TEXAS HISTORY STUDY GUIDE

 

 

LAST UPDATED:  6/11/12

NOTE:  FOR THOSE OF YOU FAMILIAR WITH THESE STUDY GUIDES, THIS ONE IS GOING TO BE LESS PRECISE THAN THOSE FOR US HISTORY.  THAT MEANS YOU SHOULD NOT DEPEND EXCLUSIVELY ON THIS STUDY GUIDE AS YOU PREPARE FOR EXAMS.

CLICK HERE FOR THE STUDY GUIDE ON TEXIAN MACABRE

CLICK HERE FOR THE STUDY GUIDE ON THE CAPTURED

CLICK HERE FOR THE STUDY GUIDE ON THE WORST HARD TIME

Click here for the study guide for the second exam.

Click here for the study guide for the third exam.

Click here for the study guide for the final exam.

 

The nature of Texas:  This lecture discussed some of the ways in which Texas is perceived in the United States, addressed the specific traits associated with the state, and provided some numbers and statistics about the size of the state, its population, economy, and citizens.

You should be familiar with the following:

Prehistoric/Native American Texas:  This lecture covered Texas history before the arrival of Europeans.

You should be familiar with the following:

THE ARRIVAL OF EUROPEANS IN TEXAS:  This lecture covered the origins of Spanish colonization and traced the discoverers and explorers of Texas.

Be familiar with the following:

SPANISH TEXAS:  This lecture covered Spanish colonization in Texas from the late 1600s - late 1700s.

Be familiar with the following:

THE END OF SPANISH TEXAS:  The lecture dealt with the events that led to Mexican independence and to Spanish withdrawal from Texas and modern Mexico.

You should be familiar with the following:

MEXICAN TEXAS:  This lecture dealt with how Mexico managed Texas between 1821 and the early 1830s.

You should know the following:

THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION:  This lecture dealt with the events leading up to the Texas Revolution.

You should be familiar with the following:

TEXAS REVOLUTION:  This was simply a timeline lecture detailing the events of the Texas Revolution.

You should be familiar with the following:

 

EXAM TWO STUDY GUIDE:

 

REPUBLIC OF TEXAS:  These two lectures covered the years when Texas was an independent nation. 

You should be familiar with the following:

THE STATE OF TEXAS:  This lecture concerned events in Texas after statehood and the social/cultural evolution of Texas. 

You should be familiar with the following:

The Road to the Civil War: This lecture addressed how Texas came to secede from the Union in 1861.

You should pay attention to the following:

The Civil War in Texas:  Well, this lecture was about the Civil War in Texas.  Yep.

You should be familiar with the following:

Reconstruction:  These two lectures covered the aftermath of the war and the North's failed attempt to change the culture and society of Texas. 

THIRD EXAM STUDY GUIDE:

The end of the Texas Frontier:  This lecture dealt with developments on the frontier from the 1860s-1880s.  It traced the removal of the Comanche/Kiowa/Lipan from western and northern Texas and the fates of these tribes.

You should be familiar with the following:

The Texas Cattle Empire:  This lecture traced the origins and development of cattle ranching in West Texas, North Texas, and the Panhandle.

You should be familiar with the following:

The Decline of Texas Crime:  This lecture addressed the epidemic of crime that gripped Texas in the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and examined how Texans attempted to quell lawbreaking.

You should be familiar with the following:

New South Texas:  With crime and Native Americans largely removed from the frontier of Texas, this lecture dealt with what arose in their places in the late 1800s.  It traced the rise of the New South in Texas.

You should be familiar with the following:

The Oil Industry in Texas:  This lecture addressed the early development of one of Texas' most important modern industries - the oil industry. 

You should be familiar with the following:

The history of oil in Texas

Reactions to the New South:  While a lot of the developments in Texas in the late 1800s were positive, Texans also found that the New South came with a rather harsh edge.  This lecture covered some of the early problems discovered in regard to the New South and addressed how Texans reacted.

You should be familiar with the following:

PROGRESSIVE TEXAS:  This lecture considered Progressive Reform in Texas.

You should be familiar with the following:

FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE

The period for this exam dealt with the emergence of modern Texas.

