Books by Richard McCaslin
Sutherland Springs, Texas: Saratoga on the Cibolo (Texas Local Series)
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 2017-02-23
ISBN: 1574416731, ISBN-13: 9781574416732
In Sutherland Springs, Texas, Richard B. McCaslin explores the rise and fall of this rural community near San Antonio primarily through the lens of its aspirations to become a resort spa town, because of its mineral water springs, around the turn of the twentieth century. Texas real estate developers, initially more interested in oil, brought Sutherland Springs to its peak as a resort in the early twentieth century, but failed to transform the farming settlement into a resort town. The decline in water tables during the late twentieth century reduced the mineral water flows, and the town faded. Sutherland Springs’s history thus provides great insights into the importance of water in shaping settlement.
Beyond the story of resort spa aspirations lies a history of the community and its people itself.
McCaslin provides a complete history of Sutherland Springs from early settlement through Civil War and into the twentieth century, its agricultural and oil-drilling exploits alongside its mineral water appeal, as well as a complete community history of the various settlers and owners of the springs/hotel.
Beyond the story of resort spa aspirations lies a history of the community and its people itself.
McCaslin provides a complete history of Sutherland Springs from early settlement through Civil War and into the twentieth century, its agricultural and oil-drilling exploits alongside its mineral water appeal, as well as a complete community history of the various settlers and owners of the springs/hotel.
Washington on the Brazos: Cradle of the Texas Republic (Fred Rider Cotten Popular History Series)
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 2016-02-17
ISBN: 1625110367, ISBN-13: 9781625110367
With Washington on the Brazos: Cradle of the Texas Republic, noted historian Richard B. McCaslin recovers the history of an iconic Texas town. The story of the Texas Republic begins and ends at Washington, but the town’s history extends much further. Texas leaders gathered in the new town on the west bank of the Brazos in March 1836 to establish a new republic. After approving a declaration of independence and constitution, they fled as Santa Anna's army approached. The government of the Republic of Texas returned there in 1842, but after the United States annexed Texas in 1846, Austin replaced Washington as the capital of the Lone Star State. The town became a thriving river port in the 1850s, when steamboat cargoes paid for many new buildings. But the community steeply declined when its leaders decided to rely on steamers rather than invest in a railroad line, although German immigrants and African American residents kept the town alive. Later, Progressive Era plans for historic tourism focused the town’s central role in the Texas Republic brought renewed interest, and a state park was founded. The Texas centennial in 1936 and the hard work of citizens’ organizations beginning in the 1950s transformed this park into Washington-on-the-Brazos, the state historic site that serves today as the primary focus for preserving the history of the Republic of Texas.
Galveston's Maceo Family Empire: Bootlegging & the Balinese Room (True Crime)
Author(s): T. Nicole Boatman, Scott H. Belshaw, Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 2014-11-18
ISBN: 1626197539, ISBN-13: 9781626197534
At the dawn of the twentieth century, Galveston was a beacon of opportunity on the Texas Gulf Coast. Dubbed the "Wall Street of the Southwest," its laissez-faire reputation called those hungry for success to its shores. Led by brothers Salvatore and Rosario at the height of Prohibition, the Maceo family answered that call and changed the Oleander City forever. They built an island empire of gambling, smuggling and prostitution that lasted three decades. Housed in their nightclubs frequented by stars like Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington, they endeared themselves to their Galveston neighbors by sharing their profits, imitating crime syndicates in their native Sicily. Though certainly no saints, the Maceos helped bring prosperity to a community weary from a century of turmoil. Discover the history of Galveston's famous crime family with authors Nicole Boatman, Dr. Scott Belshaw and Texas historian Richard McCaslin.
