Consortium Book Blog

New book from State House Press called "the most comprehensive volume on the Alamo . . ."

Just released from State House Press, The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey has already garnered praise from several noted historians throughout the state.

Richard Bruce Winders, Historian and Curator at the Alamo states:

"Many visitors to the Alamo know only its iconic postcard image. Those who realize there was more to the old mission compound are surprised to find that so much has been lost over time. Alamo aficionados long for resurrection. Mark Lemon has produced something for all of them—the curious and the serious. The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey is a must for anyone who wishes to visualize the Alamo as it appeared at the time of the battle."

Jesus Francisco de la Teja, State Historian of Texas notes that by

"Combining the artist's imagination with a scholar's attention to detail, Alamo enthusiast Mark Lemon has produced the single most comprehensive volume on the Alamo as it was at the time of its rendezvous with history.The Illustrated Alamo 1836 will bring hours of pleasure to anyone wishing to gain an understanding of how a dilapidated Spanish mission became the stage for the most famous event in Texas history."

 To see what others have said about Mark Lemon's The Illustrated Alamo 1836: A Photographic Journey, or to purchase a copy of the book, click here.

The Greatest Texas Sports Stories You've Never Heard gets recognition from NCAA

The Greatest Texas Sports Stories You've Never Heard by Al Pickett received recognition from two NCAA Division III websites last week and the book has gained popularity throughout the state since its release in December.  As Dave Campbell, founder of Texas Football magazine states: "It deserves a place in every  good sports library."  Click here to read more about these feature articles and what people are saying about The Greatest Texas Sports Stories You've Never Heard (State House Press, $14.95 paper).

TAMU Press author to appear in BBC documentary

Tom Hargrove, author of Long March to Freedom, is participating in a documentary for the popular BBC television series The Reunion. The show will reunite Hargrove and members of the team who secured his release from Columbian narco-terrorists who kidnapped him in 1994. The air date is forthcoming.

To read more about the book Long March to Freedom click here.
http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2007/hargrove.htm 

Observing Martin Luther King Day

Observe Martin Luther King Day by reading about the African American struggle for civil rights and equality in these fine books:

http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/botson.htm
Labor, Civil Rights, and the Hughes Tool Company
Michael R. Botson, Jr.

". . . an important contribution to the literature on the relationship between organized labor and the civil rights movement. It will be of great interest not only to those who study labor and civil rights in Texas, but also to scholars who focus on the broader social movements of the twentieth-century America."—Southwestern Historical Quarterly, October 2006

http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/robertson.htm
Fair Ways
How Six Black Golfers Won Civil Rights in Beaumont, Texas
Robert J. Robertson
 
". . . a story that cuts to the core of sports and society. It reminds us  how far we have come . . . in the last fifty years."—Jim Nantz, CBS Sports

http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2003/blackwelder.htm
Styling Jim Crow
African American Beauty Training during Segregation
Julia Kirk Blackwelder
   
Julia Kirk Blackwelder focuses on the beauty education industry in racially segregated communities from World War I through the 1960s. In this revealing study of two black beauty companies of the Jim Crow era, Blackwelder looks at the industry as an example of black entrepreneurial effort and an opportunity for young women to obtain training and income that promised social mobility within the African American community.
    Blackwelder demonstrates that commerce, politics, and culture all intersected inside African American beauty schools of the Jim Crow era.             

William & Rosalie: A Holocaust Testimony is getting much attention

In case you missed it, two excerpts from this moving book recently ran in the Dallas Morning News:
see:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/dmn/stories/081907dnentholocaust_part2.9ae0ce.html
AND
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/longterm/stories/081207dnentholocaust_part1.e509f5.html

For more information about the book, see the University of North Texas web site:

http://web3.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=9901

There is also a terrific multi-media web site:
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2007/schiffs/

"William & Rosalie" (hardcover $19.95) is available at bookstores or by calling (800) 826-8911 or visiting http://www.tamu.edu/upress/.

The book has generated much interest in the Schiffs. If you have the opportunity, catch them at one of their upcoming appearances in the Dallas area.

