Folklore: in All of Us, in All We Do (open access)

Folklore: in All of Us, in All We Do

Compilation of articles about various topics related to folklore organized into five chapters by subject: "The first tackles this issue of folklore and its relationship to history, with some of the articles trying to provide some of that folkloric filler to historical facts. Another chapter focuses on women; one features various types of occupational lore; and another is a tongue-in-cheek look at 'shady characters' such as police officers, politicians, and horsetraders. A final chapter has no theme; it is a catch-all, containing a few interesting articles you may remember from some of our [Texas Folklore Society's] most recent meetings" (p. viii).
Date: December 15, 2006
Creator: Untiedt, Kenneth L.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
You Shook Me All Campaign Long: Music in the 2016 Presidential Election and Beyond (open access)

You Shook Me All Campaign Long: Music in the 2016 Presidential Election and Beyond

Music has long played a role in American presidential campaigns as a mode of both expressing candidates’ messages and criticizing the opposition. The 2016 campaign was no exception and was a game changer similar to the development of music in the 1840 campaign, when “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” helped sing William Harrison into the White House. The ten chapters in this collection place music use in 2016 in historical perspective before examining musical messaging, strategy, and parody. The book ultimately explores causality: how do music and musicians affect presidential elections, and how do politicians and campaigns affect music and musicians? The authors explain this interaction from various perspectives, with methodological approaches from several fields, including political science, legal studies, musicology, cultural studies, rhetorical studies, and communications and journalism. These chapters will help the reader understand music in the 2016 election to realize how music will be relevant in 2020 and beyond.
Date: November 2018
Creator: Kasper, Eric T. & Schoening, Benjamin S.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
"Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds": The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore Laidley (open access)

"Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds": The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore Laidley

This book contains a collection of letters written by Lieutenant Theodore Thadeus Sobieski (T. T. S.) Laidley between 1845 and 1848. The letters discuss life as a soldier during the Mexican War; most of the letters were written from various stations in Mexico. Each letter is bracketed by editorial commentary on the historical context and the collection is prefaced by a brief biography of Laidley's life prior to the first letter. Index starts on page 179.
Date: 1997
Creator: McCaffrey, James M., 1946- & Laidley, Theodore, 1822-1886.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music

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Historical account of musicians in Texas, grouped by region, describing "underappreciated" artists as well as some famous artists. Each chapter provides anecdotes and biographical information about an artist or musical group. Index starts on page 299.
Date: May 2017
Creator: Corcoran, Michael
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

A History of Fort Worth in Black & White 165 Years of African-American Life

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A History of Fort Worth in Black & White fills a long-empty niche on the Fort Worth bookshelf: a scholarly history of the city's black community that starts at the beginning with Ripley Arnold and the early settlers, and comes down to today with our current battles over education, housing, and representation in city affairs. The book's sidebars on some noted and some not-so-noted African Americans make it appealing as a school text as well as a book for the general reader. Using a wealth of primary sources, Richard Selcer dispels several enduring myths, for instance the mistaken belief that Camp Bowie trained only white soldiers, and the spurious claim that Fort Worth managed to avoid the racial violence that plagued other American cities in the twentieth century. Selcer arrives at some surprisingly frank conclusions that will challenge current politically correct notions. "Selcer does a great job of exploring little-known history about the military, education, sports and even some social life and organizations."--Bob Ray Sanders, author of Calvin Littlejohn: Portrait of a Community in Black and White.
Date: November 2015
Creator: Selcer, Richard F.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore (open access)

Juneteenth Texas: Essays in African-American Folklore

Volume of essays about African-American folklore, including reminiscences of African-American folk culture in Texas, studies of specific genres of folklore, information about Texas-African food-ways, studies of specific performers, information about songs and other folklore. The index begins on page 353.
Date: 1996
Creator: Abernethy, Francis Edward
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Cold Anger: a Story of Faith and Power Politics

