“TEXAS FOREVER,” Part Two The war has come home, and now the fate of humanity and, more importantly, Texas itself, lies in the hands of the Bowman clan. But how do you fight an army...when the dead don't die?

"The Liberal Rednecks--a three-man stand-up comedy group doing scathing political satire--celebrate all that's good about the South while leading the Redneck Revolution and standing proudly blue in a sea of red. Smart, hilarious, and incisive, the Liberal Rednecks confront outdated traditions and intolerant attitudes, tackling everything people think they know about the South--the good, the bad, the glorious, and the shameful--in a laugh-out-loud funny and lively manifesto for the rise of a New South. Home to some of the best music, athletes, soldiers, whiskey, waffles, and weather the country has to offer, the South has also been bathing in backward bathroom bills and other bigoted legislation that Trae Crowder has targeted in his Liberal Redneck videos, which have gone viral with over 50 million views. Perfect for fans of Stuff White People Like and I Am America (And So Can You), The Liberal Redneck Manifesto skewers political and religious hypocrisies in witty stories and hilarious graphics--such as the Ten Commandments of the New South--and much more! While celebrating the South as one of the richest sources of American culture, this entertaining book issues a wake-up call and a reminder that the South's problems and dreams aren't that far off from the rest of America's"--

Take your backyard cookouts to a new level. “Davis and Kirk explore the world of competition barbecue and share tips and recipes straight from the champs.” —The Edwardsville Intelligencer It began with one simple question: What do championship barbecuers love to cook for themselves, when there are no rules but the simple laws of physics and basic chemistry? With more than thirty years of barbecue contest experience apiece, Ardie A. Davis, professional barbecue judge and barbecue historian extraordinaire, and KC Baron of Barbeque Paul Kirk, with a slew of awards under his belt—including seven world championships—were just the guys to ask it. America’s Best BBQ—Homestyle collects the best backyard cookout recipes from people who have gone pro. Some of the recipes are former competition winners that have earned a constant place at the family table. Others are foods that teams like to make (and share) while they tend their fires on contest day. A few are old family recipes passed down for generations. And some are even the result of ingenious experiments in the kitchen and at the grill. Most are easy. All are sure to win the hearts of friends and neighbors at your next family cookout. Also included are tips and advice on everything from meal prep to gadgets, some basics to get you started, a few tall tales from the pits, and tons of photos of the dishes and the pitmasters who make them. This is the only book you need to become “the envy of the subdivision, the pride of the campground, and the host with the most at the next tailgate party” (The Self Taught Cook).

Now in its sixth decade, country music studies is a thriving field of inquiry involving scholars working in the fields of American history, folklore, sociology, anthropology, musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural studies, and geography, among many others. Covering issues of historiography and practice as well as the ways in which the genre interacts with media and social concerns such as class, gender, and sexuality, The Oxford Handbook of Country Music interrogates prevailing narratives, explores significant lacunae in the current literature, and provides guidance for future research. More than simply treating issues that have emerged within this subfield, The Oxford Handbook of Country Music works to connect to broader discourses within the various fields that inform country music studies in an effort to strengthen the area's interdisciplinarity. Drawing upon the expertise of leading and emerging scholars, this Handbook presents an introduction into the historiographical narratives and methodological issues that have emerged in country music studies' first half-century.

“Theodore Glimore Bilbo was, is, and evermore shall be God or Satan. He dwelled—dwells— in heaven or hell, but never in limbo.” So wrote A. Wigfall Green almost a quarter of a century ago, and so remains the popular perception of this colorful and controversial symbol of a faded era, though current opinion would tip the scales heavily in favor of the satanic and hellish. Theodore Bilbo is remembered almost exclusively as the archangel of white supremacy. His reputation as perhaps the vilest purveyor of racist rhetoric is richly deserved in light of his vehement opposition to the black civil rights movement that emerged during the last years of his career as United States senator from Mississippi. Yet, as Chester Morgan demonstrates in Redneck Liberal, the conventional image of Bilbo as merely a racist demagogue paints only half the picture. Bilbo served a full term in the Senate (1934-1940) before his political career was consumed by racism, and it is that period that is the focus of this study by Morgan. Bilbo’s first term in the Senate coincided with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Morgan provides a thorough treatment of Bilbo’s activities in Washington and his large role in Mississippi politics. In the Senate Bilbo consistently gave strong support to virtually all New Deal social and economic programs, such as relief for the unemployed, social security, public housing, and fair labor standards, while at the same time championing the cause of the nation’s small farmers in every way he could. His crude and often repulsive style may have antagonized the more sophisticated liberal academics and bureaucrats of the time, but his first-term voting record would have been the envy of any urban New Dealer. Morgan’s early chapters provide background on Bilbo’s long career prior to his election to the Senate (he served twice as governor of Mississippi, for instance) and also on the main trends in Mississippi politics from Reconstruction to the 1930s. An epilogue seeks to explain the well-known, virulently racist attitude of his final years. Throughout the book Morgan manages to capture the flamboyance of Bilbo’s personality and the vitality and intricacy of Mississippi politics. Redneck Liberal—only the second book on Bilbo ever to be published—draws heavily on Bilbo’s personal correspondence, the papers of Franklin Roosevelt, and other primary sources.

Country music boasts a long tradition of rich, contradictory gender dynamics, creating a world where Kitty Wells could play the demure housewife and the honky-tonk angel simultaneously, Dolly Parton could move from traditionalist "girl singer" to outspoken trans rights advocate, and current radio playlists can alternate between the reckless masculinity of bro-country and the adolescent girlishness of Taylor Swift. In this follow-up volume to A Boy Named Sue, some of the leading authors in the field of country music studies reexamine the place of gender in country music, considering the ways country artists and listeners have negotiated gender and sexuality through their music and how gender has shaped the way that music is made and heard. In addition to shedding new light on such legends as Wells, Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Charley Pride, it traces more recent shifts in gender politics through the performances of such contemporary luminaries as Swift, Gretchen Wilson, and Blake Shelton. The book also explores the intersections of gender, race, class, and nationality in a host of less expected contexts, including the prisons of WWII-era Texas, where the members of the Goree All-Girl String Band became the unlikeliest of radio stars; the studios and offices of Plantation Records, where Jeannie C. Riley and Linda Martell challenged the social hierarchies of a changing South in the 1960s; and the burgeoning cities of present-day Brazil, where "college country" has become one way of negotiating masculinity in an age of economic and social instability.

Examining the icon's foundations in James Fenimore Cooper's Natty Bumppo--'an ideal white man, free of the boundaries of civilization'--and the degraded rural poor of Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road, Matthew Ferrence shows how Redneck stereotypes were further extended in Deliverance, both the novel and the film, and in a popular cycle of movies starring Burt Reynolds in the 1970s and '80s, among other manifestations. As a contemporary cultural figure, the author argues, the Redneck represents no one in particular but offers a model of behavior and ideals for many. Most important, it has become a tool--reductive, confining, and (sometimes, almost) liberating--by which elite forces gather and maintain social and economic power. Those defying its boundaries, as the Dixie Chicks did when they criticized President Bush and the Iraq invasion, have done so at their own peril.