Book co-edited by Boswell wins award

Book co-edited by Boswell wins award

A book co-edited by Dr. Angela Boswell, professor of history at Henderson State University, was named the winner of the 25th Annual Liz Carpenter Award for Best Scholarly Book on the History of Women and Texas published in 2016.

Women in Civil War Texas: Diversity and Dissidence in the Trans-Mississippi was co-edited by Boswell and Deborah M. Liles. The book was published by University of North Texas Press.

The Liz Carpenter Award is presented annually at the Women’s History Lunch at the annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association.

Women in Civil War Texas is the first book dedicated to the unique experiences of Texas women during this time. It connects Texas women’s lives to southern women’s history and shares the diversity of experiences of women in Texas during the Civil War.

Contributors explore Texas women and their vocal support for secession, coping with their husbands’ wartime absences, the importance of letter-writing, and how pro-Union sentiment caused serious difficulties for women.

They also analyze the effects of ethnicity, focusing on African American, German, and Tejana women’s experiences. Finally, two essays examine the problem of refugee women in East Texas and the dangers facing western frontier women.

“Women in Civil War Texas is a very interesting read full of a variety of fascinating stories from different perspectives,” said Jessica Brannon-Wranosky, associate professor at Texas A&M

University-Commerce and project director for the Handbook of Texas Women. “I suggest the book to academics and history enthusiasts alike for a real look at Civil War Texas,”

“This is an excellent survey of the lives of the women in the Lone Star State. It fills a needed gap in the story of Civil War Texas,” said Anne J. Bailey, co-editor of Civil War Arkansas.

Boswell, who also serves as associate dean for the Ellis College of Arts and Sciences, is the author of Her Act and Deed: Women’s Lives in a Rural Southern County, 1837-1873, which also won the TSHA Liz Carpenter Award in 2001. Boswell serves on the executive advisory committee for the Handbook of Texas Women project.

Liles teaches history at the University of North Texas and is the author of Will Rogers Coliseum and several journal articles.