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"Cold Anger is an important book about the empowerment of working-class communities through church-based social activism. Such activism is certainly not new, but the conscious merger of community organizing tactics with religious beliefs may be. The organizing approach comes from Aul Alinsky and his Industrial Areas Foundations (IAF). . . . The book is structured around the political life of Ernesto Cortes, Jr., the lead IAF organizer who has earned recognition as one of the most powerful individuals in Texas (and who has been featured on Bill Moyers' "World of Ideas"). . . . Cortes fashioned a hard-ball Alinsky approach onto the natural organizing ground of church-based communities. The experiment began in San Antonio . . . and was successful in the transformation of San Antonio politics. Such dramatic success . . . led to similar efforts in Houston, Fort Worth, El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and New York, to mention only a few sites. Expansion beyond San Antonio meant organizing among Protestant churches, among African American and white, and among middle-class communities. In short, these organizing efforts have transcended the particularistic limits of religion, ethnicity, and class while maintaining a church base and sense of …
Date: January 15, 1990
Creator: Rogers, Mary Beth
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Follow de Drinkin' Gou'd (open access)

Follow de Drinkin' Gou'd

This volume includes information about the play-party in Oklahoma, folklore of Texas birds, tall tales, folk anecdotes, Texas folk songs and ballads, and other folklore (back cover). The index begins on page 185.
Date: 2000
Creator: Texas Folklore Society
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Raza Rising: Chicanos in North Texas

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Book about Chicano and Latino experiences in North Texas, based on the author's personal history, newspaper articles, community input, and other sources. Chapters address education, culture, politics, heritage, and related topics.
Date: March 2016
Creator: Gonzales, Richard J.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Roots of Latino Urban Agency (open access)

The Roots of Latino Urban Agency

The 2010 U.S. Census data showed that over the last decade the Latino population grew from 35.3 million to 50.5 million, accounting for more than half of the nation’s population growth. The editors of The Roots of Latino Urban Agency, Sharon Navarro and Rodolfo Rosales, have collected essays that examine this phenomenal growth. The greatest demographic expansion of communities of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans seeking political inclusion and access has been observed in Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and San Antonio. Three premises guide this study. The first premise holds that in order to understand the Latino community in all its diversity, the analysis has to begin at the grassroots level. The second premise maintains that the political future of the Latino community in the United States in the twenty-first century will be largely determined by the various roles they have played in the major urban centers across the nation. The third premise argues that across the urban political landscape the Latino community has experienced different political formations, strategies and ultimately political outcomes in their various urban settings. These essays collectively suggest that political agency can encompass everything from voting, lobbying, networking, grassroots organizing, and mobilization, to dramatic …
Date: November 15, 2013
Creator: Navarro, Sharon A. & Rosales, Rodolfo
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
German Pioneers on the American Frontier: the Wagners in Texas and Illinois (open access)

German Pioneers on the American Frontier: the Wagners in Texas and Illinois

A case study of two brothers, Julius and Wilhelm Wagner, who immigrated to the United States from Baden, Germany. Julius immigrated as part of an early communist group, the "Darmstädters" or "Forty," who established the utopian settlement of Bettina in 1847. His anti-slavery beliefs forced Julius to Mexico during the Civil War, but he returned to Texas after the war. His older brother Wilhelm fled Germany in 1851 as a result of his liberal political beliefs and settled in Texas. He founded a German-language newspaper when he moved to Freeport, Illinois.
Date: 2001
Creator: Reichstein, Andreas V.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Slave to Statesman: The Legacy of Joshua Houston, Servant to Sam Houston (open access)

From Slave to Statesman: The Legacy of Joshua Houston, Servant to Sam Houston

This biography discusses the life of Joshua Houston starting at around twelve years of age until his death in 1902. The text includes commentary on the historical context of his life and anecdotal accounts. Index starts on page 259.
Date: 1993
Creator: Prather, Patricia Smith, 1943- & Monday, Jane Clements, 1941-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

From Santa Anna to Selena: Notable Mexicanos and Tejanos in Texas History since 1821

