Texas Tech University Press | Order Toll-free: 800.832.4042 | ttup@ttu.edu | www.ttupress.org
texas
tech
universit y
NE W RELEASES
press
| TEXAS AND THE WEST
Myth, Memory, and Massacre
The Pease River Capture of Cynthia Ann Parker
Paul H. Carlson and Tom Crum
I n D e c e m b e r 1860, a lo n g a c r e e k i n n o r t h w e s t T e x a s , a group of U.S. Cavalry
under Sgt. John Spangler and Texas Rangers led by Sul Ross raided a Comanche
hunting camp, killed several Indians, and took three prisoners. One was the woman
they would identify as Cynthia Ann Parker, taken captive from her white family as a
child a quarter century before.
The reports of these events had implications far and near. For Ross, they helped
make a political career; for Parker, they separated her permanently and fatally from
her Comanche husband and two of her children. For Texas, they became the stuff of
history and legend.
In reexamining the historical accounts of the “Battle of Pease River,”
especially those claimed to be eyewitness reports, Paul H. Carlson
and Tom Crum expose errors, falsifications, and mysteries that
have contributed to a skewed understanding of the facts. For
Is the Battle of Pease River the most perpetuated
political and racist reasons, they argue, the massacre was labeled
myth in Texas history?
a battle. Firsthand testimony was fabricated; diaries were altered;
the official Ranger report went missing from the state adjutant
general’s office. Historians, as a result, have unwittingly used fiction
Texas history
as the basis for 150 years’ worth of analysis.
216 pages, 6 x 9
Carlson and Crum’s careful historiographical reconsideration seeks not only to
17 b/w photos; 3 maps
set the record straight but to deal with concepts of myth, folklore, and memory, both
$29.95 cloth | 978-0-89672-707-6
individual and collective. Myth, Memory, and Massacre peels away layers of assumptions
surrounding one of the most infamous episodes in Texas history, even while it adds
Grover E. Murray Studies in the
new dimensions to the question of what constitutes reliable knowledge.
American Southwest
Pa u l H . C a r l s o n is professor emeritus of history at Texas
Tech University. A fellow of both the Texas State Historical
Association and the West Texas Historical Association, he has
published numerous books and articles, earned several research
and writing honors, and received six university teaching awards.
In 2006 he was elected to membership in the Philosophical
Society of Texas. He and his wife, Ellen, live in Lubbock, Texas.
Amarillo
$28.95 cloth | 978-0-89672-587-4
To m C r u m lives with his wife, Mary, in Hood County, Texas. A
retired state district judge and a past president of the West
Texas Historical Association, he has published several articles
and book chapters. Currently he serves on the boards of directors
for both the East and West Texas Historical Associations, as
counselor for the Texas Folklore Society, and as a member of the
Advisory Council for the Center for Big Bend Studies.
Order today
800.832.4042
806.742.2982
Fax 806.742.2979
For more information, or a review copy, contact the TTUP Marketing Department, ttup@ttu.edu
ALSO B Y PAUL H . CARLSON
Deep Time and the Texas High Plains
$34.95s cloth | 978-0-89672-552-2
$19.95 paper | 978-0-89672-553-9
Texas Tech University Press
Box 41037
2903 Fourth St., Ste. 201
Lubbock, TX 79409-1037
www.ttupress.org
ttup@ttu.edu
MYTHMEMFLYER2010