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 ......
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 ......
Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio
2021 Finalist Raul Yzaguirre Best Political/Current Affairs Book, International Latino Book Awards Winner of the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education Inaugural Book Award Unraveling the intertwined histories of Latino radicalism and religion in urban America, this book examines how Latino activists transformed churches into staging ......
A comprehensive examination of the history and excavation of the Etruscan city of Arretium. Beneath the Italian city of Arezzo lie the remains of Etruscan Arretium. This volume, the first comprehensive treatment of excavations at Arretium, gathers the most up-to-date scholarship on the city and delves into key archaeological discoveries and the ......