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Author Harriett Denise Joseph relates biographies of eleven notable Mexicanos and Tejanos, beginning with Santa Anna and the impact his actions had on Texas. She discusses the myriad contributions of Erasmo and Juan Seguín to Texas history, as well as the factors that led a hero of the Texas Revolution (Juan) to be viewed later as a traitor by his fellow Texans. Admired by many but despised by others, folk hero Juan Nepomuceno Cortina is one of the most controversial figures in the history of nineteenth-century South Texas. Preservationist and historian Adina De Zavala fought to save part of the Alamo site and other significant structures. Labor activist Emma Tenayuca’s youth, passion, courage, and sacrifice merit attention for her efforts to help the working class. Joseph reveals the individual and collective accomplishments of a powerhouse couple, bilingual educator Edmundo Mireles and folklorist-author Jovita González. She recognizes the military and personal battles of Medal of Honor recipient Raul “Roy” Benavidez. Irma Rangel, the first Latina to serve in the Texas House of Representatives, is known for the many “firsts” she achieved during her lifetime. Finally, we read about Selena’s life and career, as well as her tragic death and her continuing …
Date: March 2018
Creator: Joseph, Harriett Denise
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
My Remembers: A Black Sharecropper's Recollections of the Depression (open access)

My Remembers: A Black Sharecropper's Recollections of the Depression

Eddie Stimpson Jr.'s personal memoirs from his childhood. He recalls sharecropping life, the ways he and his family got by financially, his faith, African-American culture at the time, and The Great Depression. Includes photographs and illustrations to accompany the story. Index starts on page 163.
Date: 1996
Creator: Stimpson, Eddie, Jr.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Coffee in the Gourd (open access)

Coffee in the Gourd

Collection of miscellaneous folklore of Texas and Mexico, including folk songs, information about Indian pictographs, legends, superstitions, and weather lore. The index begins on page 105.
Date: 1923
Creator: Texas Folklore Society
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Américo Paredes: in His Own Words, an Authorized Biography

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Américo Paredes (1915-1999) was a folklorist, scholar, and professor at the University of Texas at Austin who is widely acknowledged as one of the founding scholars of Chicano Studies. Born in Brownsville, Texas, along the southern U.S.-Mexico Border, Paredes grew up between two worlds—one written about in books, the other sung about in ballads and narrated in folktales. After service in World War II, Paredes entered the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1956. With the publication of his dissertation, “With His Pistol in His Hand”: A Border Ballad and Its Hero in 1958, Paredes soon emerged as a challenger to the status quo. His book questioned the mythic nature of the Texas Rangers and provided an alternative counter-cultural narrative to the existing traditional narratives of Walter Prescott Webb and J. Frank Dobie. For the next forty years Paredes was a brilliant teacher and prolific writer who championed the preservation of border culture and history. He was a soft-spoken, at times temperamental, yet fearless professor. In 1970 he co-founded the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and is credited with introducing the concept of Greater Mexico, decades before its …
Date: April 15, 2010
Creator: Medrano, Manuel F.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Contested Policy: The Rise and Fall of Federal Bilingual Education in the United States, 1960-2001

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Bilingual education is one of the most contentious and misunderstood educational programs in the country. It raises significant questions about this country’s national identity, the nature of federalism, power, ethnicity, and pedagogy. In Contested Policy , Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr., studies the origins, evolution, and consequences of federal bilingual education policy from 1960 to 2001, with particular attention to the activist years after 1978, when bilingual policy was heatedly contested. Traditionally, those in favor of bilingual education are language specialists, Mexican American activists, newly enfranchised civil rights advocates, language minorities, intellectuals, teachers, and students. They are ideologically opposed to the assimilationist philosophy in the schools, to the structural exclusion and institutional discrimination of minority groups, and to limited school reform. On the other hand, the opponents of bilingual education, comprised at different points in time of conservative journalists, politicians, federal bureaucrats, Anglo parent groups, school officials, administrators, and special-interest groups (such as U.S. English), favor assimilationism, the structural exclusion and discrimination of ethnic minorities, and limited school reform. In the 1990s a resurgence of opposition to bilingual education succeeded in repealing bilingual legislation with an English-only piece of legislation. San Miguel deftly provides a history of these clashing groups and …
Date: March 15, 2004
Creator: San Miguel, Guadalupe, Jr.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tone the Bell Easy (open access)

