The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, July 1994 - April, 1995 Page: 346
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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346 Southwestern Historical Quarterly October
in the field, especially those dealing with art, photography, and film. Also, be-
cause of her focus on the "modern" West, Butler fails to see the many connec-
tions with European or worldwide archetypes. Ray Billington's Land of Savagery,
Land of Promise certainly raises those questions, and Joseph Campbell's The Hero
with a Thousand Faces provides a broader context for this topic.
This review should not, however, dwell on the negative aspects. There are
many exceedingly fine essays such as Clyde Milner's "National Initiatives," Elliott
West's "American Frontier," Jay Gitlin's "Empires of Trade, Hinterlands of Set-
tlement" (the latter two Turnerian Cismississippi topics a la Billington), Keith
Bryant's "Entering the Global Economy," Kathleen Conzen's "A Saga of Fami-
lies," Carlos Schwantes's "Wage Earners and Wealth Seekers," Carol O'Connor's
"A Region of Cities" (even if it does show ignorance of Texas development),
William Cronon's "Landscapes of Abundance and Beauty," and Walter Nugent's
thoughtful concluding essay "Comparing Wests and Frontiers."
Almost all of the very readable chapters open with an interesting vignette, but
in concluding this review I have to give a special salute to Carol O'Connor's
opening story of the removal of the Dodgers from Brooklyn and their resettle-
ment in Los Angeles. Nothing introduces the "new" western history better than
this.
University of Texas at Austin WILLIAM H. GOETZMANN
Art for History's Sake: The Texas Collection of the Witte Museum. By Cecilia Steinfeldt.
(Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1993. Pp. xxvi+298. Preface, ac-
knowledgments, introduction, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-87611-116-9.
$45.00.)
Written by the leading authority on Texas art, this book is a treat for anyone
interested in Texas history, culture, and art. Cecilia Steinfeldt discusses more
than sixty artists and their works as she delineates the rich variety of art created
between 1845 and 1950 that today forms the Texas Collection at San Antonio's
Witte Museum. The author's sharply focused discussions provide pertinent, and
often anecdotal, biographical information, while attending to art historical con-
siderations of style, technique, and influence. The accessibility of her writing is
matched by the clarity of the book's design, with its successful integration of text
and imagery. The large number of reproductions, fifty-seven in color, offers a vi-
sual feast.
Given the book's encyclopedic nature, most readers will probably browse
through it, stopping to read the text when arrested by a particular image or fa-
miliar artist. Those using the book as a reference tool will be rewarded by Stein-
feldt's thorough documentation and extensive bibliography. Arranged
alphabetically by artist, the book frequently includes fortuitous juxtapositions
that are striking and fascinating. For example, the sophisticated work of the
Chicago-trained Harry Anthony De Young is followed by the wonderfully bizarre
pre-Surrealist collages of C. A. A. Dellschau, which precede the renowned re-
gional imagery of Otis Dozier. Particularly informative and intriguing are the au-
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, July 1994 - April, 1995, periodical, 1995; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101216/m1/384/?rotate=270: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.