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

"Many histories of Texas examine the ways that the presence of Black, white, and Latinx people made the state that bridges the South and the Southwest unique. However, in "Borderlands Crucible," Marian Barber argues that this "tri-racial" view of Texas is an oversimplification, as for well over a century, the racial status of European immigrants to Texas (as opposed to immigrants from the eastern US) was an open question. Covering nearly 150 years of Texas history, from the first significant waves of immigration to Texas from the east up through the end of formal segregation in the 1960s, Barber unveils how these immigrants-focusing on the German, Czech, and Irish-became Anglo, and how this process differed from that in other parts of the country. By revealing "how and why Texans came to understand their world as one inhabited by three races," Barber deepens current scholarship on how race was made along the Southern border. Moving chronologically, Barber looks at the aspects of these communities that helped and hindered their acceptance in Texas, focusing on religion, alcohol use, nationalism, and language. The dynamics between communities was also driven by larger contexts-the Civil and World Wars, the Mexican Revolution, the election of JFK-and by their relationship, actual and perceived, to their African American and Mexican American neighbors. Barber argues that ultimately the desire to maintain a racialized order that oppressed Black and brown Texans led to the whitening of "ethnic Europeans," but that the civil rights movements in these communities modeled a demand for equality without assimilation, leading to a renewed ethnic pride in the Irish, German, and Czech Texan communities"-- Provided by publisher.