Back Then

by McDonald, Archie P.

• ISBN13: 9781880510810
• ISBN10: 1880510812
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-09-30
• Publisher: State House Pr

Summary

These stories by a noted Texas historian recall a time when a kid could go to the picture show with fifteen cents in his pocket, purchase admission for nine cents, and have money left over for popcorn. Those times were not necessarily better-"It was simply my time," says the author. In Back Then, McDonald draws on his reservoir of experiences to write about shoe shines and men's hats, corner drug stores and neighborhood groceries, first cars and full-service gas stations, favorite hymns and Vacation Bible School, house calls and hometown heroes, John Wayne and the Big Bopper, war rationing and spinster aunts. He tells about presidents and teachers he has known, music and books he has enjoyed, his first garden and his first time to eat in an integrated restaurant. Admitting to being "older than dirt," McDonald remembers Butch wax, Howdy Doody, Studebakers, Packards, mimeograph paper, and other icons of days gone by. "What seems to emerge," he says, "is a kind of report of what it was like to live in Texas, or the South, a half century ago."

Author Biography

Archie P. McDonald is professor of history at Stephen F. Austin State University and director of the East Texas Historical Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 11
Revolutionary Times
Background of the Revolution	p. 14
The Rise of Modern Republicanism	p. 15
Independence and the Federal Republic of Mexico	p. 18
Texas and Its People	p. 20
The Art of War in 19th Century North America	p. 26
Following the European Tradition	p. 27
The Army of the Republic	p. 33
Frontier Defense	p. 35
The Military Establishment and the Texas Revolution	p. 37
Rolling Back Centralism
Texas in Revolt	p. 43
Origins of the Conflict: Federalism Under Attack	p. 44
War Comes to Texas	p. 50
Victory at Bexar	p. 61
Texas in Turmoil	p. 67
The Attempt to Build a Regular Army	p. 68
The Governor and General Council at Odds	p. 76
The Failure of Frontier Defense
Defending Bexar	p. 82
The Town and Its People	p. 83
The Effects of Revolutionary Politics on the Bexar Garrison	p. 87
Bexar Loses Its Commander	p. 107
The Battle	p. 111
The Alamo Under Siege	p. 112
The Assault	p. 122
"Remember the Alamo!"	p. 128
Conclusion	p. 134
Appendices A-D	p. 135
Endnotes	p. 149
Note on Sources	p. 157
Index	p. 160
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