At 85 years of age, reflecting on his experiences in the Pacific Theater in World War II, former US Army cavalry soldier Warren E. Murtha said, "The proudest moment of my life occurred when I went through the gate at Santo Tomas in Manila and I saw the faces of the prisoners-the men, women, and children-their smiles, their expressions of relief ......
Gabriel "Gabe" Rivera was one of the greatest players in the history of Texas Tech football. He earned All American status, was enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame, and saw his name elevated to the Texas Tech Ring of Honor. After his college career, Rivera became a first-round selection of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1983, but his ......
Snakes inspire extreme reactions. Love or hate these limbless reptiles, almost everyone is fascinated by them. Although snakes are widespread and frequently encountered, they may be more misunderstood than any other group of animals. From giant rattlesnakes to mating dances, there are dozens of myths and misconceptions about snakes. In Secrets of ......
The history of the Mexican Army's activity in the Texas Revolution is well documented but often hidden away. Many important primary sources have been lost or destroyed, but an impressive amount of period documentation has survived. And yet many of these handwritten, Spanish documents have been shelved in the back rooms of museums and libraries ......
Characterizing San Antonio's five Spanish colonial-era missions as "sites of memory," author and historian Joel Daniel Kitchens explores how and why Spain built the missions, what happened to the missions after the Spanish colonizers left, and how and why the missions came to weigh so heavily in American imagination and identity, even into the ......
Texas during the Civil War period is often viewed through the lenses of military tactics and the state's role in the Confederacy. But what was life like for the families who endured wartime separation? How did women ensure stability at home while their husbands, fathers, and brothers were ordered away to risk their lives? How did families remain ......
Ripped Apart: Unsettling Narratives of Transnational Migration is an innovative and interdisciplinary analysis of Latina narratives of transnational migration that underscore the intersections of the physical, psychological, sociocultural, and legal / structural traumas endured by migrants and their families. Grounded in theories of narrative ......
For almost five decades, the band known as Riders in the Sky ("America's Favorite Cowboys") has entertained and delighted audiences in Nashville and throughout the United States with their mixture of quirky sendups of the silver-screen Western and their "faultless, evocative instrumentation, perfect harmony, fantasy, and humor." Remarkably, the ......
The Twenty-Sixth Winner of the Walt McDonald First-Book Prize in Poetry. Prospect comprises poems about vantage points, country and personhood, and the difficulty of understanding what is true. Through meticulously articulated explorations of knowledge, truth, language, and science's explanatory power, Prospect propels us toward grasping even the ......