Behind the success of every great politician, inspiring activist, or business titan, there is a staffer; Jorge B. Haynes was that staffer for some of the most influential leaders in Texas, Florida, and California. Jorge B. Haynes had a knack for finding his way into the rooms where history was being made. From his work boycotting farmworker ......
Finalist, 2021 Writers' League of Texas Book Award For John Nance "Cactus Jack" Garner, there was one simple rule in politics: "You've got to bloody your knuckles." It's a maxim that applies in so many ways to the state of Texas, where the struggle for power has often unfolded through underhanded politicking, backroom dealings, and, quite ......
Theater, Identity, and Political Culture in Cairo, 1869-1930
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during the "protectorate" period of British occupation in Egypt - theaters and other performance sites were vital for imagining, mirroring, debating, and shaping competing conceptions of modern Egyptian identity. Central figures in this diverse spectrum were the effendis, an emerging class of ......
VFX, Identity, and Embodiment in Blockbuster Cinema
Exploring how digital visual effects have changed the representations of the body and identity in action films. When Harrison Ford appeared digitally de-aged in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, audiences witnessed more than a technical feat; they saw how visual effects are reshaping what bodies can be on screen. In Action Bodies, Drew Ayers ......
Adela Sloss-Vento, Mexican American Civil Rights Activist and Texas Feminist
The essayist Adela Sloss-Vento (1901-1998) was a powerhouse of activism in South Texas's Lower Rio Grande Valley throughout the Mexican American civil rights movement beginning in 1920 and the subsequent Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. At last presenting the full story of Sloss-Vento's achievements, Agent of Change revives a forgotten ......
Runner-up, Carr P. Collins Award for Best Book of Non-Fiction, 2021 Go-Go's bassist Kathy Valentine's story is a roller coaster of sex, drugs, and of course, music; it's also a story of what it takes to find success and find yourself, even when it all comes crashing down. At twenty-one, Kathy Valentine was at the Whisky in Los Angeles when she ......
In southeastern Morocco, around the oasis of Tafilalet, the Ait Khabbash people weave brightly colored carpets, embroider indigo head coverings, paint their faces with saffron, and wear ornate jewelry. Their extraordinarily detailed arts are rich in cultural symbolism; they are always breathtakingly beautiful-and they are typically made by women. ......
A new collection of essays grappling with identity and memory, from a master of the form. The author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Gates of the Alamo, the sweeping Texas history Big Wonderful Thing, and decades of incisive journalism, Stephen Harrigan is an adept writer skilled in crafting memorable characters. From this singular ......
Dental Modification, Cosmology, and Social Identity in Mesoamerica
A study of Maya dental modification from archaeological sites spanning three millennia. Dental modification was common across ancient societies, but perhaps none were more avid practitioners than the Maya. They filed their teeth flat or pointy, polished and drilled them, and crafted decorative inlays of jade and pyrite. Unusually, Maya of all ......
