Texan Crucible: How the Irish, Germans, and Czechs Became Anglo-电子书百科大全

Texan Crucible: How the Irish, Germans, and Czechs Became Anglo book cover

Texan Crucible: How the Irish, Germans, and Czechs Became Anglo

Author(s): Marian J. Barber (Author)

Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication Date: June 9, 2026
Language: English
Print length: 280 pages
ISBN-10: 1477334106
ISBN-13: 9781477334102

Book Description

A history of European immigrants in Texas and how they redefined racial identity.

While the creation of a Black-White racial binary was foundational to most of the United States, nineteenth-century Texas developed a unique tripartite system that acknowledged the role of individuals of Mexican ancestry in a region that was Spanish, Mexican, and an independent nation before becoming a US (and briefly Confederate) state. Yet this framework was fraught, struggling to accommodate new arrivals from beyond North America, in particular the Irish, Germans, and Czechs. Texan Crucible tells the story of these immigrants and how they became Anglo.

Marian Barber reveals the ways language, religion, alcohol use, and attitudes toward slavery distinguished these newcomers to Texas from those arriving from the eastern United States and how they nevertheless created thriving, influential communities. Their status was shaped by events inside and far beyond Texas, including an 1887 prohibition fight, the Civil War, and two world wars that encouraged them to erase their distinctiveness. As segregation was formally outlawed and civil rights activism grew, understandings of race shifted, cementing these groups’ status as Anglo. Texan Crucible recovers the histories of German, Irish, and Czech immigrants and unveils the social construction of racial difference underpinning Texan identity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Texan Crucible successfully undertakes an ambitious aim: examining the interactions of the leading Texas ethnic groups―Irish, Germans, Czechs, and Mexicans―with the dominant white Anglo society and in context with one another. Barber covers over a century of these groups’ political and social histories, but the book’s other significant contribution is its study of identity, both self-identity and the perception of others, in greater detail and with greater sophistication than has been done before. The ensuing insights into histories of immigration and race in Texas are complemented by a lively writing style and a good eye for telling anecdotes. Equally suited for general readers and Texas history courses.

-- Walter D. Kamphoefner, Texas A&M University, author of Germans in America: A Concise History

Barber offers a compelling, fascinating account of the long and contested history of how European immigrants in Texas evolved from nationality groups to Anglos. Texan Crucible powerfully weaves together the histories of these immigrants, Anglos, African Americans, and Mexican Americans to complicate our understanding of race relations and American identity in the United States. It provides an important corrective to our understanding of European immigrants’ integration, one that goes beyond the traditional focus on the coastal communities.

-- Maddalena Marinari, Gustavus Adolphus College, author of Unwanted: Italian and Jewish Mobilization against Restrictive Immigration Laws 1882–1965

About the Author

Marian J. Barber has served as director of the Catholic Archives of Texas and associate director of the National History Center of the American Historical Association.

View on Amazon

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Book","name":"Texan Crucible: How the Irish, Germans, and Czechs Became Anglo","image":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51SBlZLCIWL._SY445_SX342_FMwebp_.jpg","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Marian J. Barber (Author)"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"University of Texas Press"},"datePublished":"June 9, 2026","isbn":"9781477334102","numberOfPages":280,"inLanguage":"English","description":"A history of European immigrants in Texas and how they redefined racial identity. While the creation of a Black-White racial binary was foundational to most of the United States, nineteenth-century Texas developed a unique tripartite system that acknowledged the role of individuals of Mexican ancestry in a region that was Spanish, Mexican, and an independent nation before becoming a US (and briefly Confederate) state. Yet this framework was fraught, struggling to accommodate new arrivals from beyond North America, in particular the Irish, Germans, and Czechs. Texan Crucible tells the story of these immigrants and how they became Anglo. Marian Barber reveals the ways language, religion, alcohol use, and attitudes toward slavery distinguished these newcomers to Texas from those arriving from the eastern United States and how they nevertheless created thriving, influential communities. Their status was shaped by events inside and far beyond Texas, including an 1887 prohibition fight, the Civil War, and two world wars that encouraged them to erase their distinctiveness. As segregation was formally outlawed and civil rights activism grew, understandings of race shifted, cementing these groups’ status as Anglo. Texan Crucible recovers the histories of German, Irish, and Czech immigrants and unveils the social construction of racial difference underpinning Texan identity.","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1477334106/","bookFormat":"http://schema.org/EBook","additionalType":"http://schema.org/PDF","fileSize":"06 MB","accessibilityFeature":["login required","member access only"],"accessibilitySummary":"PDF version available to authenticated members only. File size: 06 MB."}