This Corner of Canaan: Essays on Texas in Honor of Randolph B. Campbell
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin, Donald E. Chipman, Andrew J. Torget
Publication date: 2013-02-15
ISBN: 1574415034, ISBN-13: 9781574415032
Randolph B. “Mike” Campbell has spent the better part of the last five decades helping Texans rediscover their history, producing a stream of definitive works on the social, political, and economic structures of the Texas past. Through meticulous research and terrific prose, Campbell’s collective work has fundamentally remade how historians understand Texan identity and the state’s southern heritage, as well as our understanding of such contentious issues as slavery, westward expansion, and Reconstruction. Campbell’s pioneering work in local and county records has defined the model for grassroots research and community studies in the field. More than any other scholar, Campbell has shaped our modern understanding of Texas.
In this collection of seventeen original essays, Campbell’s colleagues, friends, and students offer a capacious examination of Texas’s history—ranging from the Spanish era through the 1960s War on Poverty—to honor Campbell’s deep influence on the field. Focusing on themes and methods that Campbell pioneered, the essays debate Texas identity, the creation of nineteenth-century Texas, the legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the remaking of the Lone Star State during the twentieth century. Featuring some of the most well-known names in the field—as well as rising stars—the volume offers the latest scholarship on major issues in Texas history, and the enduring influence of the most eminent Texas historian of the last half century.
Fighting Stock: John S. "Rip" Ford of Texas (The Texas Biography Series)
Author(s): Dr. Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 2011-02-21
ISBN: 0875654215, ISBN-13: 9780875654218
In Fighting Stock, Richard B. McCaslin illuminates numerous facets of Ford’s life typically overshadowed by emphasis on his identity as Ranger and soldier in nineteenth-century Texas. In this third volume of the Texas Biography Series, published by TCU Press and The Center for Texas Studies, McCaslin reveals Ford as a man spurred on by the legacy of his nation-building grandfathers and his own strong convictions and energy to become a force in shaping Texas as a Southern state before and after the Civil War. Ford’s battles as a Ranger, and as a leader of Texas’ military forces allied with the Confederacy, were only part of his legacy in Texas history. He was also a physician, lawyer, and the editor of several newspapers, and among his many roles in politics and civil service were multiple terms as a state legislator and the mayoralty of Austin and Brownsville. Later in life, he fought to preserve Texas history and wrote his own extensive memoirs. Known for his courage and toughness as a military commander, Ford was also a talented strategist, diplomat, and community leader. McCaslin’s in-depth historical detail paints a full picture of this famous Texan, a fighter not only on the battlefield, but on the civic and political fields as well.
PORTRAITS OF CONFLICT: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 2007-06-01
ISBN: 1557288313, ISBN-13: 9781557288318
It’s one thing to understand that over twenty-thousand Confederate and Union soldiers died at the Battle of Murfreesboro. It’s quite another to study an ambrotype portrait of twenty-year-old private Frank B. Crosthwait, dressed in his Sunday best, looking somberly at the camera. In a tragically short time, he’ll be found on the battlefield, mortally wounded, still clutching the knotted pieces of handkerchief he used in a hopeless attempt to stop the bleeding from his injuries.
Private Crosthwait’s image is one of more than 250 portraits—many never before published—to be found in the much anticipated Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War. The eighth in the distinguished Portraits of Conflict series, this volume joins the personal and the public to provide a uniquely rich portrayal of Tennesseans—in uniforms both blue and gray—who fought and lost their lives in the Civil War.
Here is the story of a widow working as a Union spy to support herself and her children. Of a father emerging from his house to find his Confederate soldier son dying at his feet. Of a nine-year-old boy who attached himself to a Union regiment after his mother died. Their stories and faces, joined with personal remembrances from recovered letters and diaries and ample historical information on secession, famous battles, surrender, and Reconstruction, make this new Portraits of Conflict a Civil War treasure.
Private Crosthwait’s image is one of more than 250 portraits—many never before published—to be found in the much anticipated Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Tennessee in the Civil War. The eighth in the distinguished Portraits of Conflict series, this volume joins the personal and the public to provide a uniquely rich portrayal of Tennesseans—in uniforms both blue and gray—who fought and lost their lives in the Civil War.
