History of The Texas New Deal
a new journal
PHIT celebrates the publication of first issue of a brand new journal on Texas History. This fledging journal focuses on the History of the New Deal in Texas, an era that is sadly under explored.
Texas New Deal Review https://tndr-ojs-tamu.tdl.org/tndr. First issue
The New Deal in Texas was a glorious bumptious decade. Totally worthy of a Netflix series. All you writers out there…I want a credit for the idea!
The first edition of journal features an update of an article Keith Volanto wrote a while back. “Where Are the New Deal Historians of Texas?: A Literature Review of the New Deal Experience in Texas.”
P.S. Volanto also wrote this book, Texas Cotton and the New Deal, which you might want to take a gander at.
PHIT featured the distinguished professor in our documentary series on Resettlement Communities created during the New Deal. You can find them here. [Ropesville] [Sabine] [Dalworthington Gardens]
Volanto asks a good question. Where are those New Deal historians? Texas history is hot stuff. There are loads of Reconstruction specialists. Quite a few Texas books focus on the Texas early revolutionary days. Not so many on the New Deal.
The New Deal was a politically progressive time, a period of Texas history that I think should be emphasized in classrooms. The Texas New Deal experience was a time when government was working hard to make lives better for citizens. It was a time of change and forward thinking.
But it is neglected. As is the Hightower years, which, I might mention, PHIT is diligently working on to make more accessible.
Well… let the games begin. New Deal historians… Step forward!
Volanto does mention that the pace has picked up. Be sure to read his article and find the relevant newer books.
But the History of the New Deal in Texas is still sadly under-explored. It was a glorious time. James Allred was Governor during the glory years. Yarborough was assistant Attorney General. Rayburn ruled the House of Representatives in Washington. And LBJ learned how to practice politics.
The ending of the decade was not so nice, however. Pappy O’Daniel somehow slips into the governor’s office. But he too, as a grifter extraordinaire, is worthy of study given the current times.
The New Deal changed Texas. From the Resettlement Communities to the construction of the Colorado Dams to the rebuilding of the Spanish Missions to the first public housing in Texas. To say nothing of the glorious Pecan Sheller’s Strike.
A lot of it is simply neglected in textbooks and the popular mainstream. I especially am waiting for a biography of Allred and for a detailed full history of the Resettlement communities. I don’t want to have to do it myself.
The first article in Texas New Deal Review is focused on the WPA Guide to Texas.
Brenda Matthews The Federal Writers Project Helps Fashion Twentieth Century Texas Texas, A Guide to the Lone Star State, 1940
The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) was a program established in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration. The FWP was intended to provide jobs for unemployed writers, editors, and research workers. One of the project’s most significant achievements was the American Guide series, which included encyclopedic guidebooks for every state and territory (except Hawaii), as well as the cities of Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Philadelphia.
The New Republic called the American Guide series the “greatest writing and publishing venture of the decade.” The Guides combined travel information with essays on geography, architecture, history, and commerce. In addition to the guides, the FWP produced ethnic studies, folklore collections, local histories, and nature studies, totaling more than 1,000 books and pamphlets.
The Texas Guide was the biggest…duh!…at 718 pages.
Brenda Mathews emphasizes that the guide was part of an intentional effort to portray Texas as more Western than Southern. It was a subtle shift, but an important one. For Texas and for Texas historians. I have to think that this was good for the self-image of Texans. But what do I know.
Let me confess that I love the Guide despite its faults. Quaint but huge, it is a slice of Texas history at one moment in time. The WPA Guide was a grand adventure of public collective writing. Collective writing by PAID writers. Paid by the public. Mistakes, sure. Biases, sure. But a slice, a huge slice of the moment. And all of it out there.
I wish there had been a project like this done in 1970. Another in 2000. A third in 2030. Now that would be useful.
Years ago, when I got my first copy of the WPA guide, I immediately went to the city focus on Austin. Again…a slice of history from one person’s point of view.
If I hadn’t read it, I would never know that Mount Bonnell was once mined for strontium. And how could I live with myself not knowing that.
I am sure you will want to read the guide and find out interesting old facts about your city.
And while you are at it. Subscribe to the Texas New Deal Review.