SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY最新文献

Reviewed by:

• The Architecture of Birdsall P. Briscoe by Stephen Fox
• Kathryn E. Holliday

While for historians of Texas the last name "Briscoe" is instantly recognizable, Birdsall P. Briscoe is certainly not a well-known figure. Great-grandson of John Richardson Harris, namesake of Houston's Harris County, and grandson of Andrew Briscoe, officer in the Texas war of independence, Birdsall Briscoe eschewed the politics and military roles of his more famous forbears and became an architect who practiced in Houston for 50 years, between 1912 and 1962. His family's intimate, multigenerational connections with Houston's elite provided an instant clientele for Briscoe's elegant, stately city and country houses that continue to define the look and feel of luxury in the city today. Briscoe's designs for River Oaks, for Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend, for the Kappa Kappa Gamma House at the University of Texas at Austin, for ranch houses in East Texas, and dozens of other private commissions, represent the pinnacle of stylish good taste in Texas domestic architecture in the first half of the 20th century.

Stephen Fox's painstakingly researched and beautiful new monograph argues that Birdsall Briscoe's designs for these luxurious houses should be understood as integral to the larger social and political history of Houston and Texas, evidence of the ways that Houston's elite used their social and financial capital to create tasteful neighborhoods and domestic settings that reflected their sense of appropriate urban order. Briscoe's designs, Fox writes, "enabled their owners to be identified as patrician leaders as well as the symbolic capital that constructed collective landscapes of power that nonelite Houstonians experienced as authoritative and beautiful rather than exclusionary and oppressive." (p. 12) Fox draws on the cultural theory of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to provide the foundations for this analytical framework, which contextualizes Fox's painstaking examination of Briscoe's designs.

Fox has written extensively across his long career about architecture in Texas, especially in Houston, Galveston, and Brownsville, and this book shows the depth of his understanding of architecture as formal and visual, as well as reflective of complex social dynamics. The book is arranged both thematically and chronologically, and while its title emphasizes Birdsall Briscoe as a designer, the chapter titles show that the book is equally about Houston itself, from Chapter Three "Progressive Houston," to Chapter Seven, "The City That Never Knew th

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• William F. Buckley Sr.: Witness to the Mexican Revolution, 1908–1922 by John A. Adams Jr.
• Steven Collins

In William F. Buckley Sr.: Witness to the Mexican Revolution, 1908-1922, John Adams provides a long overdue biography of an attorney and oilman from San Diego, Texas. Buckley secured his place in history as one of the leading forces behind the Tampico oil boom in Mexico, 1908. After the ouster of his friend, Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, his keen knowledge of the oil industry and ability to negotiate with politicians and bandits alike gave him and his Pantepec Oil Company a front-row seat to Mexico's long revolution. In the 1920s, when the Mexican oil and gas industry experienced a downturn, he identified new possibilities in Venezuela. He then befriended Venezuelan President Juan Gómez and provided plans for commercial facilities and gained leasing rights in the Lake Maracaibo region. During the 1930s, Buckley acknowledged the importance of diversification for the long-term viability of his company. He secured drilling contracts in Florida, Canada, and the Middle East, establishing a truly global enterprise. Adams concludes that Buckley's upbringing in South Texas and his University of Texas law degree contributed to his success as one of the most accomplished independent oilmen in the industry's history. The lasting impact of Buckley's influence helped to shape the international oil industry for decades following his death in 1958.

The book demonstrates Buckley's unparalleled business acumen and astute political mind. Following the establishment of a law office in Mexico City, he used the local Petroleum Club as a venue for negotiating contracts and securing loans, culminating in the founding of his Pantepec Oil Company. He was critical of President Woodrow Wilson's administration, which lacked appreciation for Mexican culture, politics, and social dynamics. His defense of the Catholic Church and testimony during the 1919 Fall Committee hearings led to his expulsion from Mexico in 1921. Adams explains this was a watershed for Buckley's career. He fortuitously [End Page 360] expanded Pantepec Oil to Venezuela. Then, as the Great Depression unfolded, he had the great foresight to diversify Pantepec. He gained new leases in Florida, Canada, and the Middle East to create one of the largest independently owned oil companies.

Adams' book is more than a biography. It is a historical ride through the rough and tumble days of the Tampico oil rush and the Mexican Revolution. In the final years

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• Our Stories: Black Families in Early Dallas ed. by George Keaton Jr. and Judith Garrett Segura
• Makenzie A. Wiley

This collection of stories and personal histories focuses on Dallas, but it aims to provide a deeper perspective on the lives of all African Americans in Texas. The book is a republication and expansion of two earlier works produced by Black Dallas Remembered, a non-profit history organization [End Page 355] led by Mamie L. McKnight. Entitled African Families and Settlements in Dallas and First African American Families in Dallas, these brief works appeared in 1990 and 1987, respectively. For this edition, editors George Keaton Jr. and Judith Garret Segura have added their notes and commentary throughout while updating some information to modernize the text and bring the monograph to new audiences. The monograph itself now acts as a great foundation for examining the establishment of Black settlements in the Dallas area, while also providing context regarding how those areas transformed as Dallas became the larger metroplex it is today.

