Southern. Western. Or entirely exceptional?

Where the West Begins (cloth)

Debating Texas Identity

Glen Sample Ely, with foreword by Alwyn Barr

One of the most original, clearly expressed, and compelling analyses of the differences between East Texas with its romantic Southern–Civil War history and the claim that Western Texas was a “Cowman’s Paradise” to appear in decades. . . . His fresh account, enhanced by individual biographies and humor, is backed by extensive research in local county archives, newspapers, maps, climate studies, the U.S. Census, and state and federal records. A truly notable addition to the Plains Histories Series. —Howard R. Lamar, author of The Far Southwest, 1846-1912: A Territorial History

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.

This is not your father’s West Texas history. Wide-ranging and sparkling with keen insight, Glen Ely’s Where the West Begins should instantly take its place on the short list of indispensable works on Texan identity. —Gregg Cantrell, co-editor of Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas

Glen Ely’s Where the West Begins is big—Texas big—myth-busting. Challenging the trend of recent Texan historians who have emphasized the state’s southern roots, Where the West Begins is a thoughtful and therefore controversial examination of how the western part of the state really is part of the West. —J. F. de la Teja, former state historian of Texas

In the seemingly endless arguments about just where and what the American West is and has been, west Texas has too often been ignored. But no longer. Drawing on the land itself, on its snarled relations with the American South and with its deep Hispanic past, and on the experiences of its many peoples struggling to persist amid daunting challenges, Glen Sample Ely places this elusive country firmly in the West yet affirms it as an utterly distinctive part of its state and nation. —Elliott West, University of Arkansas

With this book, Glen Ely establishes himself as ranking among the very best of a new generation of Texas historians. He's asking the right questions, and coming up with some provocative answers. —Robert Wooster, author of Frontier Crossroads: Fort Davis and the West

Glen Sample Ely’s documentaries have appeared on PBS, the History Channel, and the Discovery Channel. His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as Southwestern Historical Quarterly and the New Mexico Historical Review. A Ph.D. graduate of Texas Christian University, he lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Alwyn Barr, one of Texas’s most prolific historians, is retired from the department of History at Texas Tech University.

Read Zack Shlachter's detailed review of Where the West Begins in the Fort Worth Weekly, September 7, 2011.  Click here to read.

Listen to Krys Boyd's hour-long interview with the author, June 1, 2011, on KERA/Dallas NPR. Click here to listen.