Texas in the 1920s:  You should be familiar with the following:

THE DEPRESSION IN TEXAS:  You should be familiar with the following:

THE NEW DEAL IN TEXAS:  You should be familiar with the following:

TEXAS IN WWII:  You should be familiar with the following:

The significance of the war to Texas

TEXAS AFTER WWII:  You should be familiar with the following:

The general trends in Texas history after WWII

The developments in manufacturing and industry - chemicals, electronics, aviation, oil

The Texas City Disaster

The Trends of Modern Texas:  You should be familiar with the following:

CUMULATIVE SECTION: REMEMBER THAT 10 QUESTIONS ON THE FINAL WILL COVER THE WHOLE CLASS. 

Here, I'm looking for overall trends, for things that have played a role in shaping modern Texas.

 

 

STUDY GUIDE:  VOICES FROM THE WILD HORSE DESERT  (This book is not in use in Spring, 2012.)

Obviously, this book covers a tremendous amount of information.  Be certain to cover the introduction pretty thoroughly.  The introduction to this book is excellent, filled with necessary and useful background information.  Here is a list of things you'll want to pay attention to, but this is by no means exclusive. 

As far as the main body of the book, understand how it is put together.  This book is trying to provide a portrait of a unique group of people by examining their culture and society.  It is almost purely social history, therefore.  It's also an oral history - based on interviews, which is not the most common method in the world.  You should have a basic understanding of what is in each chapter - what themes are covered and what is revealed about vaquero life on the two ranches. 

I am going to ask about specific things - the diverse amount of livestock raised on the ranches and the different agricultural and industrial products produced there as well, the various jobs performed by men, childhood, brush clearing and fencing, the eradication of ticks, vaqueras, the role of the wife, the structure of the vaquero family, religion, schooling, branding, celebrations, the modern developments on the King and Kenedy ranches (what they are producing today, major changes to the ranches, changes to the lives of the vaqueros, the new technologies employed, etc.)  There are more options as well.

What I am not going to do is ask extremely specific questions on the order of "who said this" or "in 1991, how long was the vaquero workday."  There will be nothing along those lines.  The only times questions a little like these will appear are on those occasions when something is cited as the FIRST time it was ever performed (the world's first cattle-dip, for example), or when a critical moment of change occurs (the discovery of oil on the King Ranch).  I might ask for specific dates on things like those.

I expect that if you read the book and immerse yourself in the culture it unfolds, you won't have much trouble on this test.

The subjects listed below will appear on the exam in the objective questions.  Therefore, study these subjects carefully.

STUDY GUIDE FOR TEXIAN MACABRE:

To do well on this test, you should be familiar with the following.  This is not an exclusive list but should give you a sense of how to approach the information.  This test will ask for critical analysis, factual knowledge, and writing ability.  It's testing everything, in other words -- reading, writing, thinking, juggling; you name it.

Start with:

The author.  With a historical work, always start your critical analysis here.  Anyone can write history, (unlike mathematics or chemistry) so before you buy into everything that's on the page, take a look at who did the writing.  What are the author's credentials?  Is this person qualified to work with the subject?  I mean, are we talking about a professional historian or a hobbyist?  Are we talking about an expert in the field or about someone who just likes the subject?  (Hobbyists and non-professionals can be fine scholars, by the way, no slam on them.  But there is a lot of "history" out there that's not accurate or particularly revealing.  Starting with a look at the author can hint at what a book is going to be like.)

But you can't stop there.  After you figure out the author, then look at this:

The level of research involved.  You find this in the endnotes, the bibliography, and in references within the work itself.  Did your author go into archives and examine original documents?  Or is he/she just parroting and rephrasing what other people have said?  If the author went to the archives and conducted detailed, original research, then you're probably looking at something fresh and new.  You're also looking at a certain level of skill; archival research takes practice, after all.  If there's no evidence of original research, look out. 

Got the author and the research level?  Great!  Move on to the next issue:

Uncover the thesis.  Every history book is arguing something.  "NO!" people say.  "History books are telling us what happened!  There's no ARGUMENT involved!  Historians research and then tell us what they found!"

WRONG.

Research can turn up things that are contradictory.  Two people see a UFO in 1896.  Two people say two different things about it.  A historian researches.  Which account is correct?  AAAAAHHHHH.  That's where interpretation and argument show up.  No history book is just about "What happened," because the people back then didn't know "what happened."  They only know what they THEMSELVES saw or felt or believed. 