Tone the Bell Easy

Volume of Texas and Mexican folklore, including folktales about witches, superstitions, slavery, folk cures, folk songs and other legends. The index begins on page 190.
Date: 1932
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The Portal to Texas History

The Original Guitar Hero and the Power of Music: the Legendary Lonnie Johnson, Music, and Civil Rights

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Lonnie Johnson (1894–1970) was a virtuoso guitarist who influenced generations of musicians from Django Reinhardt to Eric Clapton to Bill Wyman and especially B. B. King. Born in New Orleans, he began playing violin and guitar in his father’s band at an early age. When most of his family was wiped out by the 1918 flu epidemic, he and his surviving brother moved to St. Louis, where he won a blues contest that included a recording contract. His career was launched. Johnson can be heard on many Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong records, including the latter’s famous “Savoy Blues” with the Hot Five. He is perhaps best known for his 12-string guitar solos and his ground-breaking recordings with the white guitarist Eddie Lang in the late 1920s. After World War II he began playing rhythm and blues and continued to record and tour until his death. This is the first full-length work on Johnson. Dean Alger answers many biographical mysteries, including how many members of Johnson’s large family were left after the epidemic. He also places Johnson and his musical contemporaries in the context of American race relations and argues for the importance of music in the fight for civil …
Date: April 2014
Creator: Alger, Dean
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Rainbow in the Morning (open access)

Rainbow in the Morning

Collection popular folklore of Texas, including work songs, reptile myths, ballads and other folk songs of the South. The index begins on page 185.
Date: 1975
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Crossing the Pond: The Native American Effort in World War II (open access)

Crossing the Pond: The Native American Effort in World War II

A non-fiction book about Native Americans serving in the military during World War II, as well as Native American efforts on the home-front. The book also chronicles attempts by Nazi propagandists to exploit Native Americans for the Third Reich, and the postwar experiences of Native Americans. Includes photographs of Native American civilians and military personnel. Index starts on page 219.
Date: 1999
Creator: Franco, Jere' Bishop
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texian Stomping Grounds (open access)

Texian Stomping Grounds

Collection containing sketches of post-war life in East Texas, including descriptions of early recreations and games, stories about Southern food and cooking, religious anecdotes, Negro folk tales, a first-hand account of a Negro folk play about the life of Christ, and other miscellaneous folklore. The index begins on page 159.
Date: 1941
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Hell to Breakfast (open access)

From Hell to Breakfast

Volume of popular folklore of Texas and Mexico, including religious anecdotes, stories about Native American dances, stories about petroleum and oil fields, folk songs, legends, customs and other miscellaneous folklore. The index begins on page 205.
Date: 1944
Creator: Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank), 1888-1964
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

A Biscuit for Your Shoe: A Memoir of County Line, a Texas Freedom Colony

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In TFS Extra Book #28, Beatrice Upshaw shares her memories of growing up in County Line. A Biscuit for Your Shoe captures the lore of a community which began as a freedom colony west of Nacogdoches in East Texas. The book is a memoir, but it shares more than merely family memories of significant events. It tells of beliefs, home remedies, folk games, and customs, as well as the importance of religion and education to a community of like-minded people. The narrative is a rich source of colloquial language and proverbial sayings that help define a group of people and their strong sense of place. Richard Orton was first introduced to County Line by F. E. “Ab” Abernethy, the Secretary-Editor of the TFS for nearly four decades. Richard eventually did a photographic book on the people of the community, The Upshaws of County Line: An American Family, but he believed that Beatrice’s memoir should be developed into a separate work that could be shared with an audience larger than just family and friends. Richard’s introduction explains the value of the stories Beatrice Upshaw presents in A Biscuit for Your Shoe; they are personal, but the overall narrative speaks collectively about …
Date: November 15, 2020
Creator: Upshaw, Beatrice, 1958-
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library