In 1961 John Steinbeck referred to Texas as “a state of mind” concerned with myths, ghosts, and glittering self-imaginings that had more to do with desire than fact.  He was not far off the mark.  From the beginning of Texas as a place, insiders and outsiders have argued over what it is, how it came to be, and why.  Blanton's talk examines a few key, public moments of Texas history—debates over the republic and state’s birth in the 1830s and 1840s, the tardy recognition of the Alamo’s importance in the 1900s and 1910s, the obscure publication of an old Mexican diary in the 1980s and 1990s— and how they demonstrate that a broader, more public understanding of Texas history has nearly always been about the present as much as the past.  This is important to remember today as allegations of “wokeness” in Texas history have become a force in state politics.