American Crossroads

Dr. Foley's text eloquently explores the tensions around the issues of race, culture, class, and gender within the larger context of cotton culture in Texas in a manner that is both engaging and highly informative. This was a great read and offered well-informed insights into a history rarely explored.

Neil Foley is an up-and-coming scholar in the history of American race relations, and this book (his first,I assume) is a very good start. Foley examines the ways that race, gender, and class played themselves out in Texas, which is also at a crossroads (a geographic one). This is an interesting read and certainly one that will make Foley's name known among historical circles in the future.

Neil Foley's The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture presents a well researched historical account of race relations in the United States in the late nineteenth through the mid twentieth century. Foley follows a clearly structured timeline which makes it easy to trace the effects of Mexican migration on Texan culture. His combination of primary and secondary resources serve as a strong supports of his claims, and his sensitivity to the variety of cultures in southern cotton communities makes his book well-rounded and believable. Foley's clear description of the variety of racial struggles apparent in this time era exposes the reader to many issues often disregarded by general historical overviews. Following trends in Mexican/Mexican-American, Mexican/black, Mexican/white, white/black, and poor white/landowning whites, Foley provides a well-rounded and culturally sensitive illustration of racial interactions and the effect of immigration on social and economic issues. Foley also nicely delineates the differences between Mexican and black workers, using cultural references and statements from landowning whites to bolster his arguments. The White Scourge covers many themes often overlooked in immigrant history. Although it might appear that Foley is simply presenting an historical account of the Texan cotton culture, he is, in fact, providing a new sociological and psychological perspective on the complex arena of racial tensions in the United States. Well structured, culturally aware, and extensive in both subjective and objective research, The White Scourge is the winner of seven major book awards, and deservedly so.