A chilling catalog of the men and women who have paid the ultimate price for their crimes The death penalty is one of the most hotly contested and longest-standing issues in American politics, and no place is more symbolic of that debate than Texas. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1977, Texas has put more than 390 prisoners to death, far more than any other state. Texas Death Row puts faces to those condemned men and women, with stark details on their crimes, sentencing, last meals, and last words. Definitive and objective, Texas Death Row will provide ample fuel for readers on both sides of the death penalty debate.

A prominent lawyer colorfully recounts a lost and lamented era in Texas politics: “Fascinating . . . Vivid, insightful commentary.” —Houston Chronicle Once upon a time in Texas, there were liberal activists of various stripes who sought to make the state more tolerant (and more tolerable). David Richards was one of them. In this fast-paced, often humorous memoir, he remembers the players, the strategy sessions, the legal and political battles, and the wins and losses that brought significant gains in civil rights, voter rights, labor law, and civil liberties to the people of Texas from the 1950s to the 1990s. In his work as a lawyer, Richards was involved in cases addressing the historic exclusion of minority voters; inequity in school funding; free speech violations, and more. In telling these stories, he vividly evokes the glory days of Austin liberalism, when a who’s who of Texas activists plotted strategy at watering holes such as Scholz Garden and the Armadillo World Headquarters or on raft trips down the Rio Grande and Guadalupe Rivers. Likewise, he offers vivid portraits of liberal politicians from Ralph Yarborough to Ann Richards (his former wife), progressive journalists such as Molly Ivins and the Texas Observer staff, and the hippies, hellraisers, and musicians who all challenged Texas’s conservative status quo. Written with an insider’s insights, this book records “a sweeter time when a free-associating bunch of ragtag Texans took on the establishment.” “An invaluable memoir of the time.” —Journal of Southern History Includes photos

Everyone knows that President George W. Bush is from Texas. But few of us know the role his home state plays in his presidency, and in our country. In this dual biography of man and state, Michael Lind confronts the chief crises of Bush's presidency--the economy, the Middle East, and religious fundamentalism--and traces their roots back to Texas, a state, Lind argues, that yields salient clues to the future course of our country.Widely praised as an iconoclastic and brilliant political observer, Lind, a fifth generation Texan, chronicles the ethnic clash that produced modern Texas, the well-known plundering of the state's natural resources at the hands of its elites, and finally the deep strain of "Old Testament religiosity" which, having originated in Texas, now reaches all over the globe in the form of Bush's foreign policy.In the tradition of Gary Wills's Reagan's America, Made in Texas provides a wholly original cultural history that should change the way we understand not just our president, but our country.

Provides a detailed legal history and examines the motives of all players involved with the landmark Supreme Court gay rights case that protected consenting adults' rights, regardless of sexual preference, in the bedroom.

Sam Balinger was raised on a Texas cattle ranch, but his love of ‘mechanical things’ drove him to work in a gun shop that specialized in fabricating small gun parts. After moving on, he worked as a railroad detective and amassed a small fortune from collecting bounties on the outlaws he brought to justice. Falling in love with a friend from high school, the couple trained for eight months in a Texas applied science college. Returning to Dallas, the Duo bought a metal machine shop, and converted it to a brass cartridge fabrication plant and an ammo loading center. There is plenty of gunfights, jungle warfare, romance, and American ingenuity. The message is “friends can become lovers and build a future.”

Like many modern-day Christians, Dr. Collins struggled with what seemed to be a clash between his belief in the Bible and the research regarding ancient history--a crisis of faith that inspired him to embark on an expedition that has led to one of the most exciting finds in recent archaeology.

Multiple authors offer alternative visions of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. No Lot. No Lot's wife. No Lot's daughters. Just people struggling to survive.