The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 22, July 1918 - April, 1919 Page: 96

The So ruthwestcrn Tlistorical Quarterly

B1300K REVIEWS AND NOTICES
Span n'ish and French Rivalry in n lie Gulf Region of tle United
States, 1078-!70: The Beginnings of Texas and Pensa-
cola. By William Edward Dunn (University of Texas Bul-
letin No. 1705. Studies in History No. 1), Austin, 1917.
Few if any more substantial contributions than this have been
made in recent years to the history of Colonial North America.
To fully appreciate its significance one should not only read the
author's excellent Preface, but should also understand its relation
to the development of the field which it covers. Dr. Dunn's book
represents a. distinct stage in the historiography of his subject.
It may be regarded as a ripened product of the renaissance in
early Texas history which began with Garrison some twenty years
ago and has engaged the attention of McCaleb, Cashs, Barker,
Cox, Clark, West, Iackett, I-ugihes, Bucklev, Austin, Rather, and
others whose names are scattered through the twenty volumes of
TIrE OQUARTERLY of the T eas State it,4o'i:al Assoeiation. Dr.
Dunn has hand the good fortune and( the ability to reap where
many have sown.
The work of this pioneer group consisted of two distinct tasks.
In the first plnce, they gathered at the University of Texas, chiefly
from the archives of Mexico, a large body of basic and erstwhile
unknown materials for the field. In the gathering process Dr.
Dunn himself, while still a young student, played an intimate and
important pallt. In the second place, episode by episode, incident
by incident, these workers diccested the new material, until the
chief blocks for tle building of an historical structure were shaped,
rough hewn though they were in some cases. For the period cov-
ered by Dr. Dunn, Clark's Bccginnines of Texras has been the most
substantial written result of these earlier efforts, and in some re-
spects it has not yet been superseded.
With the field thus outlined, with this large body of material
assembled as a basis, and with the accumulated experience ac-
quired byv himself and others in archives, Dr. Dunn assumed a
new and double task. The archives of Mexico had been pretty
thoroughly combed, but those of Spain had been very little util-