Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring, 1991 Page: 37
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The selection of photographs for Deep in
the Heart further indicates the breadth of the work.
With a fine eye for both human interest and social
history, Winegarten and Schechter have supplemented
the usual individual and group portraits with
reproductions of report cards, Purim ball invitations,
Young Men's Hebrew Association programs,
newspaper advertisements, and a delightful shot, ca.
1916, of a boy teaching his four-year-old sister to hit
a baseball. Broad also is the authors' determination
to include the downside of the Jewish experiencethe
Inquisition in colonial New Spain, the Russian
pogroms of the early twentieth century that played a
role in the opening up of Galveston as a major port
of entry for Jewish immigrants, the terrorist activities
of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and afterwards
and of the Skinheads in the 1980s. Conflicts within
the Jewish community, such as disagreement over
the aims and methods of Zionism, also make their
appearance.
Finally, Winegarten and Schechter have a
broad conception of the possible uses to which their
work can be put; a bibliography surveying archival
resources, published books and articles, and manuscripts
will save future scholars precious time that
they can devote to the more academic type of
historical interpretation of Jewish life in Texas that
is now called for. Deep in the Heart can help to
make such work possible if scholars will take the
cue. Meanwhile, in its own right, this well-executed
book is a lot of fun.
- Peter W. Agnew
Joyce Gibson Roach, The Cowgirls (2nd ed., rev.;
Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1990,259
pp., $15.95)
The term "cowgirl" conjures up visions of
Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley, or female riders in
rodeos, and if you put your mind to it, you would
probably extend the definition to include those
heroines from old Roy Rogers-Dale Evans movies.
Joyce Gibson Roach has a much bigger vision of
whom she considers a "cowgirl." She contends
that "a cowgirl is a female whose life is, or was, for
a significant part influenced by cattle, horses, and
the men who dealt with either or both."
Roach feels the cowgirls have been neglected
in our history and generally "lumped withpioneer women and thus too narrowly hemmed in."
To counter these constrictions, Roach proceeds to
present a series of vignettes describing the multiple
personalities (and occupations) of women whom
she labels "cowgirls." In four sections she describes
the women who are associated with the cattle industry;
those involved in the commercial aspects of
the old Wild West shows and the rodeo; the distorted
images found in myth, literature, or art; and, of
course, the cowgirl from the cowboy's point of
view.
Roach reaches deep into the frontier to
begin her tales of women in the West. She relates
stories about those hardy helpmates who rode out
on the cattle drives, "doing a man's job in a woman's
way," and who are "remembered more for their
abilities in the saddle than for their apple pie." The
author weaves folklore and fact into tales about
women who took liberties with the law and lady
rustlers and other lawless women who used guns
expertly.
In the second section of her book, Roach
looks at Wild West shows and rodeos and finds some
dramatic changes in the roles cowgirls played in the
commercial sector. The early years found cowgirls
"who could dog steers, ride broncos, and rope the
wind." However, that female-cowboy image gave
way with changes in the rodeo industry and soon
women were relegated to novelty roles that promoted
the image of heroines of the frontier. Along with the
obligatory chapter on western dress, Roach recounts
how "cowgirls entered the gates of embellished
fact and emerged through the chutes of legend."37
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Dallas County Heritage Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 3, Number 1, Spring, 1991, periodical, 1991; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth35118/m1/39/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.