This biography of ice cream entrepreneur Ed. F. Kruse (1928-2015) looks back on a life devoted to family, community, and building one of the most successful businesses in Texas. Starting at Blue Bell Creameries at the age of thirteen, Kruse held every position imaginable at the company, eventually becoming president and chief executive officer. ......
My Life on the Y.O. Ranch with Charles Schreiner III
"It was the summer of 1977, and I was at the Texas Capitol researching voting patterns for the political campaign I was working for," writes author Norma Schreiner as she describes her meeting with rancher Charles Schreiner III. "I decided to drop by the office of one of my favorite house members, Jim Nugent. . . . Before his staff could announce ......
What can octopuses' nine brains teach us about climate resilience? How can great horned owls' keen hearing illuminate relationship dynamics? Does playing with kelp cultivate respect for the value of life? What can our 8.7 million "more-than-human" neighbors teach us about life? Entwined: Dispatches from the Intersection of Species explores these ......
Texas Lookout Towers, the Forest Service, and the Civilian ConservationCorps
Fire lookout towers are enjoying a retrospective rebirth, attracting the curious and the adventurous, as Americans seeking escape for moments of solitude rediscover the structures' national significance. Though the Civilian Conservation Corps' national fire control policies and reforestation efforts have been covered elsewhere, each state's legacy ......
Adapted from the 55th Annual Walter Prescott Webb Lecture Series held in 2021, Flight Culture and the Human Experience sheds new light on the myriad ways aviation has transformed ideas, cultures, and societies across time and around the globe. In bringing together seven established and emerging scholars to explore little known chapters in the ......
Nearly three-quarters of Texans live on the "dry side" of Texas-the South and Central Texas expanse west of I-35, which includes the Rio Grande Valley north through San Antonio, Austin, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area-that receives fewer than 40 inches of rain annually. In Gardening on the Dry Side of Texas, Southwestern horticulturist Mary Irish ......
The year is 1970; the war in Vietnam is five years from over. The women's movement is newly resurgent, and feminists are summarily reviled as "libbers." Inette Miller is one year out of college-a reporter for a small-town newspaper. Her boyfriend gets drafted and is issued orders to Vietnam. Within their few remaining days together, Inette marries ......
Climate Change, Conservation, and Saving the American Sea
The once formidable Rio Grande Delta has vanished, and unsustainable land loss in south Louisiana will result in the virtual loss of the Mississippi River Delta by 2050. Barrier islands, peninsulas, and chenier plains across the Gulf Coast are experiencing unprecedented erosion; fragile wetlands and seagrass meadows are vanishing rapidly; and the ......
Born in San Antonio, raised in Lubbock, Bob Livingston drank from the same water that nourished musicians like Terry Allen, Joe Ely, Lloyd Maines, Jesse Taylor, Butch Hancock, and others who were surfing the wake of Buddy Holly, Sonny Curtis, and the Crickets. He then made his way to Austin and installed himself among the progenitors of the Cosmic ......
