that shape how Texans appropriate their past from cashing in on tourism to avoiding historical realities Ely reveals the inner workings of a multiplicity of Texas identities."