| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Dale Baum. The Shattering of Texas Unionism: Politics in the Lone Star State During the Civil War Era. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 1998. Pp. xvi, 283. $37.50.

The history of Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction has not been well-served by historians in the twentieth century. Ever since the William Archibald Dunning-inspired study by Charles W. Ramsdell, Reconstruction in Texas (1910), all the scholarly literature until the past two decades has parroted his viewpoint and accepted his interpretations. Although we still do not have a history of Texas during the Civil War, or even Reconstruction, Dale Baum's new work attempts to bridge this gap by focusing on politics, elections, and social dynamics. The quantitative material and explanations are dense, murky, and difficult for the non-cliometrician, but Baum has provided a reasonably clear and concise narrative to guide the uninitiated. 1

Beginning with Sam Houston's gubernatorial triumph in 1859, which briefly checkmated the pro-slavery Democratic Party's control throughout the South, Baum chronicles various decisions by Texas voters during the critical Civil War era. Houston's success stemmed from several factors, which included Hardin R. Runnels's failure to stabilize the western frontier, his inability to mobilize one-third of his 1857 supporters or attract new voters, and his loss of support in the Rio Grande Valley and the western region. Conventional wisdom suggests that Houston assembled a "curious" or "strange" coalition in winning the governorship, but Baum does not view the 1859 victory as "exceptional." . . .

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