TY - JOUR
AU - Cunningham, Sean, P.
AB - Anthony R. Carrozza is not the first author to examine George Parr's infamous efforts to steal Texas's 1948 Senate election for then-congressman Lyndon B. Johnson. That story has been well chronicled by others and is familiar to almost anyone interested in twentieth-century American political history. Parr—also known as the Duke of Duval County—functioned as a sort of political boss in south Texas, stuffing ballot boxes and generally flouting laws of every kind to control the political and economic direction of his region. In the summer of 1948, Parr used that power to coordinate the addition of 202 names to voter rolls in Alice, Texas—names that were added in alphabetical order, in the same ink, with the same handwriting. Two hundred of those individuals, including a few dead ones, voted for LBJ; two voted for Johnson's opponent, Coke Stevenson. Johnson ended up winning the election by eighty-seven votes, thus earning the dubious nickname, Landslide Lyndon. It is the stuff (no pun intended) of political legend and remains one of the most intriguing episodes in the fascinating history of the thirty-sixth president of the United States. Carrozza effectively retells this story. His narrative is well paced and judicious. Readers will instinctively be drawn to this section of the book, though the 1948 saga makes up but a small fraction of the author's story. Instead, he provides the first comprehensive account of the Parr family's activities in south Texas, spanning most of the twentieth century. Beginning with Archie Parr—the first so-called Duke of Duval County—then tracing the rise of Archie's son George, followed by George's son, Archer—Carrozza achieves his goal. Anyone looking for information on the Parr family's influence on south Texas need look no further than this tidy, single volume. The book is well written and well researched, and offers a vivid window into local politics in south Texas. However, while the book's subtitle is “The Parr Family and Texas Politics,” Carrozza's contribution is heavily weighted to the former, not the latter. The book is much closer to being a traditional biography of a single family than it is a lens for analyzing the multifactional and ever-complicated nature of Texas politics writ large. Carrozza does not make grand claims about how his book should change historians' understanding of Texas politics, so he should not be criticized for failing to do so. His goal is to write about the Parr family, which he achieves. He offers a richly detailed narrative, consistently chronological, with much of the action taking place in courtrooms. Readers looking for more may be frustrated by a sense that Parr family trees are obscuring the view of Texas's political forest. An argument could also be made that what Carrozza has actually uncovered is evidence to suggest that the Parr family's influence on Texas politics has been overstated, given the family's constant legal troubles and frequent failures. And much more could have been said about the volatile relationships connecting Parr, the Democratic party, and Mexican American voters. But again, Carrozza seems content to leave that analysis to others. This book will be a welcomed, enjoyable contribution to Texana-focused libraries. © The Author 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Organization of American Historians. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - The Dukes of Duval County: The Parr Family and Texas Politics
JO - The Journal of American History
DO - 10.1093/jahist/jaz088
DA - 2019-03-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/the-dukes-of-duval-county-the-parr-family-and-texas-politics-EVFdtUnaPm
SP - 1040
VL - 105
IS - 4
DP - DeepDyve
ER -