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David G. McComb

Revised and updated, this popular history by an award-winning author brings the story of Texas into the twenty-first century.

Since its publication in 1989, Texas, A Modern History has established itself as one of the most readable and reliable general histories of Texas. David McComb paints the panorama of Lone Star history from the earliest Indians to the present day with a vigorous brush that uses fact, anecdote, and humor to present a concise narrative. The book is designed to offer an adult reader the savor of Texan culture, an exploration of the ethos of its people, and a sense of the rhythm of its development. Spanish settlement, the Battle of the Alamo, the Civil War, cattle trails, oil discovery, the growth of cities, changes in politics, the Great Depression, World War II, recreation, economic expansion, and recession are each a part of the picture. Photographs and fascinating sidebars punctuate the text.

In this revised edition, McComb not only incorporates recent scholarship but also tracks the post–World War II rise of the Republican Party in Texas and the evolution of the state from rural to urban, with 88 percent of the people now living in cities. At the same time, he demonstrates that, despite many changes that have made Texas similar to the rest of the United States, much of its unique past remains.
“Contrary to popular belief, there is more to Texas history than the Alamo and oil gushers. This book takes us from the early Indians of the area through to modern times when people began to realize the exploitation of natural resources and pollution were ruining the state’s natural beauty. The author offers many stories and an ample helping of anecdotes and folklore to paint an accurate portrait of the state and the people who have made it great.” —American West

University of Texas Press

Bridwell Texas History Series

Texas, A Modern History: Revised Edition

Barbara Ganson

A history of aviation in Texas that “brilliantly demonstrates the evolution of flight technology as a harbinger of social change” (Technology and Culture).
 
 In this book, pilot and historian Barbara Ganson brings to life the colorful personalities that shaped the phenomenally successful development of the aviation industry in the Lone Star state. Weaving stories and profiles of aviators, designers, manufacturers, and those in related services, Texas Takes Wing covers the major trends that propelled Texas to the forefront of the field.
 
 Covering institutions from San Antonio’s Randolph Air Force Base (the West Point of this branch of service) to Brownsville’s airport with its Pan American Airlines instrument flight school (which served as an international gateway to Latin America as early as the 1920s) to Houston’s Johnson Space Center, home of Mission Control for the US space program, the book provides an exhilarating timeline and engaging history of dozens of unsung pioneers as well as their more widely celebrated peers.
 
 Drawn from personal interviews as well as major archives and the collections of several commercial airlines, including American, Southwest, Braniff, Pan American Airways, and Continental, this sweeping history captures the story of powered flight in Texas since 1910. With its generally favorable flying weather, flat terrain, and wide-open spaces, Texas has more airports than any other state and is often considered one of America’s most aviation-friendly places. Texas Takes Wing also explores the men and women who made the region pivotal in military training, aircraft manufacturing during wartime, general aviation, and air servicing of the agricultural industry. The result is a soaring history that will delight aviators and passengers alike.
 
Includes photos

Texas Takes Wing: A Century of Flight in the Lone Star State

Calvin Trillin

Articles and comic verse about the Lone Star State from the Thurber Prize winner: “What’s not to love?” —Texas Monthly

Whether reporting for the New Yorker, penning comic verse and political commentary, or writing his memoirs, Calvin Trillin has bumped into Texas again and again. He insists it’s not by design—“there has simply been a lot going on in Texas. ” Astute readers will note, however, that Trillin’s family immigrated to America through the port of Galveston, and, after reading this book, many will believe the Lone Star State has somehow imprinted itself on his imagination.

Trillin on Texas gathers some of his best writing on subjects near to his heart—politics, true crime, food, and rare books among them—that also have a Texas connection. Indulging his penchant for making “snide and underhanded jokes about respectable public officials, ” he offers his signature sardonic take on the Bush dynasty and their tendency toward fractured syntax; a faux but quite believable LBJ speech; and wry portraits of assorted Texas county judges, small town sheriffs, and Houston immigration lawyers. He takes us on a pilgrimage to the barbecue joint that Texas Monthly named the best in Texas, and describes scouting for books with Larry McMurtry. 

He tells the stories of two teenagers who dug up half a million dollars in an ice chest, and of rare book dealer Johnny Jenkins, who was found floating in the Colorado River with a bullet wound in the back of his head. And he recounts how redneck movie reviewer “Joe Bob Briggs” fuelled a war between Dallas’s daily newspapers and pays tribute to two courageous Texas women who spoke truth to power: Molly Ivins and Sissy Farenthold. Sure to entertain both Texans and non-Texans, Trillin on Texas proves again that Trillin is one of America’s shrewdest and wittiest observers.

Trillin on Texas

S. D. Engelhardt

Explore the world of barbecue as food and culture through first-person stories from pit masters, barbecue joint owners, sausage makers, and wood suppliers.

It’s no overstatement to say that the state of Texas is a republic of barbecue. Whether it’s brisket, sausage, ribs, or chicken, barbecue feeds friends while they catch up, soothes tensions at political events, fuels community festivals, sustains workers of all classes, celebrates brides and grooms, and even supports churches. Recognizing just how central barbecue is to Texas’s cultural life, Elizabeth Engelhardt and a team of eleven graduate students from the University of Texas at Austin set out to discover and describe what barbecue has meant to Texans ever since they first smoked a beef brisket.

Republic of Barbecue presents a fascinating, multifaceted portrait of the world of barbecue in Central Texas. The authors look at everything from legendary barbecue joints in places such as Taylor and Lockhart to feedlots, ultra-modern sausage factories, and sustainable forests growing hardwoods for barbecue pits. They talk to pit masters and proprietors, who share the secrets of barbecue in their own words. Like side dishes to the first-person stories, short essays by the authors explore a myriad of barbecue’s themes—food history, manliness and meat, technology, nostalgia, civil rights, small-town Texas identity, barbecue’s connection to music, favorite drinks such as Big Red, Dr. Pepper, Shiner Bock, and Lone Star beer—to mention only a few. An ode to Texas barbecue in films, a celebration of sports and barbecue, and a pie chart of the desserts that accompany brisket all find homes in the sidebars of the book, while photographic portraits of people and places bring readers face-to-face with the culture of barbecue.

“This beautiful collection, colorful enough to display as a coffee-table book, contributes significantly to the oral history tradition and the study of barbecue simultaneously. ” —Journal of American Folklore

“Tar Heels probably shouldn’t own up to liking Texas barbecue, but we have no hesitation about saying that we love this book about it. The voices of the folks who make it happen and this book’s wonderful photographs add up to a splendid portrait of Lone Star barbeculture. ” —John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed, authors of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North CarolinaBarbecue

Republic of Barbecue: Stories Beyond the Brisket

Bridwell Texas History Series - The book series

Bridwell Texas History Series - The book series

Bridwell Texas History Series books in order

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