Austin: A History of the Capital City
- ISBN-10
- 0876111622
- ISBN-13
- 9780876111628
- Series
- Austin
- Category
- History / Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
- Pages
- 75
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1997
- Publisher
- Texas State Historical Association
- Author
- David C. Humphrey
Description
State capital and home of the University of Texas, Austin is the one city that belongs to all Texans. This finely written book, illustrated with historic photographs, tells the story of Austin's transformation from an "Indian haunted" frontier village into a residential mecca and high-tech hot spot.
Called by Sam Houston at its founding the "most unfortunate site upon earth for the seat of government," the infant community struggled for three decades against political enemies and competing towns before winning recognition as the permanent capital. The founding of the University of Texas turned the seat of politics into the seat of education, but Austin's nineteenth-century dreams of becoming a river port and a factory town came to naught.
A slave city in a slave state, Austin cast its lot with the Confederacy. Retaining a frontier flavor into the 1890s, post-Civil War Austin became the headquarters of the Texas gambling fraternity and a magnet for cowmen seeking "booze and women of the night."
Turning the nineteenth-century frontier town into an appealing twentieth-century residential community taxed the energies of civic leaders for several decades. Virtually parkless and with no paved streets in 1900, Austin by the 1940s boasted tree-lined boulevards, a cornucopia of parks and pools, and a leisurely lifestyle. But for African American residents these were years of oppressive segregation. Mexicans encountered similar treatment as Austin became a tri-ethnic community during the 1920s and 1930s.
Segregation gradually gave way in a divisive but nonviolent struggle. While adjusting to this, Austin experienced eye-popping expansion. Fearful that Austin would become "another Houston," residents sought to preserve the lifestyle that had made the capital city such an attractive place to live.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Enduring Voices: From 1865
By James J. LorenceEnduring Voices: From 1865
-
America A Concise History 3rd Volume 1 + Documents to Accompany America's History 5th Volume 1 + Autobiography of Benjamin...
By University Neal Salisbury, University James A Henretta, Professor of History David BrodyAmerica A Concise History 3rd Volume 1 + Documents to Accompany America's History 5th Volume 1 + Autobiography of Benjamin...
-
Democracy in Desperation: The Depression of 1893
By Douglas W. Steeples, David O. WhittenThe Depression of 1893 Douglas O. Steeples, Douglas W. Steeples, David O. Whitten, David O. Whitten (1940-....). 99 Arnett . ... Charles W. " Middle Western Newspapers and the Spanish - American War . ... Barnett , George Ernest .
-
The Great Frontier War: Britain, France, and the Imperial Struggle for North America, 1607-1755
By William NesterAnderson , F. W. “ Why Did Colonial New Englanders Make Bad Soldiers ? Contractual Principles and Military Conduct during the ... Andre , Louis , Michel le Tellier et l'Organization de l'Armee Monarchique . Paris : Felix Alcan , 1906 .
-
The American Journey: A History of the United States
By David R. Goldfield, Virginia DeJohn Anderson, William L. BarneyAnna J. Cooper , A Voice from the South , 1892 Anna Julia Cooper , A Voice from the South ( Xenia , Ohio : The Aldine Printing House , 1892 ) : 134-135 , 138–140 , 142–145 . The book may be accessed from the Internet ...
-
The Quotable Jefferson
By Thomas Jefferson"Succeeding admirably in condensing the best quotes from around twenty thousand letters, this book will awaken some readers to the wit and wisdom of Jefferson, and enable others to rediscover it.
-
A Mythic Land Apart: Reassessing Southerners and Their History
By John David Smith, Thomas H. AppletonContent Description #Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
-
Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life
By Roger DanielsWith a timely new chapter on immigration in the current age of globalization, a new Preface, and new appendixes with the most recent statistics, this revised edition is an engrossing study of immigration to the United States from the ...
-
The First Global War: Britain, France, and the Fate of North America, 1756-1775
By William NesterBy 1756 the wilderness war for control of North America that erupted two years earlier between France and England had expanded into a global struggle among all of Europe's Great Powers.
-
The Works of William Shakespeare, the Text Regulated by the Folio of 1632, With Readings From Former Editions, A History...
By William ShakespeareThe Works of William Shakespeare, the Text Regulated by the Folio of 1632, With Readings From Former Editions, A History...