In 1936, the Texas centennial was celebrated across the state. In The Frontier Centennial, Jacob Olmstead argues that Fort Worth?s celebration of the centennial represented a unique opportunity to reshape the city?s identity and align itself with a progressive future. Olmstead draws out the Frontier Centennial from its inception as a commemorative fair to theme park enshrining the mythic West to show the various ways centennial planners, boosters, and civic leaders sought to use the celebration as a means to bolster the city?s identity and image as a modern city of the American West. Olmstead?s retelling of the Frontier Centennial looks at two distinctive processes. The first addresses the interplay of memory, identity, and image in the evolution of the celebration?s commemorative messages. Fort Worth?s image as a progressive western metropolis also impacted other areas, less central, to Frontier Centennial planning. Debates over how outsiders would interpret features of the celebration, carried on by club women and others, reveal the interest the citizenry held in upholding or contesting the city?s modern image. Overlapping with the issues of memory and identity, the second process addresses how the larger narratives of the mythic West influenced the content of the celebration. Though drawn from actual events and people, the myth reduces the past to its ?ideological essence.? Mythmakers, like historians, draw upon facts to explain and give meaning to a particular worldview.

A must read for anyone with an interest in the far Southwest or Native American history.

A look at how aviation's frontier lasted only a scant 3 decades, then vanished as commercial and military imperatives made flying routine.

Texans faced two foes as the Civil War began in 1861: the Union armed forces and the Plains Indians. In this breakthrough volume, David Paul Smith demonstrates that through the efforts of the Home Guard and the Texas Rangers, the Texas frontier held its own during the eventful war years, in spite of a number of factors that could easily have overwhelmed it.

"Centennial series of the Association Former Students, Texas A & M Univ. ; no. 50." Hay's colorful reputation and a host of nicknames earned during battles.

Sixteen women tell their stories, providing a personal history of the state of Texas.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A. Michener’s magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America’s past, the story of Colorado—the Centennial State—is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver, the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; the cowboy, Jim Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte Seccombe. In Centennial, trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold seekers, ranchers, and hunters are brought together in the dramatic conflicts that shape the destiny of the legendary West—and the entire country. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from James A. Michener's Hawaii. Praise for Centennial “A hell of a book . . . While he fascinates and engrosses, Michener also educates.”—Los Angeles Times “An engrossing book . . . imaginative and intricate . . . teeming with people and giving a marvelous sense of the land.”—The Plain Dealer “Michener is America’s best writer, and he proves it once again in Centennial. . . . If you’re a Michener fan, this book is a must. And if you’re not a Michener fan, Centennial will make you one.”—The Pittsburgh Press “An absorbing work . . . Michener is a superb storyteller.”—BusinessWeek