Stories From Texas

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Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-15-2026

Abstract

John Gunther is probably world famous for being quoted as saying, “If a man’s from Texas, he’ll tell you. If he’s not, no use embarrassing him by asking.”

Gunther is often depicted as a grizzled oil man, smoking a cigar as he doles out timeless advice to his son. But Gunther was neither a Texan nor the one who said this.

He was a journalist and author who heard the anecdote “near San Antonio” around 1947. He published it in his bestselling book, “Inside U.S.A.” Gunther wrote it this way: “A child asks a stranger where he is from, whereupon the father rebukes him gently, ‘Never do that, son. If a man’s from Texas …'”  you know the rest.

Gunther published a whole series of “Inside” books over many years as a journalist and travel writer: “Inside Europe,” “Inside Asia,” “Inside Africa,” “Inside Australia.” But his bestselling of the series was “Inside USA,” and within that book, Texas got a great deal of attention. Harper’s Magazine even published his Texas insights and observations as a stand-alone article titled “The Giant World of Texas.”

 It has been about 80 years since Gunther wrote that book. Texas had a population of 7 million then, less than 1/4 of what our population is today. Nonetheless, the cultural themes he observed then have not lost their resilience in modern Texas.

Here are few things Gunther observed:

Texas is the only state that, without consent of Congress, may split itself into five different states anytime. An old joke says that it would have performed this fission long ago, except that nobody could decide which of the new Texas states would get the Alamo … [But] nobody … would ever dream of it. Because then Texas would no longer be Texas.  …  Its most preciously guarded attribute is its bigness.

Gunther made the point that Texas is not Southern or Southwestern, nor does it belong to the West. He wrote: “It is an Empire, an entity totally its own. Also, it is beginning to seep over the edges;  Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, even California, feel its mighty impact.”

Gunther says that given this influence,  it’s tempting to talk about Texas as an imperialist power.

When World War II came along, Texas was far from isolationist.

So many Texans went to Canada to enlist before Pearl Harbor that Montreal talked of  “the Royal Canadian Texas Air Force.” Sam Rayburn told me (It’s just a joke, don’t mind), “Of course, the real reason Congress passed selective service was to get someone in the service [who was] not a Texan.”

In fact, so many Texans were in the Pacific Theater during World War II that Texas military men joked that they would accept Japan’s U.S. surrender. They would not require a separate one for Texas.

Gunther writes that Texas in the 1940s struggled to make the cultural compromises it needed to achieve the progress it aimed for. One such aim was to create one of the finest, top-ranked universities in the world.

He observed:

Texas wanted, and wants, the greatest and richest university in the world.  Yet it did not quite grasp the point that no university can be worthy of the name without being anchored on something that many conservative Texans feared, academic freedom.

There’s plenty of Texas humor in Gunther’s expose. He told of a daughter of a “great Texas rancher [who] arrived at an eastern finishing school and was asked where she was from.”

“Nueces County, Texas” she replied.

“And where might that be?”

“It’s the northwest corner of my grandpappy’s cow pasture.”

Texans are exceptionally proud to be Texans. They are so proud of Texas, Gunther concluded, that “they cannot sleep at night.”

There were plenty of tall tales to be collected in Texas. A West Texan was asked if they ever had cyclones or tornadoes out there. The Texan said, “We did have one once, but it ran into a sandstorm about three miles out of town and got ripped to pieces.”

As Gunther traveled the state and told Texans that he was writing a book on the United States, many suggested that there should be two books, “one on Texas, the other on the other forty-seven.”

No surprises there.

Format

.MP3, 192 kbps

Length

00:04:57

Language

English

Notes

https://texasstandard.org/stories/john-gunther-texas-quote-inside-usa/

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 © 2026 William F. Strong. Uploaded with permission of copyright holder.

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