Here is the story of a widow working as a Union spy to support herself and her children. Of a father emerging from his house to find his Confederate soldier son dying at his feet. Of a nine-year-old boy who attached himself to a Union regiment after his mother died. Their stories and faces, joined with personal remembrances from recovered letters and diaries and ample historical information on secession, famous battles, surrender, and Reconstruction, make this new Portraits of Conflict a Civil War treasure.
At the Heart of Texas: One Hundred Years of the Texas State Historical Association, 1897-1997
Author(s): Richard B McCaslin
Publication date: 2007-07-12
ISBN: 0876112165, ISBN-13: 9780876112168
"History like that of Texas is rare. . . . Is it not discreditable to the people of Texas, that they should leave the collection of material for the history of the State to the great endowed Northern libraries? . . . Let Texas arouse herself for very shame, and begin at once the discharge of her filial duty."
So wrote George Pierce Garrison in the first issue of the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, published in July 1897, just months after the establishment of the organization on March 2. The state of Texas was just half a century old; the city of Austin, going back to the days of the Republic, was a little older—a few years past its half-century; and the University of Texas, where Garrison was "the history professor," was not yet fourteen. Earlier attempts to organize historical societies in Texas, traced in the opening chapter, illuminate the factors that came ultimately to be decisive in the success of the Association: the wisdom in linking the organization with the University of Texas, the inclusion of lay historians, and the continued insistence on high academic standards. And, from the beginning, the Association has established a tradition for publishing in the Quarterly, in addition to the Anglo story, the stories of the Indians, the Spanish, and the French. According to author Richard B. McCaslin, "It may be that the Association survived where its predecessors had not because Garrison, who was as much a Progressive historian as any of his contemporaries, understood the value of inclusiveness."
The text is organized in chronological chapters by the tenures of the seven directors, George Garrison to Ron Tyler, all of whom were professors in the UT history department. Within the larger framework of the directors, the programs, and the publications, McCaslin gives shape to the unique interaction of forces—university, political, and the academic/lay membership—that has accorded the Association a character and suppleness that continues to ensure its long endurance. The book is profusely illustrated, and sidebars culled from past issues of the Quarterly complement the text.
So wrote George Pierce Garrison in the first issue of the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, published in July 1897, just months after the establishment of the organization on March 2. The state of Texas was just half a century old; the city of Austin, going back to the days of the Republic, was a little older—a few years past its half-century; and the University of Texas, where Garrison was "the history professor," was not yet fourteen. Earlier attempts to organize historical societies in Texas, traced in the opening chapter, illuminate the factors that came ultimately to be decisive in the success of the Association: the wisdom in linking the organization with the University of Texas, the inclusion of lay historians, and the continued insistence on high academic standards. And, from the beginning, the Association has established a tradition for publishing in the Quarterly, in addition to the Anglo story, the stories of the Indians, the Spanish, and the French. According to author Richard B. McCaslin, "It may be that the Association survived where its predecessors had not because Garrison, who was as much a Progressive historian as any of his contemporaries, understood the value of inclusiveness."
The text is organized in chronological chapters by the tenures of the seven directors, George Garrison to Ron Tyler, all of whom were professors in the UT history department. Within the larger framework of the directors, the programs, and the publications, McCaslin gives shape to the unique interaction of forces—university, political, and the academic/lay membership—that has accorded the Association a character and suppleness that continues to ensure its long endurance. The book is profusely illustrated, and sidebars culled from past issues of the Quarterly complement the text.
Winner of the Award of Merit from the Philosophical Socierty of Texas
A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie: The Correspondence of Joseph B. Polley, Hood's Texas Brigade (Voices of the Civil War)
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 2007-10-01
ISBN: 1572336137, ISBN-13: 9781572336131
One of the most cited collections of letters by a Civil War soldier, A Soldier's Letters to Charming Nellie was originally published in 1908. A unit history of the 4th Texas Infantry in epistolary form, Joseph B. Polley's letters make available the correspondence of a soldier who participated in virtually all military action in the Eastern Theater. Polley was an unusually gifted writer, with a talent for satire and humor unmatched by most Civil War diarists.
