Kerrville, TX – The Texas Center at Schreiner University and State House Press and are pleased to announce the publication of Queen of the West: A Documentary History of San Antonio, 1718-1900 by world famous Texas Historian Dr. Richard Bruce Winders.

San Antonio is one of the most unique cities in Texas, and its development over nearly two centuries is a close telling of the state’s development,” said Dr. Donald S. Frazier, Director of the Texas Center. “Without San Antonio, you don’t have Texas. The story of that city is so much more than just the Battle of the Alamo.”

People living there in the past understood that as well. By 1850, the frontier settlement of San Antonio de Béxar had seen more than its share of hardships, Indians attacks, rebellions and repeated military occupations. These events all marked the towns recent past. In 1854, though, the editor of the Alamo Star newspaper felt confident enough in the town’s progress to announce that the embattled outpost would soon be known as the “Queen of the West.” Even so, the Alamo Star, capitalized on the name of the town’s most famous landmark—the Alamo.

“Although historians have written about the battle and the town, this book explains how they are connected to each other,” Winders said. “A deeper look at the development of San Antonio shows that it was not only the site of the Battle of the Alamo, but it was also the center of much of the history of Spain, Mexico, Texas, and the United States.”

Queen of the West: A Documentary History of San Antonio, 1718–1900 takes readers through a series of important eyewitness writings detailing how San Antonio transformed from an important but threatened outpost to a thriving city. Winders, introduces each account providing diverse perspectives on the history of San Antonio by the people who lived it.

The author is an internationally noted authority on the topic of the Alamo and is Visiting Scholar at The Texas Center. The work will be a valuable resource for students of history and their teachers, drawing together a body of primary sources that readers would have a difficult time finding on their own. Queen of the West includes forty-four such documents detailing six major phases of San Antonio’s development, all expertly annotated and introduced by Winders.

“This is an important work,” added Frazier. “This is Spanish colonial history, Mexican history, American history, and Texas history. This is more than the story of a city; this is the story of a state and nation.”

State House Press publishes from The Texas Center at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.

Queen of the West: A Documentary History of San Antonio, 1718-1900 by world famous Texas Historian Dr. Richard Bruce Winders