The Road to Texas

A historical document reintroducing Dallas as an early French socialist utopia, pieced from journal entries, letters, and sketches of French scholar Victor Considerant.

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, where visions of egalitarian futures brewed, Victor Considerant set off with a legion of over two hundred European settlers to create their own socialist utopia. Their settlement was La Réunion, just thirty miles outside of Downtown Dallas, along the scenic Trinity river. Utopian visions clashed with the harsh agrarian realities of Texas, as the settlers – academics, musicians and intellectuals – floundered in the heat, and La Réunion wilted.

Victor Considerant’s name can be found everywhere in Dallas, but the history of its provenance is not as ubiquitous. Collecting his journal entries, letters to friends back home, and sketches of his surroundings, The Road to Texas provides a glimpse into his ambitions and visions and a sketch of 18th century Dallas. Full of lush descriptions, ardent aspirations, and harsh lessons, it is both an incisive, informative documentation of the founding of Dallas, and an important historical resource to re-examine our present.