The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985 Page: 336

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

War. Of special importance to students of Texas history, De Leon pro-
vides a powerful, convincing corrective to the distorted views of Mexi-
cans found in the standard historical works by Eugene C. Barker,
Walter Prescott Webb, and Rupert N. Richardson.
From the outset, De Leon makes clear his purpose. In this regard,
the author cannot be faulted for the lack of critical commentary or
probing analysis. It will be the task of other scholars to analyze the
meaning of Anglo attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas in the nine-
teenth century and to interpret their significance in the larger context
of Chicano history.
University of California, Berkeley ALEX M. SARAGOZA
Dixie Dateline: A Journalistic Portrait of the Contemporary South.
Edited by John B. Boles. (Houston: Rice University Studies,
1983. Pp. vii+ 182. Introduction, figure, guide to literature.
$12.95, cloth; $7.95, paper.)
Dixie Dateline is a collection of essays written by journalists and pre-
sented at a symposium sponsored by Tulane University. Edited and
introduced by historian John B. Boles, the essays cover a rich variety
of topics relevant to the contemporary South.
The symposium was an eminently sensible idea. Given the fact that
journalists and historians write about the South more than any other
identifiable group, it is surprising how little they seem to influence
each other or even to be aware of each other. It is true that southern
historians have been profoundly influenced by Wilbur J. Cash's Mind
of the South and that most journalists who cover the southern beat-
including the contributors to this volume-are familiar with the writ-
ing of C. Vann Woodward. Among journalists, James W. Silver's vol-
ume on Mississippi enjoyed a certain vogue, but one suspects that
was because Silver's examination of "the closed society" was essentially
a journalistic study and a very good one. The works of Harry S.
Ashmore and the senior Hodding Carter were popular among his-
torians for a time, but one suspects that was because academicians ad-
mired their active opposition to the proponents of white supremacy
more than their contributions to southern historiography. In the
main, academicians have tended to regard the efforts of journalists as
shallow and rather pointless and to largely ignore the work of such
thoughtful observers as Pat Watters and Reese Cleghorn-to name
only two among many. Journalists have tended, perhaps with reason,
to feel that universities, in the words of one of the contributors to this

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