“Texas is not a place, it is a commotion!” exclaimed one early visitor to the state, underscoring the mobility and “get-ahead” spirit that have always characterized Texas and its people. In these thought-provoking essays, Howard R. Lamar looks specifically at the “crossings” that have characterized Texas history to see what effect these migrations to and through Texas have had on Texas, the Southwest, and links between Texas and California. Originally presented in 1986 at the University of Texas at Austin as the first George W. Littlefield Lectures in American History, these essays explore a previously neglected aspect of the western story: the influence of Texans—and other Southerners—on the character and history of the southwestern states. Lamar discusses the many efforts to establish overland trails, and later railroads, to California and how those efforts were fueled by the gold rush era of 1849–1850. He traces the influence of immigrant Texans and the flourishing southern community in California, particularly during the Civil War years. He follows the twentieth-century migration of “Okies,” whose desire to settle and resume their agricultural lifeways clashed with Californians’ preference for migrant workers. And he reveals how the discovery of oil, not only in Texas but also in California, western Canada, and Alaska, continues to link these regions. Texas has always been a place that people pass through, going either east-west or north-south. Texas Crossings explains what brought the people to Texas and what they carried away with them to California and the West.

Texas is blood and violence, right? It is cowboys and longhorns, the Alamo and the Astrodome, wheeling and dealing and bragging, right? Right. And also wrong, says the author of this book, Joe B. Frantz. This is the story of how a myth began, with the Texas Revolution against Mexico, cattle drives, and "hyperactive" Texas Rangers, and became embodied in larger-than-life figures, from Sam Houston to "Speaker Sam" Rayburn, from the explorer La Salle to L. B. J. It is also the story of a state larger than its myth, a Confederate state that contained enclaves of pro-Union German-Americans, a football-loving state that produced musicians of the sensitivity of Scott Joplin and Van Cliburn, a western state that also is Southern, Mexican, and Spanish in its influences.

James Street was born and raised in the South and was one of its most passionate and eloquent voices. Through this collection of articles from Holiday and the Saturday Evening Post the people and the cities of the South come to life ― legends are explored, contradictions examined, historical milestones noted, personal anecdotes retold, and quips and quotes of a 1950's generation recorded. Flowing through his stories are the great rivers of the South, which although sometimes merry and sometimes gloomy, wind and roll and tumble through the collection like liquid poetry. To James Street the South was heaven and :contained everything good and big and wonderful in life" ― the things that made people human. The South was a love he cherished to himself and championed to the nations. For him, it was "the measure of life, the temper of men, and the crucible of artistic sensibility."

Traces the full panorama of Texas history, from its earliest Indian inhabitants to the present day, emphasizing the twentieth-century evolution from a rural to an urban society

Read Along or Enhanced eBook: Each Origins: Whodunnit: Law Enforcement eShort is a single chapter from the full Origins: Whodunnit: Law Enforcement title, packaged as a mini eBook. Origins: Whodunnit: Law Enforcement eShorts include Beat Cops, The Texas Rangers, The Secret Service, and Federal Marshals.

Surprise – whoever you are, you’re a missionary! If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, God calls you his missionary. You may never go halfway around the world. You may not raise financial support. But because of God’s gospel work in you, you are on mission: to people in your work, school, neighborhood, and those in need. As everyday missionaries, God has sent us to live out his Great Commission in the ordinary, normal, all-too-busy, and even most mundane moments of our lives. But what exactly does an everyday missionary do? Where and when does this everyday mission happen? Most importantly, how can you possibly share the gospel, without killing your relationships?! Those are the types of questions A Field Guide for Everyday Mission answers for individuals, churches, small groups, Sunday schools, and missional communities. Many resources exist on missional theory, missional leadership, and even missional stories. But based on their years of helping people tangibly demonstrate the gospel, pastors and practitioners Ben Connelly and Bob Roberts Jr. have created an immediately implementable resource to help ordinary followers of Jesus put the idea of mission into everyday practice. Each day’s reading includes a biblical principle that can immediately be put into practice. Each reading ends with a few ways to help you live out the principle in your daily life. By the end of day 30, you’ll have 101 different ways to demonstrate the gospel in your daily life. And along the way, other practitioners such as Jeff Vanderstelt, Rick McKinley, and Lance Ford share stories about living on God’s everyday mission in their unique context. A Field Guide for Everyday Mission is a tool designed for you, whether you’re newly considering the missional idea, whether you’ve never heard the word before, or whether you’ve spent years trying to figure out how to put that idea into practice.

Successful Democratic Texas campaign manager Mary Beth Rogers explains how Democrats can punch holes in the big red political bubble that has covered the state for 25 years