Were are the Texas resources?

Teaching Texas History? Have you found anything? Has the state actually helped, produced or maintains any websites, programs, materials? The answer is no. The resources are scant and very few, practically none are state supported. So where do we go? What do we do? These are question asked by any first year teacher looking for support when teaching Texas history. I do love the history of this great state, who wouldn't? But where do we get the help? If we are to build the founding mythos of this state and instill the awe that I feel when I enter the Alamo, where can we go?

Library of Congress, Travel for Research?

I had the distinct pleasure to visit the Library of Congress last year and now count my library card as one of most treasured possesions. The LOC has done such an amazing job of digitizing their collections and making them avaliable on-line that many of the collections that you would have to see in person.....Soon may come a time where a writer will only have to visit locations to see jealously guarded collections or those of such limited resources that they have not yet made them available on-line. Of course, I can tell you there is something magical about actually holding a primary source in you hands. Holding the actual general orders from Gen. Scott's headquarters in Vercruz and later, Mexico City.....it just makes a real connection that cannot be underestimated. When writing, I still plan to travel. For example, the paper of Thomas Jefferson...check it out, the link is below.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/

American Creation By Joseph Ellis

As usual, Ellis is doing an excellent job in this book. Though I have only started I find myself enjoying Ellis' writing style. He explains the premise of the book and his approach to the subject at the beginning, which I find refreshing from many of the scholarly works that I read. This explains his appeal to a general audience. He is teaching, starting from the reason for the question and his approach. So far, is seems that he borrowing a lot from his biography on Adams and has stuck to Adam's perspective on the causes and need for revolution. He endorses the view of Adams as a cautious conservative revolutionary and explains how strange an animal this thinking is in such a time. Paine on the other hand..... More review later.