Twentieth-century Texas
Twentieth-century Texas

Author: John Woodrow Storey

Publisher: University of North Texas Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 487

ISBN-13: 1574412450

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A collection of fifteen essays which cover Indians, Mexican Americans, African Americans, women, religion, war on the homefront, music, literature, film, art, sports, philanthropy, education, the environment, and science and technology in twentieth-century Texas.

To Get a Better School System
To Get a Better School System

Author: Gene B. Preuss

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2009-07-07

Total Pages: 158

ISBN-13: 9781603441117

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In 1949, as postwar Texas was steadily becoming more urban and calls for education reform were gathering strength throughout the state and nation, State Representative Claud Gilmer and State Senator A. M. Aikin Jr. sponsored a bill designed to increase salaries for Texas schoolteachers. Also tied to the bill, however, were provisions related to sweeping changes in school funding and access to education for minorities. In To Get a Better School System, Gene B. Preuss examines not only the public policy wrangling and historical context leading up to and surrounding the Gilmer-Aikin legislation, but also places the discussion in the milieu of the national movement for school reform.

The White Scourge
The White Scourge

Author: Neil Foley

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 0520207246

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"At a time when the inadequacy of Black-white models for understanding race in the U.S. has become increasingly clear, Foley's work is of special importance for the clarity with which it describes complexity. One key to his success is his consistent emphasis on social structure and class relations as he probes the dynamics of race."—David Roediger, author of The Wages of Whiteness "Foley deftly brings social, cultural, and political history together in a breathtaking, beautifully written narrative."—Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Race Rebels

The Empty Schoolhouse
The Empty Schoolhouse

Author: Luther Bryan Clegg

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781585442645

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Annotation One- and two-room schools represent a paradoxical time in Texas history when school played second fiddle to family duties but still served as the focus of community life. Luther Bryan Clegg's The Empty Schoolhouse provides a direct link to the past through interviews with students who attended these schools and teachers who taught in this area between Fort Worth and Odessa and the Hill Country and Amarillo. Former students share stories describing Friday afternoon "literary societies, " dead snakes in desk drawers, pranks, fires, travel to and from school, and discipline. Drawing on historical and sociological data as well as interviews, Clegg presents intriguing accounts of rural life, preserving the uniqueness of the "olden days."

West Texas
West Texas

Author: Paul H. Carlson

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2014-03-04

Total Pages: 393

ISBN-13: 0806145234

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Texas is as well known for its diversity of landscape and culture as it is for its enormity. But West Texas, despite being popularized in film and song, has largely been ignored by historians as a distinct and cultural geographic space. In West Texas: A History of the Giant Side of the State, Paul H. Carlson and Bruce A. Glasrud rectify that oversight. This volume assembles a diverse set of essays covering the grand sweep of West Texas history from the ancient to the contemporary. In four parts—comprehending the place, people, politics and economic life, and society and culture—Carlson and Glasrud and their contributors survey the confluence of life and landscape shaping the West Texas of today. Early chapters define the region. The “giant side of Texas” is a nineteenth-century geographical description of a vast area that includes the Panhandle, Llano Estacado, Permian Basin, and Big Bend–Trans-Pecos country. It is an arid, windblown environment that connects intimately with the history of Texas culture. Carlson and Glasrud take a nonlinear approach to exploring the many cultural influences on West Texas, including the Tejanos, the oil and gas economy, and the major cities. Readers can sample topics in whichever order they please, whether they are interested in learning about ranching, recreation, or turn-of-the-century education. Throughout, familiar western themes arise: the urban growth of El Paso is contrasted with the mid-century decline of small towns and the social shifting that followed. Well-known Texas scholars explore popular perceptions of West Texas as sparsely populated and rife with social contradiction and rugged individualism. West Texas comes into yet clearer view through essays on West Texas women, poets, Native peoples, and musicians. Gathered here is a long overdue consideration of the landscape, culture, and everyday lives of one of America’s most iconic and understudied regions.

Harder Than Hardscrabble
Harder Than Hardscrabble

Author: Thad Sitton

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9780292702387

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Until the U.S. Army claimed 300-plus square miles of hardscrabble land to build Fort Hood in 1942, small communities like Antelope, Pidcoke, Stampede, and Okay scratched out a living by growing cotton and ranching goats on the less fertile edges of the Texas Hill Country. While a few farmers took jobs with construction crews at Fort Hood to remain in the area, almost the entire population—and with it, an entire segment of rural culture—disappeared into the rest of the state. In Harder than Hardscrabble, oral historian Thad Sitton collects the colorful and frequently touching stories of the pre-Fort Hood residents to give a firsthand view of Texas farming life before World War II. Accessible to the general reader and historian alike, the stories recount in vivid detail the hardships and satisfactions of daily life in the Texas countryside. They describe agricultural practices and livestock handling as well as life beyond work: traveling peddlers, visits to towns, country schools, medical practices, and fox hunting. The anecdotes capture a fast-disappearing rural society—a world very different from today's urban Texas.