Texas Loud Proud And Brash

The history of New Texas, the Texas we know today—oil-rich, insufferably loud, and unbearably proud of itself—begins in the late 1920s, when a horned frog wakes from its thirty-one-year nap in a courthouse cornerstone and flabbergasts the nation. In slightly over two decades ten individuals—their words, actions, and accomplishments—come to define the New Texas of the twenty-first century. While the history of Old Texas rests on oft-told legends of Houston, Austin, Travis, Crockett, Rusk, Lamar, and Seguin, today’s New Texas—proud, loud, self-promotional, sports-crazy, and too rich for its own good—is the Texas that percolates throughout the nation’s popular culture. In Texas Loud, Proud, and Brash: How Ten Mavericks Created the Twentieth-Century Lone Star State, author Rusty Williams profiles ten largely unsung men and women responsible for the Texas you love, hate, and (secretly) envy today.

This is a new release of the original 1945 edition.

Includes material on Sally Skull, Chipita Rodriguez, Mrs. Swine, Jessie Williams, Edna Milton, Sarah Bowman, Belle Starr, Beulah Morose, Sophia Suttenfield, Aughinbaugh Coffee Butt (or Butts) Porter, Etta Place, Allen Hill and family, Lottie Deno, Adah Isaacs Menken, Bonnie Parker, Janis Joplin, and Karla Faye Tucker.

Winner, 2017 Oklahoma Book Award, sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for the Book Winner, 2016 Outstanding Book on Oklahoma History, sponsored by the Oklahoma Historical Society At the beginning of America’s Great Depression, Texas and Oklahoma armed up and went to war over a 75-cent toll bridge that connected their states across the Red River. It was a two-week affair marked by the presence of National Guardsmen with field artillery, Texas Rangers with itchy trigger fingers, angry mobs, Model T blockade runners, and even a costumed Native American peace delegation. Traffic backed up for miles, cutting off travel between the states. This conflict entertained newspaper readers nationwide during the summer of 1931, but the Red River Bridge War was a deadly serious affair for many rural Americans at a time when free bridges and passable roads could mean the difference between survival and starvation. The confrontation had national consequences, too: it marked an end to public acceptance of the privately owned ferries, toll bridges, and turnpikes that threatened to strangle American transportation in the automobile age. The Red River Bridge War: A Texas-Oklahoma Border Battle documents the day-to-day skirmishes of this unlikely conflict between two sovereign states, each struggling to help citizens get goods to market at a time of reduced tax revenue and little federal assistance. It also serves as a cautionary tale, providing historical context to the current trend of re-privatizing our nation’s highway infrastructure.

Based on a 1912 publication about Texans who fought for the South in the Civil War, Texas Boys in Gray presents a collection of fascinating remembrances of those who were there. Sometimes humorous and sometimes heartbreaking, the experiences of these men are documented as a tribute to Texas war veterans. Texas Boys in Gray captures, in their own words, the patriotism, the fear, the confusion, the bravery, the terrible wounds, the desperate hunger, the camaraderie, the horrible prison conditions, and the joyful reunions that were all part of that historical time.

In 1950 Dallas was a spirited Texas town of some regional importance; by 1980 it was an international city, one of the nation’s most populous, a center of trade, transportation, finance, pro sports, and popular culture. Historic Photos of Dallas in the 50s, 60s, and 70s documents this amazing transformation with seldom-seen photographs of the period. Nearly 200 historic images show Dallas in the process of refashioning its skyline, its streets, its institutions, its public behavior, and its sense of self and worth. Historic Photos of Dallas in the 50s, 60s, and 70s blends striking black-and-white images with crisp commentary to chronicle moments of joy, pride, and anguish during these tumultuous decades. This volume takes readers back to the not-so-long-ago Dallas of trolley buses, downtown movie theaters, and four-lane expressways, then shows how the city transcended its parochial beginnings to become one of the most dynamic American cities of the twentieth century.

Border Bandits is an account of the many, many stories of back and forth skirmishes between the Mexicans and Texans during the late 1800s and early 1900s. There practically wasn't a border, which caused a lot of problems and thievery between the two countries. These seventeen tales in this book re-create border raids that originated from both sides of the fluid and much contested line and tells the stories of colorful characters – Mexican and American – that have since secured their place in history.

The New Orleans Greys were a group of young men, out for the adventure and money to be gained from war. This book details the importance of their participation in the Battle of the Alamo, as well as several other battles in the rebellion of 1835. Historian Brown has taken some little known history and created a fascinating and well-crafted story for the mainstream reader.