Is there a better way to spend a Texas afternoon than outdoors on a trail and then sitting back to relax with a cold one? Authors Jay Maddock and Debra Kellstedt would say there isn't. Texas Hikes and Brews: A Rambler's Guide to a Perfect Day presents twenty-four different hiking itineraries throughout the Lone Star State, each coupled with an ......
Raised the son of a Methodist circuit-riding minister, Wesley Clark Dodson had just begun establishing himself as a civic-minded architect in Alabama when the outbreak of the Civil War dramatically altered his life. He fought with the 40th Alabama Infantry Regiment and emerged from the war disabled. In 1866, unable to find work as an architect in ......
A cascade of recent reports has described unprecedented growth in every category measured-population, employment, new business starts, manufacturing indices, traffic counts, in-migration, school attendance, and airport enplanements-highlighting the dynamism of the two "anchor cities" of Central Texas: Austin and San Antonio. In The Austin-San ......
Race, Redemption, and the Soul of an American Artist
In 1977, when the Voyager deep space probes were launched on their journey into interstellar space, they each carried a gold record containing music from a wide variety of cultures. Of the four selections of American music chosen, one was a recording of Texas street evangelist "Blind" Willie Johnson's haunting gospel song, "Dark Was the Night, ......
James and Annetta White opened the Broken Spoke in 1964, then a mile south of the Austin city limits, under a massive live oak, and beside what would eventually become South Lamar Boulevard. White built the place himself, beginning construction on the day he received his honorable discharge from the US Army. And for more than fifty years, the ......
The North American handgame has a long lineage, attested in the myth, oral traditions, and archaeological records of Native American people. In The Handgame of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache: Spirited Competition on the Southern Plains, noted scholar William C. Meadows examines the game's history, evolution, and practice from origin accounts to ......
The Lyme Letters is epistolary verse that spells out a memoir. R, a non-binary femme character, narrates their experience of disease and recovery through recurrent letters to doctors, pets, family members, lovers, and a "Master." R, in letter form and repurposed religious texts, also explores the paradoxical experiences of queer ......
Flowers have played an important role in human culture and survival for thousands of years. The final products of flowers-fruits and seeds-are vitally important as food. Flowers provide bursts of color to homes and gardens and they symbolize love, sorrow, and renewal. Yet we often overlook their real purpose. Why do flowers exist and why do they ......
Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the nation. It has long been regarded as the "Energy Capital of the World." Trademarked boasts frequently refer to the "world's busiest commercial seaport," "world's biggest medical complex," and "world's control center for space exploration." Houston has been home to some of the most ......