Looking at three aspects of Black life in Dallas, the authors discuss the establishment of several towns following the Civil War, the schools that served those communities, and the major families of the area. Beginning with this background on Black communities and settlements founded in the Dallas area following emancipation, the monograph provides a comprehensive narrative of the subsequent development of Black neighborhoods in Dallas. Some communities mentioned are Booker T. Washington Addition, Eagle Ford, the Fields Community, the Thomas Hill Community, Mill City, North Dallas, Oak Cliff, The Prairie, South Dallas, Upper and Lower White Rock, and the West Dallas Community, all areas that became large subdivisions in modern Dallas. While the authors discuss each town individually, they also look at similarities between the communities, like the role of churches, schools, and important families that helped to settle the area. Additionally, the authors use oral history transcripts to provide more detail concerning the settlements of the Black communities in Dallas.

The authors do an excellent job of completing the picture of early Dallas; however, the greatest accomplishment of the book is their ability to humanize the settlers of so many of the Black communities. Despite the hardships and discrimination that plagued Black life in the period, this work shows how the first Black settlers in Dallas should be honored for the great steps they took in not only endurin

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• Texas Secessionists Standoff: The 1997 Republic of Texas "War" by Donna Marie Miller
• Darren L. Ivey

For more than fifty years, sustained political violence has been plaguing American society. Throughout this time period, disaffected groups, who range the ideological spectrum, have attacked property and people, even to the point of murder, to further their radical goals. Austin-based freelance journalist Donna Marie Miller's well-researched Texas Secessionists Standoff chronicles one episode in this tragic historical trend. The book examines the Republic of Texas (ROT) secessionist militia and its taking of hostages in the Davis Mountain Resort (DMR) near Fort Davis in April 1997. Miller has organized her twenty-five chapters into three parts: Before the ROT War, The ROT War, and After the ROT War.

Part I lays the foundation for the events that occurred in the Davis Mountains. Much of this portion relies on interviews Miller conducted with participants between 2017 and 2019. Richard McLaren, the self-appointed "ambassador" of the ROT, was convinced that Texas had been illegally annexed in 1845 and disputed the legitimacy of the state government. To further his ambitions, McLaren exploited the legal system to prosecute a "paper war" and challenge land titles in the DMR. He also began abusing adverse possession laws and filing liens against banks, churches, businesses, politicians, and even neighbors.

Even as she ably weaves various threads together to explain subsequent events, Miller focuses much of the first part on telling the story of Jo Anne Canady Turner, a wife, mother, and businesswoman who was floundering financially and anxious to escape the threat of foreclosure. Her desperation led to the fateful decision to aid the ROT in their endeavors. Although she was not in the Davis Mountains during the standoff, Turner is central to Miller's narrative.

Part II chronicles the seven-day confrontation in the DMR where several members of the ROT held Joe and Margaret Ann Rowe captive in their own home. Three hundred law enforcement officers responded, and Texas Ranger Captain Barry Caver served as the on-scene commander. He, Rangers David Duncan and Joe Malone, and FBI hostage negotiator Gary Noesner (who wrote the book's foreword) were instrumental in saving the Rowes. As this incident followed other altercations with extremists at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, both of which ended badly, Caver and his colleagues were especially eager to resolve the crisis without bloodshed. Ultimately, the ROT

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• Before Lawrence v. Texas: The Making of a Queer Social Movement by Wesley G. Phelps
• La Shonda Mims

In popular opinion, social movements are often defined by major events punctuating a tidy timeline. Yet historians know that an analysis of the long game is where we uncover the true significance of a major achievement. Before Lawrence v. Texas is an exhaustively researched legal and political analysis to which Wesley Phelps applies the methodology of social history. Through an investigation of the complex legislative maneuvering that defined Lawrence v. Texas, which is sometimes viewed as a spontaneous achievement in the history of LGBTQ rights, Phelps shows that over three decades urban activists fought less successful cases that influenced the seismic Lawrence decision.

From the 1860 sodomy law in Texas, Phelps travels the winding legal road to the Lawrence decision, demonstrating the importance of "ordinary citizens" to a "thriving democracy." This book centers on Texas cities because that is where political action and community organizing happens. When the Texas penal code was revised starting in 1965, it resulted in the 1974 adoption of Section 21.06, which criminalized same-sex sexual activity. Phelps argues that this "homosexual conduct law served as a rationale for denying queer Texans the rights and freedoms of first-class citizenship." (p. 81) The results were devastating. For example, when two lesbians joined their families together in Garland, Texas, including children from prior marriages, they quickly faced a brutal custody case. In 1975, one of the women lost custody of her biological children because of 21.06. Placing individual stories like this in the larger narrative of Texas's legal history is imperative in order to understand how daily queer life exposed a culture of inequality in the state.

At the heart of the book, Phelps focuses on queer resistance in the 1970s and 1980s. Phelps asserts that cases like Baker v. Wade in 1985 represented a "turning point" because they created a national storyline for the legislative fight against sodomy laws. (p. 12) Even though Baker's claims to privacy rights were unsuccessful, and the plaintiffs were "battle worn and scarred" at the end, Phelps argues that the case was "critical" [End Page 365] to initiating the "legal strategy" necessary to overturn the state's sodomy statute. (pp. 160-161) Following the Baker decision, two cases brought by women plaintiffs highlight the diversity of those arguing against the state's sodomy laws. As a lesb