While the collection met with an enthusiastic audience upon its appearance, it has not been without controversy. Scholars have debated some of the letters' authenticity; many appeared in the Confederate Veteran long after the end of the war, and questions remain about whether they were all written during the Civil War or if some were composed at the turn of the century or later.
In this definitive, annotated edition, Richard B. McCaslin has prepared new transcriptions of the letters and compared variant versions of them, resolving many of the historiographical puzzles that surround this wonderful collection. McCaslin also includes an analysis of when, how, and why Polley wrote the letters.
The volume will aid historians interested in the activities of the Army of Northern Virginia and its commanders, and especially students of Hood's Texas Brigade.
While the collection met with an enthusiastic audience upon its appearance, it has not been without controversy. Scholars have debated some of the letters' authenticity; many appeared in the Confederate Veteran long after the end of the war, and questions remain about whether they were all written during the Civil War or if some were composed at the turn of the century or later.
In this definitive, annotated edition, Richard B. McCaslin has prepared new transcriptions of the letters and compared variant versions of them, resolving many of the historiographical puzzles that surround this wonderful collection. McCaslin also includes an analysis of when, how, and why Polley wrote the letters.
The volume will aid historians interested in the activities of the Army of Northern Virginia and its commanders, and especially students of Hood's Texas Brigade.
The Last Stronghold: The Campaign for Fort Fisher (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders Series)
Author(s): Richard McCaslin
Publication date: 2003-09-18
ISBN: 1893114317, ISBN-13: 9781893114319
The busy port of Wilmington, North Carolina, was a key city linking the Confederacy to the goods and the weapons merchants of Europe and the world. By late 1864, the port city had become an important target for Federal military leaders. To keep the city from falling, the Confederacy relied on a strong system of fortifications, the most formidable of which was Fort Fisher.
The Federal Army in late 1864 and early 1865 made the fort the target of the largest amphibious operation prior to World War II. The successful reduction of the post sounded the knell for the brief life of the Confederacy and brought to a close one of the most interesting eras in Wilmington history.
The Federal Army in late 1864 and early 1865 made the fort the target of the largest amphibious operation prior to World War II. The successful reduction of the post sounded the knell for the brief life of the Confederacy and brought to a close one of the most interesting eras in Wilmington history.
Tainted Breeze: The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas, 1862 (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War)
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 1997-09-01
ISBN: 080712219X, ISBN-13: 9780807122198
Winner of the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize In the early morning hours of October 1, 1862, state militia arrested more than two hundred alleged Unionists from five northern Texas counties and brought them to Gainesville. In the ensuing days, at least forty-four prisoners were hanged and several others were lynched in neighboring communities. In the first systematic treatment of this grisly climax to a heritage of violence and vigilantism in North Texas, Richard B. McCaslin provides a unique opportunity to study the tensions produced in southern society by the Civil War, the nature of disaffection in the Confederacy, and the American vigilante tradition.
Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of N Carolina in the Civil War
Author(s): RICHARD MCCASLIN
Publication date: 1997-10-01
ISBN: 1557284547, ISBN-13: 9781557284549
The Civil War presented the first major opportunity for Americans to photograph fighting men and the places they battled and to create an extensive visual record of war. Most collections of such photographs, however, have focused on the leaders of the conflict and have treated the images only as illustrations for traditional narratives. Centering on the common soldier, Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of North Carolina in the Civil War, the sixth in the University of Arkansas Press's award-winning series, tells the stories of the actual people, rich and poor, whose lives were changed forever by the nation's great drama. Here is the tale of a wife who disguised herself as a new recruit so she could avoid separation from her husband, and the brothers who suffered identical injuries and leg amputations within two weeks of each other. With over 250 photographs, maps, and related documents, McCaslin has superbly detailed the physical and spiritual suffering of ordinary Carolinians in their fight for their country, its land, and their own freedoms.
Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of S Carolina in the Civil War
Author(s): RICHARD MCCASLIN
Publication date: 1995-01-01
ISBN: 155728363X, ISBN-13: 9781557283634
With over 240 photographs, maps, and related documents, McCaslin details the physical and spiritual suffering of the ordinary recruit in his fight for his country, its land, and his family's way of life.
