"Archie P. McDonald was the dean of East Texas historians and a friend of anyone who loved the past. Based on multiple interviews he conducted with Archie, editor Dan K. Utley has assembled the stories of his life as if Archie were spinning the yarns himself. As I read through the book, I almost felt as if Archie and I had sat down together in the easy chairs in the lobby of the Fredonia Hotel in Nacogdoches and were visiting. Editor Dan K. Utley has taken interviews with East Texas historian Archie P. McDonald and put them together into an easily flowing story. We learn not only about Archie's life but also about what it was like to be a college professor in mid-twentieth-century America. Archie McDonald was a professor's professor, but was more. He shared the stories of the Texas past through newspapers and even through a cookbook. Using Archie's own words, editor Dan K. Utley helps us to understand how McDonald went about making the many contributions to out understanding of Texas History."—T. Lindsay Baker, W.K. Gordon Endorwed Chair in History, Tarleton State University
This autobiographical book is refreshing, invigorating, and just plain fun to read. It is like spending an evening in the company of an old friend. And the late historian Archie P. McDonald, 'Mr. East Texas,' was your friend even if you never knew him. He was a true original who materially shaped the teaching and writing of Texas history for almost a half-century. You can’t understand the study of Texas history without understanding Archie P. McDonald and this fine volume will give you that. Editor Dan Utley captures Archie’s sterling personality at its best in the oral history interviews comprising this volume.”—Light Cummins, author of Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas
Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is an outstanding first-person account of the remarkable life of 'Mr. East Texas,' who served at the helm of his beloved East Texas Historical Association (ETHA) for 37 years. Public historian and past ETHA president Dan K. Utley masterly brings to this volume not only his considerable oral history skills but his keen ability to preserve McDonald’s voice throughout a lifetime of work. Seasoned with humor, wit, and insight, the book reveals a true Texas character who both preserved Texas history and made it. Beyond its regional significance, the book is important in other ways, too—as an organizational record, a compendium of reflection, integrity, and friendship, and the reminiscences of a Texan of significance. A shining tribute to his legacy, it will add greatly to the literature on Texas.”—Mary L. Scheer, Author of Women and the Texas Revolution
"The very real human being Archie P. McDonald lives in these pages along with his living portrait of East Texas as contemporary region and cultural and historic setting. Equally visible is the devotion McDonald felt for the East Texas Historical Association’s mission of studying, understanding and explaining this vast place and its peoples. While these are Archie McDonald’s words, we would not have them were it not for the well-trained reflexes of Texas’ premier oral historian Dan K. Utley who seized the moment, drew out the stories, and sanded and polished the interview transcripts into this wonderfully readable narrative."—Kyle Wilkison,President, East Texas Historical Association, 2015, 2016
"At a time when organizations and institutions are becoming increasingly large and impersonal, these wonderfully edited memoirs of Archie McDonald, the heart and soul of the East Texas Historical Association for decades, reminds us of the importance of the small and personal for a healthy civil society. Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is a fitting tribute to one of the state’s leading proponents of local history.
Dan Utley and friends have done a wonderful job of turning Archie McDonald’s oral history interviews into a fine book of memoirs about the development and success of one of Texas’s most active and successful regional heritage organizations from the perspective of the man who made it happen. Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is a fitting tribute to one of the state’s leading proponents of local history.
Archie McDonald made friends far afield from Nacogdoches, but as Dan Utley’s expertly edited version of Archie’s reminiscences makes clear, it was his love for the places and the people of East Texas that was central to who Archie was and how he’ll be remembered. Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is a fitting tribute to one of the state’s leading proponents of local history.
For decades, Archie McDonald was the East Texas Historical Association—don’t let his matter-of-fact and unassuming narrative of his professional life as expertly edited and organized by Dan Utley from a set of oral history interviews convince you otherwise. Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is a fitting tribute to one of the state’s leading proponents of local history.
Dan Utley’s expertly edited and arranged stories by Archie McDonald of his career with the East Texas Historical Association reminds us of the importance of good oral history in providing a human dimension to institutional history. Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is a fitting tribute to one of the state’s leading proponents of local history"— Jesus F. de la Teja, Jerome and Catherine Supple Professor of Southwestern Studies, Texas State University
“Archie P. McDonald: A Life in Texas History is an outstanding first-person account of the remarkable life of 'Mr. East Texas,' who served at the helm of his beloved East Texas Historical Association (ETHA) for 37 years. Public historian and past ETHA president Dan K. Utley masterly brings to this volume not only his considerable oral history skills but his keen ability to preserve McDonald’s voice throughout a lifetime of work. Seasoned with humor, wit, and insight, the book reveals a true Texas character who both preserved Texas history and made it. Beyond its regional significance, the book is important in other ways, too—as an organizational record, a compendium of reflection, integrity, and friendship, and the reminiscences of a Texan of significance. A shining tribute to his legacy, it will add greatly to the literature on Texas.”—Mary L. Scheer, professor and chair of history department at Lamar University
