Yesterday I spoke at the Daughter’s of the Republic of Texas Library located on the grounds of the Alamo in San Antonio. The 23rd Annual Texas History Forum was the occasion. The theme for this year’s forum centered on historiography. As the introductory material for the event noted, “Historiography is the history of historical writing, specifically the history of how scholars have interpreted historical topics over time. In order to understand this, historiography also necessitates the study of why historians have chosen to examine and describe the past in particular ways.
Dr. Gregg Cantrell of Texas Christian University and Dr. Jim Crisp of North Carolina State University also spoke at the Forum. I spoke on “Telling the Story of Old-Time Texas: The History of Texas History” In so doing I provided an overview of Texas historiography and some of the assumptions that have shaped its interpretations over time. I also noted some of the attributes of sound historical writing. Dr. Cantrell related his experiences in researchin and writing his award-winning biography of Stephen F. Austin. He highlighted some of the historiographical decisions he had to make in crafting that biographical analysis of Austin. Dr Crisp continued the theme of historiography by analyzing some of the primary and secondary sources from the actual 1836 battle of the Alamo the speak to the matter of Davy Crockett’s death. This analsyis is based on his new book “How Did Davy Die? And Why Do We Care So Much?”
For a more detailed synopsis of the three presentations, see the website of the Daughter’s of the Republic of Texas Library: Click Here.
