The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 489
673 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
Catherine Edmonston, the mistress of a North Carolina plantation, to take read-
ers into the world of the slaveholding master class. She concludes that
Edmonston and her husband, by refusing to sacrifice their lifestyle for the
Confederacy, contributed to internal dissension and defeat. Their reactions,
however, came more from the failings of the master class-its "system of belief'
that limited "its ability to recognize the truths that the moment of war present-
ed" (p. 138)-than from any particular individual weakness.
Section III includes essays by Mark G. Malvasi (on Allen Tate's The Fathers) and
Ferleger and Richard H. Steckel that examine the history of the South in the
light of literary works, an approach made relevant to this collection by Genovese's
claim that writers often surpass historians in their grip on southern distinctive-
ness. Ferleger and Steckel use quantitative evidence to test William Faulkner's
suggestion that people in the South were in general unhealthy and reach the star-
tling conclusion that "the typical southerner from the eighteenth to the twentieth
century bettered the national average in health and nutrition" (p. 174)-
The volume ends with two appendices-an interview with Genovese and a com-
pilation of his principal writings. "We know damned well," he says in the inter-
view, "that we cannot really reconstruct the past as it was lived, but we also know
that we have a responsibility to come as close as we can" (p. 205). These essays
are a testimonial that his writings on southern history have met that standard.
University of North Texas RANDOLPH B. CAMPBELL
Angel of the Alamo: A True Story of Texas. By Lisa Waller Rogers. (Austin: W. S.
Benson & Co., 2ooo. Pp. 48. Contents, dates, index. ISBN o-87433-125-5.
$18.95, cloth).
In Angel of the Alamo: A True Story of Texas, a children's book appropriate for
the fourth grade level, the author attempts to bring the life of Andrea Castafion
de Flores de Villanueva, a.k.a. "Dofia Candelaria", out of the shadows of one of
the most pivotal moments in Texas history. With this tale, Rogers wishes to
bring into prominence "Dofia Candelaria's" story, so often absent from Texas
history books in which similar odyssean fables spawned by the Battle of the
Alamo are mentioned.
From research stated as having been conducted at the Daughters of the
Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo, the author traces the life of Andrea
Castafion from her birth, which Rogers believes occurred in the midst of an
assault by Apache Indians in the middle of a desert, to that moment on March
6, 1836, when life and circumstances placed her at the very center of the Battle
of the Alamo.
As that bitterly cold morning unfolded, James Bowie took seriously ill and was
removed to an inner room within the Alamo. Andrea is portrayed as single-hand-
edly and fearlessly nursing Bowie's fevered brow to the bitter end, courageously
shielding him against the onslaught of the bayonets that pierced his body.
Accompanying this book are the most exquisite, eye- and soul-filling illustrations
by Gwen Thigpen, giving young Texans the fortunate experience of illustrative art489
2001
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001, periodical, 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101221/m1/557/?rotate=90: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.