Rupert N. Richardson Best Book Award, West Texas Historical Association Finalist, Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize, Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln 2011 Southwest Book Award Winner, Border Regional Library Association Unsure which of its legacies are true and which to embrace, Texas grapples with an identity crisis. One camp insists that the state's roots in slavery, segregation, and cotton make it southern. Another argues that its Native and ranching history make it western. Outside Texas, southern and western historians who don't know what to make of the state ignore it altogether. In his innovative settling of the question, Glen Sample Ely examines the state's historical DNA, making sense of Lone Star identity west of the hundredth meridian and defining Texas's place in the American West. Focusing on the motives that shape how Texans appropriate their past--from cashing in on tourism to avoiding historical realities--Ely reveals the inner workings of a multiplicity of Texas identities. Impressive... “Where the West Begins” is an important book, one that is imminently capable of providing the spark that cultivates some meaningful and long-overdue dialogue [about Texas]. -- Southwestern Historical Quarterly , Texas State Historical Association “Where the West Begins” is at once a feat of original research and a thorough engagement with historical memory (public, popular, and academic). -- Fort Worth Weekly Glen Sample Ely examines these questions [about Texas], skillfully . . . convincingly . . .expertly . . . navigating time periods and mythology, adding needed nuance to previous interpretations. -- Western Historical Quarterly , Western History Association A well-written and well-researched work, a book that . . . Texans should study as attentively as . . . historian Walter Prescott Webb's seminal work, “The Great Plains.” -- Austin American-Statesman "Well argued, often thought provoking, fully documented." Journal of the West , Vol. 50, No. 1 (Winter 2011) One of the most original, clearly expressed, and compelling analysis of the differences between East Texas and Western Texas to appear in decades. A truly notable addition to the Plains Histories Series. --Howard R. Lamar With this book, Glen Ely establishes himself as ranking among the very best of a new generation of Texas historians. He's asking the right questions, and coming up with some provocative answers. --Robert Wooster Wide-ranging and sparkling with keen insight, Glen Ely's Where the West Begins should instantly take its place on the short list of indispensible works on Texan identity. --Gregg Cantrell In the seemingly endless arguments about just where and what the American West is and has been, West Texas has too often been ignored. But no longer. Drawing on the land itself, on its snarled relations with the American South and with its deep Hispanic past, and on the experiences of its many peoples struggling to persist amid daunting challenges, Glen Sample Ely places this elusive country firmly in the West yet affirms it as an utterly distinctive part of its state and nation. --Elliott West Glen Ely's Where the West Begins is big--Texas big--myth-busting. Challenging the trend of recent Texan historians who have emphasized the state's southern roots, Where the West Begins is a thoughtful and therefore controversial examination of how the western part of the state really is part of the West. --J. F. de la Teja Some historians insist that Texas, with its heritage of slavery, segregation, and historic dependence upon cotton, is southern in character. Another group argues that the state is western, as evidenced by its cowboys, cattle drives, mountains, and desert. Still others brand it unique, having won its independence from Mexico during the Texas Revolution and existing as an independent republic for ten years prior to joining the Union. With its immense land area, its diverse environment, cultures, and colorful history, and its larger-than-life legends, Texas does indeed seem like "a whole other country." Throughout its existence, the Lone Star State has juggled a complicated assortment of identities. Its multiple characteristics often confuse observers and scholars--to the point that some ignore it altogether. Award-winning historian Glen Sample Ely seeks to set the record straight. Taking a fresh look at what exactly Texas is and what it is not, his groundbreaking work tackles these thorny questions by examining the tangled and fascinating strands that make up the DNA of Texas's identity. Glen Sample Ely is the award-winning author of The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858 - 1861 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016) and Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity (Texas Tech University Press, 2011) which received sixteen honors and awards combined. His third book, Murder in Montague: Frontier Justice and Retribution in Texas  (Universit