Cities, like people, may be best known by the way they party. For nearly a century-and-a-half, San Antonio has partied well. In this fascinating look at late-nineteenth-century festivals in San Antonio, Judith Berg Sobre brings an art historian's sensibility to accounts of the pageantry, parades, and festive events that typified a city welcoming settlers from several nations and American regions into a community that valued their individuality even while it taught them a new identity. Six historic festivals provide windows into the culture of this polyglot city: the Fourth of July,...