Choice Outstanding Academic Title Texas has often been overlooked in Civil War scholarship, but this examination shows that the Lone Star State—though definitely unusual—was decidedly Southern. Eleven noted historians examine the ways the civil war touched every aspect of life in Texas and approach the subject from varied perspectives—military, social, and cultural history; public history; and historical memory—to provide a greater understanding of the roles of women and slaves during the war, and how veterans and the aftermath of loss helped pave the way for the Texas of today.

In communities throughout precontact Mesoamerica, calendar priests and diviners relied on pictographic almanacs to predict the fate of newborns, to guide people in choosing marriage partners and auspicious wedding dates, to know when to plant and harvest crops, and to be successful in many of life's activities. As the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica in the sixteenth century, they made a determined effort to destroy these books, in which the Aztec and neighboring peoples recorded their understanding of the invisible world of the sacred calendar and the cosmic forces and supernaturals that adhered to time. Today, only a few of these divinatory codices survive. Visually complex, esoteric, and strikingly beautiful, painted books such as the famous Codex Borgia and Codex Borbonicus still serve as portals into the ancient Mexican calendrical systems and the cycles of time and meaning they encode. In this comprehensive study, Elizabeth Hill Boone analyzes the entire extant corpus of Mexican divinatory codices and offers a masterful explanation of the genre as a whole. She introduces the sacred, divinatory calendar and the calendar priests and diviners who owned and used the books. Boone then explains the graphic vocabulary of the calendar and its prophetic forces and describes the organizing principles that structure the codices. She shows how they form almanacs that either offer general purpose guidance or focus topically on specific aspects of life, such as birth, marriage, agriculture and rain, travel, and the forces of the planet Venus. Boone also tackles two major areas of controversy—the great narrative passage in the Codex Borgia, which she freshly interprets as a cosmic narrative of creation, and the disputed origins of the codices, which, she argues, grew out of a single religious and divinatory system.

Brown and Holley are interested in place and what makes people who they are. With particular interest in how people take the hand they’ve been dealt—fate, family, circumstance, luck—and craft a life for themselves, the authors celebrate the grit and gumption of these Texas originals. Introducing quirky characters and tenacious spirits, Holley’s stories seek out the personality of the small town while Brown’s photographs capture the essence of a changing landscape. Hometown Texas aims not to be nostalgic or sentimental but rather to show readers an unknown Texas—one that, while not vanishing, is certainly on the wane. Organized into five topographical, geographic, and cultural sections—East, West, North, South, and Central—three dozen stories and more than eighty complementary images work to create a parallel narrative to reveal what Brown has described as the “collective, various, remarkably complex soul that makes Texas unique.” Hometown Texas is an exploration across miles and cultures, of well-traveled roads and forgotten byways, deep into the heart of Texas.

The official nonfiction companion to HISTORY’s dramatic series Texas Rising (created by the same team that made the ratings record-breaker Hatfields & McCoys): a thrilling new narrative history of the Texas Revolution and the rise of the legendary Texas Rangers who patrolled the violent western frontier March 1836: The Republic of Texas, just weeks old, is already near collapse. William Barret Travis and his brave defenders of the Alamo in San Antonio have been slaughtered. Hundreds more Texan soldiers have surrendered at Goliad, only to be marched outside the fortress and executed by order of the ruthless Mexican general Santa Anna, a dictator denying Texans their freedom and liberty. General Sam Houston—a hard-drinking, hot-tempered opportunist—remains in command of a small band of volunteer colonists, mercenaries, and the newly organized Texas Rangers. They are the last hope for Texas to challenge the relentless advance of Santa Anna’s much larger Mexican Army—yet many of them curse Houston, enraged by his decision to retreat across Texas before the advancing enemy. The exhausted, outnumbered rebels will meet their destiny on an empty plain near the Gulf Coast next to the San Jacinto River—and make a stand that determines the fate of the young nation. “Remember the Alamo!” and “Remember Goliad!” will be the battle cries, and the order of the day will echo Travis’s at the Alamo: Victory or death. Acclaimed Texas historian Stephen L. Moore’s new narrative history tells the full, thrilling story of the Texas Revolution from its humble beginnings to its dramatic conclusion, and reveals the contributions of the fabled Texas Rangers—both during the revolution and in the frontier Indian wars that followed.

In its examination of a state too often neglected by Civil War historians, The Fate of Texas presents Texas as a decidedly Southern, yet in many ways unusual, state seriously committed to and deeply affected by the Confederate war effort in a multitude of ways. When the state joined the Confederacy and fought in the war, its fate was uncertain. The war touched every portion of the population and all aspects of life in Texas. Never before has a group of historians examined the impact of the war on so many facets of the state.

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Harmony McLain and Whispering Moutain series' Sanford Colston left his hometown of Saints Roost to hire its school a new teacher—but instead found himself stuck at the Dallas train station, robbed of the clothes off his back. It was clear to Ford that this thief wasn't your ordinary outlaw—and he was right. Hannah was a beautiful woman on the run, desperate for a disguise that would help her escape her dangerous past. But when fate forced their paths to cross again, Ford couldn't let Hannah get away twice. Ford wanted to help his charming young bandit, but didn't know how—until she had a most exciting idea. Hannah could hide in Saints Roost. Back in the strict little town, Hannah made quite a first impression...and, with Ford at her side, learned that sometimes life offers second chances...

This text explores the natural history of Texas and more than 2900 springs in 183 Texas counties. It also includes an in-depth discussion of the general characteristics of springs - their physical and prehistoric settings, their historical significance, and their associated flora and fauna.

How partisan politics lead to the Civil War What brought about the Civil War? Leading historian Michael F. Holt convincingly offers a disturbingly contemporary answer: partisan politics. In this brilliant and succinct book, Holt distills a lifetime of scholarship to demonstrate that secession and war did not arise from two irreconcilable economies any more than from moral objections to slavery. Short-sighted politicians were to blame. Rarely looking beyond the next election, the two dominant political parties used the emotionally charged and largely chimerical issue of slavery's extension westward to pursue reelection and settle political scores, all the while inexorably dragging the nation towards disunion. Despite the majority opinion (held in both the North and South) that slavery could never flourish in the areas that sparked the most contention from 1845 to 1861-the Mexican Cession, Oregon, and Kansas-politicians in Washington, especially members of Congress, realized the partisan value of the issue and acted on short-term political calculations with minimal regard for sectional comity. War was the result. Including select speeches by Lincoln and others, The Fate of Their Country openly challenges us to rethink a seminal moment in America's history.

C.1 ST. AID B & T. 07-05-2007. $13.99.