Editor's Visions on the Book Single Star of the West: The Republic of Texas Paper Example

The book "Single Star of the West: The Republic of Texas, 1836-1845" is edited by Kenneth W. Howell and Charles Swanlund. They are both professors of history and Blinn College in Bryan, Texas.

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Their vision was to show the broader issues that many historians had ignored in previous books. These issues include the under-represented groups by identifying were the original Texans. The editors aimed at revealing their experiences, and assessing their contributions to the short-lived republic.

Purpose success

• The editors succeed in revealing the revolution of Texas that lead to its formation. It also enumerates its history and the early founders that contributed to its establishment.
• The editors successfully discuss the emergence of a Texas identity a republic that was lost for almost ten years.
• To effectively achieve their goal, the authors offer syntheses of recent works that reflect the republic within such larger contexts as global commerce, Borderlands, and multicultural communities.
• The contributing authors advance the original purpose of the collection effectively by demonstrating the heroic history of Texas and how it was founded as a triumph of freedom-loving Anglo individualists.
• The authors discuss how different groups such as the navy, Texas Rangers, and the army defended the Republic from Mexico.
• To demonstrate the revolution of Texas, the authors have written individual chapters that show the contributions of early founders such as Anson Jones, Mirabeau B. Lamar, and Sam Houston.

Sources

• The authors used 16 essays that focused on various aspects of Texas history that have been deliberately overlooked.
• The essays are divided into four categories. The essays focus on the emergence of the Republic, who defended it and other cultural aspects.
• The authors succeed in their purpose because they relied on the scholarship in the last several decades of work.

Topics

The book "Single Star of the West: The Republic of Texas, 1836-1845" have four major topics.

1. "The Birth of a Republic": The first three chapters focus on the Texas Revolution. This includes the framework of Mexican politics. The Mexico federalist war (pg 30). The topic also reveals who the people of Texas were, and the emergence of a "Texas" identity.

2. The next section focuses on how the Republic was defended. This includes the Histories of the Texas Army, Navy, and Rangers.

3. The other topic discusses the politics and economics of Texas. Profiles of the three presidents of the Republic, its foreign economy and policy.

4. The last topic focuses on social and cultural vistas. The topic gives the contributions or account of the following groups in the Republic

• African-Americans
• Women
• Native Americans
• Tejanos

and religion. The audiences are the historians who may want to research on the emergence of the Texas Republic. Current Texas can also read the book to know their identity and realize that the Republic was formed by several racial groups and therefore they should not only focus on the matters of immigration and racism.

The context fits what has been covered on U.S manifest destiny wherein 1845, Texas entered into the U.S union as the 28th state following the Congress of Texas acceptance of the United States territory annexation. In the 1820's Mexico gained independence from Spain and started to welcome foreigners to Texas because it was sparsely populated.

Walter L. Buenger examines commerce in Texas and draws from the work of borderlands scholars and the now decades-old New Western History. He selected to make his contribution because he found that economic and cultural issues that were under-represented in Texas. When researching on women and Trojans in Texas, Mary L. Scheer found that it was not a safe place for them due to the disruptions of war and immigration.