Lone Star vistas : travel writing on Texas, 1821-1861

Every place is a product of the stories we tell about it―stories that do not merely describe but in fact shape geographic, social, and cultural spaces. Lone Star Vistas analyzes travelogues that created the idea of Texas. Focusing on the forty-year period between Mexico’s independence from Spain (1821) and the beginning of the US Civil War, Astrid Haas explores accounts by Anglo-American, Mexican, and German authors―members of the region’s three major settler populations―who recorded their journeys through Texas. They were missionaries, scientists, journalists, emigrants, emigration agents, and military officers and their spouses. They all contributed to the public image of Texas and to debates about the future of the region during a time of political and social transformation. Drawing on sources and scholarship in English, Spanish, and German, Lone Star Vistas is the first comparative study of transnational travel writing on Texas. Haas illuminates continuities and differences across the global encounter with Texas, while also highlighting how individual writers’ particular backgrounds affected their views on nature, white settlement, military engagement, Indigenous resistance, African American slavery, and Christian mission. "In Lone Star Vistas, Astrid Haas brings formidable language and research skills to bear on the subject of travel writing on Texas in the nineteenth century. As she puts it, the manuscript looks at "narrative constructions" of Texas as a geographic and social space from 1821 to 1861 in selected works of Mexican, Anglo-American, and German travel writing. "Based on the premise that journey narratives contribute significantly to the discursive construction of national and regional identities, cultures, and landscapes," Haas writes, "the examined case studies represent travelogues authored by members of the three largest non-native ethnic groups that journeyed through Texas and recorded their observations for posterity. Through the lens of the travelogue, the study looks at the formation of public discourses on the region during the most formative phase of its history.""-- Provided by publisher Introduction Part I. Military-Scientific Exploration Introduction to Part I 1. Assessing El Norte: Mexican Government Expedition Accounts 2. Charting the Land: Reports of Anglo-American Explorations of Texas Part II. Colonization and Settlement Introduction to Part II 3. A Place for Southerners: Travelogues and Anglo-American Colonization 4. A:merica’s Italy: Journey Narratives Promoting German Settlement 5. Newcomers’ Plight: Travel Accounts Warning against German Migration Part III. Professional Journeys Introduction to Part III 6. Missionary Messages: Narratives of Itinerant Religious Labor 7. Reporting from the Regiment: Journey Accounts of US Army Officers’ Wives 8. Professional Pens: Anglo-American Travel Journalism of Texas Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Index In the early and mid-nineteenth century, travelers from Mexico, Germany, and the United States wrote vivid accounts of their experiences in Texas, helping to craft a lasting yet contested identity for the territory.