Craig Hanley and William and Rosalie Schiff are set to be interviewed from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, September 25 on KERA-90.1. They will be interviewed by host Kris Boyd on KERA's radio talk show "Think."

Borders Books & Music, 10720 Preston Rd., Dallas, Texas
Wednesday, September 26, 2007. 7 - 9 PM

What Happens When History Becomes Film

Lights, Camera History                                                
Portraying the Past in Film                              
Edited by Richard Francaviglia and Jerry Rodnizky   

When a movie of a historical event is released, there are always two questions: What did they get right? What did they get wrong? In this volume, the authors examine the importance of not only understanding, but also embracing the range of effects film has on our understanding of history and even the present.

This collection addresses a number of central topics concerning how history is depicted in film. In the preface, the volume editors emphasize the importance of using film in teaching history: students will see historical films, and if they are not taught critical viewing, they will be inclined simply to accept what they see as fact. Authors of the individual chapters then explore the portrayal of history—and the uses of history—in specific films and film genres.

Robert Rosenstone’s “In Praise of the Biopic” considers such films as Reds, They Died with Their Boots On, Little Big Man, Seabiscuit, Cinderella Man, and The Grapes of Wrath. In his chapter, Geoff Pingree focuses on the big questions posed in Jay Rosenblatt’s 1998 film Human Remains. Richard Francaviglia’s chapter on films about the Middle East is especially timely in the post-9/11 world. One chapter, by Daniel A. Nathan, Peter Berg, and Erin Klemyk, is devoted to a single film: Martin Scorsese’s urban history The Gangs of New York, which the authors see as a way of exploring
complex themes of the immigrant experience. Finally, Robert Brent Toplin addresses the paradox of using an art form (film) to present history. Among other themes, he considers the impact of Patton and Platoon on military decisions and interpretations, and of Birth of a Nation and Glory on race relations.

The cumulative effect is to increase the reader’s understanding of the medium of film in portraying history and to stimulate the imagination as to how it can and how it should not be used. Students and teachers of history and cinema will benefit deeply from this informative and thoughtful discussion.

For more information:
http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2007/francaviglia.htm

How a Scottish Doctor almost Stole Texas for Britain

The Secret War for Texas                                     
Stuart Reid

“Forget what you think you know about the Texas Revolution! In this lively, readable, even audacious book, Stuart Reid provides startling new evidence that the cherished story of Texas independence must rightly be viewed not only as part of a wider Mexican civil war but as a ‘secret war’ between London and Washington for mastery of the North American continent. . . . Reid’s insightful, compelling narrative and masterful synthesis will serve as the point of departure for all subsequent work. Delightful reading!"—Craig H. Roell, Professor of History, Georgia Southern University

Could the British have stopped Manifest Destiny in its tracks in 1836?

On the eve of the Texas uprising, only two things stood in the way of American ambitions to reach the Pacific Ocean: the British claim to the Oregon country and the vast but sparsely populated Mexican province of Texas. Britain was therefore almost as concerned with the outcome of the Texians’ war as Mexico was.

At a crucial point when Texians had to decide whether to seek rights within the Federal Republic of Mexico or to secede and ally with the United States, James Grant led a band of followers toward Mexico, with the intent of forming a state within that nation. His efforts met enduring accusations that he fatally weakened the Alamo by stripping it of men, ammunition, and medical supplies. When Grant was killed on the ill-fated Matamoros expedition, British hopes of blocking the upstart Americans died, too.

Yet, despite his important role, Grant remains a shadowy and often sinister figure routinely condemned by historians and frequently dismissed out of hand as merely an unscrupulous land speculator. Drawing heavily on British sources, Reid tells the forgotten story of Dr. James Grant and the twelve-year-long secret war for Texas, from his involvement in the “silly quixotic” Fredonian Rebellion to the bloody battles along the Atascosita Road. The international scope of the story makes this far more than just another tale of the Texas Revolution.

For more information:
http://www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2007/reidstuart.htm