It's up to the historian to interpret the information and figure out, from all the different accounts, what happened.  Sometimes what happened is WAAAAY different from what people said happened.  Or so we think.  The best we can do is interpret according to our knowledge of the subject and according to the feedback we get from other scholars in the field.  ("You're wrong on page 31!" other scholars will say, "Read my last book and you'll see why!") 

That's why it's important to know who's writing your book.  One thing about professionals is that they are more likely to get critiqued by other professionals and called out on mistakes or on interpretations that are biased.   

BUT ANYWAY . . .

Look for the argument.  Where do you find the argument?  Well, sometimes it's in the introduction (that's USUALLY where you find it in history books).  Sometimes you get lucky, and the author will actually say "THIS IS WHAT I AM ARGUING/THIS IS MY THESIS."  You typically find that when someone's writing about something like the Civil War, where everything that can be said HAS been said.  You have to say your argument up front to announce your place in line. 

This book is different from most scholarship in that it does not point out the argument in the first fifteen seconds.  (Sorry.)  Some books are like that.  So what's the argument?  Where do you find it?

This is where the fun begins.

The argument is in the entire book itself.  You're not going to get it until you've read the book, learned the information, and then settled back with an iced tea and thought about it for a bit.  So start reading, or read it again, quickly.  And when you do, pay attention to this information:

And get into the specifics.  Knowing the specifics is critical to understanding what the author is trying to say.  You need to know about these things as well:

Great!  Now that you know all of this, in detail, (and more, of course), you can start to THINK about it.  What did you learn?  (Think about it, think about it.)  Now step back and think bigger.  You learned that THIS story happened, and it was kind of weird and gross.  Now, what does this story tell you about the Texas Republic?  About it's people in general/overall?  (Ponder, ponder, ponder.)  You might think "Man, they were seriously disturbed!"  Go with that for a moment.  What does THAT tell you?  Mess with the information.  WHO was seriously disturbed?  Does any group really stand out in that regard?  And what is that group's legacy?  What does this story reveal about some of the "legends" of Texas?  Or about a legendary era in Texas history?

Ponder, ponder, ponder.

Or you might think "Houston sure has come a long way since 1838!"  Go with that.  In what way?  And what does that tell you?  Are there any ways in which the city has not progressed?  What does that mean?

There are A LOT of things to think about after you're done with this book.  There are equality issues.  These folks are fighting for independence to free what kind of society?  There are violence issues (was anyone non-violent in this culture)?  There are North vs South issues to think about.  What did the northerners think about what they found in Texas?  What does that reveal? 

Think about it.  Roll it around in your mind.  Arguments will start to appear - arguments that this book is making.  And then one or two of them will start to stand out.  And then only one.  When that happens, you've got your thesis. 

Then consider the implications of that thesis. 

BUT WAIT!

Your sense of the argument may be different from mine!  OH NO!  Relax.  That happens in history, especially with a book like this.  Don't worry.  If you've thought about the book, mulled it over, whatever I put on the test as the thesis will have crossed your mind, too. 

The subjects listed below will appear on the test in the objective questions.  Therefore, learn these subjects carefully.

John Herndon

Felix Huston

Susanna Dickinson

The Philosophical Society of Texas

Francis Moore, Jr.

Maillard's Four Distinct Classes of Texas

Rowdy Loafers

A Horse-and-Cart/Short-Drop Hanging

 

STUDY GUIDE:  THE CAPTURED

Here's a lengthy book that's going to have far more inside than a test can fully cover.  Don't go crazy, in other words.  Don't generate a notebook's worth of notes.  Really, just enjoy the book.  It's extraordinary.

Make sure you learn the following:

The writing section will be a bit longer than the last one, and it will involve a certain level of creativity.  You'll see.

 

STUDY GUIDE:  THE WORST HARD TIME

Of the books assigned this semester, The Worst Hard Time is in many ways the simplest.  It does not have the multi-cultural detail and scope of The Captured or the complex argument of Texian Macabre.  Really, The Worst Hard Time is a pretty straightforward disaster book that follows the standard organization of the genre.  It starts with the background – the setting for the disaster.  Then come the warnings.  After this, the disaster itself unfolds.  There’s a chapter devoted to the worst event/day/period of the disaster.  And last is the aftermath and the resolution.  In this last part, the arguments within the book are reiterated.  What arguments are generally found in a disaster book?  There’s usually something about what caused the disaster (a point of contention, frequently), who should take the blame (ditto), and an argument about the disaster’s long-term effects and such.  Most disaster authors want readers to speculate about the big question, which is “Could it happen again?”  In the conclusion, the author will usually indicate what he/she believes.

