This work provides a history of the Protestant fundamentalist movement in Texas, beginning with the 1890's and progressing to the 1970's, but it emphasizes the controversial decade of the 1920's. Although it is a narrative account it also attempts to analyze the reasons for the movement's development, while evaluating its impact on the state.

The Germans who immigrated to Texas in the 1830s, 40s, and 50s brought with them many and varied cultural institutions which they had known and enjoyed in Europe. As soon as the initial hardships of the frontier could be overcome, they eagerly established singing societies in the Lidertafel tradition. These organizations were to have a profound impact on music in Texas from about 1850 to the time of World War I.