Andrew Johnson: A Bibliography (Bibliographies of the Presidents of the United States)
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 1992-12-01
ISBN: 0313281750, ISBN-13: 9780313281754
Andrew Johnson remains a paradox to those who study the controversial era of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The effort to understand Johnson has produced a tremendous outpouring of works that provide fascinating perspectives on one of our most contradictory chief executives. Many scholars condemn him for his actions; others compare him favorably to other presidents. The resulting body of scholarly writing has been enriched by the debate. This volume provides the first systematic, thorough bibliography on the contradictory mass of material, both primary and secondary, on Johnson.
Following a short chronology of Johnson's life, the volume opens with chapters on manuscript and archival resources and the writings of Andrew Johnson. Chapter 3 covers biographical publications, and the next seven chapters cover different periods in his life from childhood to his post-presidential career. The final chapters are devoted to Johnson's associates, his personal life, historiographical materials, and iconography. A separate section covers periodicals, and the work concludes with author and subject indexes.
Lee in the Shadow of Washington (Conflicting Worlds)
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 0000-00-00
ISBN: 0807126969, ISBN-13: 9780807126967
While most scholars agree that Robert E. Lee's loyalty to Virginia was the key factor in his decision to join the Confederate cause, Richard McCaslin goes further to demonstrate that Lee's true call to action was the legacy of the American Revolution viewed through his reverence for George Washington. Like Washington, Lee wore a colonel's uniform. He rode a horse named for one of his idol's mounts, Traveller, and carried one of Washington's swords. On January 19, 1861, his fifty-fourth birthday, Lee sat alone in his room at Fort Mason and faced the prospect of war by reading the latest book by his hero.
In his thematic biography of the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, McCaslin locates the sources of Lee's devotion to Washington and shows how this bond affected his performance as a general in battle. He argues that Lee used the strategy of attrition to attempt to persuade the North to quit just as Washington had wearied the British. But reliance on Washington as a role model led to tragic irony: in 1864 it was Lee's Confederates who became trapped like the British in the Yorktown campaign. After his surrender Lee could no longer emulate Washington the revolutionary, and he became the president of a small college that bore Washington's name, surrounding himself with mementos of his hero.
Challenging conventional interpretations, McCaslin's absorbing book lays to rest the argument that a posthumous "Lee cult" superimposed Washington symbolism onto Lee's life to link it with the Revolution. Rather, Lee himself created the association, which yielded an enduring paradox: Washington earned his reputation as a statesman, whereas Lee never escaped his self-imposed image as a revolutionary in Washington's shadow.
Commitment to excellence: One hundred years of engineering education at the University of Texas at Austin
Author(s): Richard B McCaslin
Publication date: 0000-00-00
ISBN: 0961769203, ISBN-13: 9780961769208
Book by McCaslin, Richard B
Remembered Be Thy Blessings: High Point University: The College Years, 1924-1991
Author(s): Richard B. McCaslin
Publication date: 0000-00-00
ISBN: B001TYEY4Y, ISBN-13:
About High Point University
Commitment to excellence: One hundred years of engineering education at the University of Texas at Austin
Author(s): Richard B McCaslin
Publication date: 0000-00-00
ISBN: 0961769203, ISBN-13: 9780961769208
Book by McCaslin, Richard B
University of North Texas : History
- Roberto Calderon
- Randolph Campbell
- Guy Chet
- Robert Citino
- Christopher Fuhrmann
- Richard Golden
- Constance Hilliard
- Michael Leggiere
- Richard Lowe
- Richard McCaslin
- Alex Mendoza
- Alfred Mierzejewski
- Marilyn Morris
- J. Todd Moye
- Clark Pomerleau
- Gustav Seligmann
- F. Todd Smith
- Harold Tanner
- Andrew Torget
- Elizabeth Hayes Turner
- Olga Velikanova
- Geoffrey Wawro
- Michael Wise
Most popular books
Link to this page using the following URL: https://www.facultybookshelf.org/author/richard_mccaslin