That’s the disaster narrative.  All you have to do to “get” this book is understand it within the context of the narrative.  You should be able to identify the parts of the disaster narrative within The Worst Hard Time and understand the book’s conclusions about what happened on the Great Plains in the early twentieth century.  It’s pretty easy.  The only problem is that this is a long book – because it’s dealing with a long disaster.

Here are some of the specifics that you should know.  Really, all you have to do is follow the disaster narrative – that’s all I’m going to do on the exam:

First:

Know the author.  That’s always first.  Know who wrote the book and how it was researched.  In this case, the sources are in the notes at the end.  Ask the standard questions – is the authors qualified to write this book?  What is his/her background?  What drew this individual to the subject?  Did he/she use appropriate levels of research? (Is everything coming from other books or is there any original research involved?)  Are there any pictures? 

Then go on into the book itself. 

The nature of the disaster being studied in this book.

The dates and location of the disaster.  (Better know specifically what parts of the US are covered in detail.)

The Plains and the Plains environment.  What was out there, originally?  How did that environment protect the grasslands from drought?

 

Second:  Start looking at the background to the disaster and the warning signs:

When and why “nesters” came to the Plains.  What things prompted people to go out there to grow crops?  And what crop, primarily?

What they did to the Plains in the 1920s and the technology involved.

Why it was possible to grow crops on the grasslands in the 1920s – what happened to make the boom times possible.

The various groups of people who farmed the Plains?  Who was out there?

Why did they start overproducing/overplowing? 

What did the cowboys and Indians of the Plains have to say about the nesters and their activities.

 

THIRD:  Study the unfolding disaster

When was the first dust storm?

What happened to crop prices as the depression unfolded?  What did farmers do in response? 

What did farmers do when they went completely bankrupt?  What was the environmental effect of their actions?

The insect problems that started to emerge on the Plains.

What it was like when the land started to die. 

The health problems associated with plains dust storms.

The size and magnitude of the dust storms.  How far did some of them reach?  How much dirt are we talking about?

 

FOURTH:  Study the Mature disaster

We know today that the dust bowl was the result of human activities.  Back then, however, people weren’t certain.  Who was the government official who first argued that what was happening to the Plains was a man-made disaster?  What alternate theories did he have to fight?

How did people survive in the dust zones?  What did they eat? 

Why did people stay?

John McCarty’s response to the dust storms as the disaster unfolded.  And who was John McCarty?

Study the climax of the book – the Black Sunday duster.

 

 FIFTH:  Study the response to the disaster and the aftermath.

What various options did the government explore in response to the dust bowl?

How did Bennet get Congress moving on addressing the disaster unfolding in the west?  What tactic did he use?

Who was President during the Dust Bowl and what did he want to see happen on the plains?

How did the government help those who were stranded in the dust bowl?

What was Operation Dust Bowl and what tactics did it use to try to undo the damage inflicted on the plains?  What additional tactics to preserve and retain the soil did the government adopt?  (Look into planting new grasses, trees, etc.)  What people were used to put the various government plans into action?

What were the conclusions in the Great Plains Drought Area Committee Report of 1936.  What did it say happened on the Plains and who was to blame?

LAST:  Study the epilogue. 

Did the plains ever recover completely from the Dust Bowl?

Has any region been restored?

Have there been dust storms since the 1930s?

What’s happening on the plains today and to the Ogallala Aquifer?

And what, therefore, does the book imply will be the eventual fate of the Great Plains?

Terms you should know:

Nesters

Suitcase farmers

Homestead Act and Enlarged Homestead Act

Black Blizzard/black duster

Hugh Hammond Bennet

Dust pneumonia

Executive order 7028

The Plow That Broke the Plains

Be a bit familiar with some of the major players in the book.  Disaster books always try to put a human face on the disaster itself by including one or two personal stories.  This book employs this tactic by following a few central characters.  You don’t have to know them in detail, but have a sense of what the Dust Bowl did to these individuals and where they ended up.