Americans have long lived with an optimistic view of their society, what might be termed the "egalitarian idea." The antebellum South, with its peculiar institution of Negro slavery, has stood in general as the most likely exception to this ideal, though the "planter vs. plain folk" debate has engaged generations of scholars. How closely did the South approximate the "egalitarian ideal"? And how did the South compare with the rest of the nation in terms of economic and political arrangements?
"Wealth and Power in Antebellum Texas" investigates these questions for a relatively young and...

President Abraham Lincoln is worried about the presence of a French army in Mexico and eager to satisfy the demands of Texas Unionists and New England textile manufacturers for a loyalist government in Texas. He orders Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks to establish a Federal presence in Texas in the fall of 1863. Banks sends an army of more than 30,000 Federal troops into Louisiana, hoping to strike at either Galveston and Houston by an overland march across southern Louisiana, or at Shreveport and northeast Texas by a penetration up the Red River. Poor communications between Banks and his...