Texas A&M University Press Consortium

Texas A&M Press Author Liz Carmack Gives Excellent Advice on Promoting Books

2012-02-23T13:03:00.010-06:00

By: Liz Carmack, author of Rodeo Austin (Texas A&M Press, 2012)

As an author, your efforts to promote your nonfiction book are every bit as important as the work you put into writing it. If you realize a few facts about the process and include a few key tasks in your to-do list, it can make your life easier and help your book achieve greater success.

Inconvenient truths

1. The success of your book is largely in your hands. You must take the lead in promoting your work. This includes figuring out (often before you even write the first word) who your target readers are and devising creative ways to reach them. Expect to set up your own book signings and speaking gigs even if you have a traditional publisher.

2. You’d better love, love, love your subject. After spending several months, or years, researching and writing your manuscript you may be sick of your topic. Get over it. Remember why you wrote the book in the first place. Your work will brand you as an authority, and you’ll be expected to speak intelligently and passionately about that subject for years to come.

3. Book signings at book stores are often a waste of time. Unless you’re David Grann or Malcolm Gladwell, folks probably won’t line up for hours at Barnes and Noble to see you. Instead, schedule signings at conferences, festivals or other events attended by your target readers. Signings at independently owned bookstores can be successful if their loyal customers include your market.

4. You can’t wait until your book is published to start promoting. Share details about your evolving manuscript or the trials of your project’s research through blog posts and other social media. Comment on the blog posts of others who write about your subject area. Avoid being overly promotional in your posts. Instead, provide interesting, engaging content. By the time your book is released, you’ll have built a fan base.

Must-dos

1. Have a plan. Early on in your writing, draft a strategic communications plan to promote your book with a scheduled list of to-dos. Clearly define your audience and the best ways to reach them. Include sections on how you’ll use social media, public speaking, face-to-face networking and media outreach. If you have a publisher, coordinate your efforts.

2. Tweak your plan. Stay flexible. When my book Historic Hotels of Texas was released, I booked speaking gigs and book signings with anyone, anywhere, anytime. After I realized that women 40 and older bought more copies than any other group, I targeted organizations with that demographic. I instantly sold more books at those events.

3. If you have the money, hire a publicist. A book publicist experienced in your genre is worth every penny. Interview two or three companies before you select one; I did and then hired PR by the Book. When Historic Hotels of Texas was released, the firm helped me land several radio and TV interviews that I wouldn’t have gotten on my own.

4. Polish your presentations skills. You’ll engage more readers and sell more books if you can combine public presentations with book signings. If you’re not a polished speaker, get help from a speech coach. Offer your presentation to groups whose membership best fits your target market and schedule your own workshops or presentations centered on your book’s topic. Also consider posting videos and podcasts.

I realize that book promotion has many more truths and to-dos than those included here, but I hope this information will at least give aspiring authors a reality check about what’s ahead. What would you add to either of these lists?

Liz Carmack is a freelance writer, editor and researcher. She founded Liz Carmack Communications in 2006. Liz began her career as a newspaper journalist and has also helped craft messaging and manage communications projects for nonprofits and government agencies. Her most recent book, Rodeo Austin: Blue Ribbons, Buckin’ Broncs, and Big Dreams, is published by Texas A&M University Press.

12 Impacts of the 12th Man, George P. Mitchell

2012-02-15T10:09:00.000-06:00

An energy tycoon, real estate developer, and philanthropist, George P. Mitchell is also an idealist, a big thinker who gave his time and fortune to the study of sustainability long before it became a household word.

This month Mitchell is featured in Texas A&M University's first installment of the 12 Impacts of the 12th Man series, for his contributions to the oil and gas industry.

Jurgen Schmandt, professor emeritus of public affairs in the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, worked with Mitchell for many years. He was formerly the director of the Mitchell Center for Sustainabl Development.

His book, George P. Mitchell and the Idea of Sustainability (Texas A&M University Press, 2010), focuses on Mitchell's commitment to the idea of sustainability from the early 1960s, when the focus was on population growth, to today, when climate change and global warming dominate the debate.

Texas A&M University Press: George P. Mitchell is known, in part, for his contributions to the oil and gas industry, as well as for his visionary real estate ventures, and his untiring support of scientific endeavors. Your book, however, focuses on his commitment to the idea of sustainability. How do his contributions to sustainability compare in range and scope to his other achievements? Are his efforts in this area as widely known?

Schmandt: George Mitchell excelled in three careers, which he pursued in parallel — energy, real estate and philanthropy. He created one of the largest independent energy companies. He built a community —The Woodlands — that followed the principles of Design with Nature. And he devoted his fortune to public causes — sustainable development and science. He is well known in all three fields, but by different constituencies.

TAMU Press: What influenced you to cast Mitchell as the focus of this book?

Schmandt: George is one of a handful of successful businessmen who saw early on that population growth and ever-increasing consumption were threatening the resource base of our planet. I felt that it was worthwhile to document his commitment to sustainable development.

TAMU Press: What are some of the lasting impacts of Mitchell's contributions to sustainability?

Schmandt: In the '70s and '80s, Mitchell familiarized American decision makers and scholars with sustainability research that had been pioneered in Europe under the heading Limits to Growth. Mitchell, through conferences, prizes and sponsored research broadened the focus of this debate: not no-growth but sustainable growth — improvements in the quality of life that do not endanger the resource base of future generations: food, energy and work. Then he tried to bring these ideals to Washington. He wanted the government to take the first step: keeping track of changing conditions. This did not work. So he turned to the National Academy of Sciences and helped them develop the scientific and engineering underpinnings of sustainable development. Today he supports sustainability projects through the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.

TAMU Press: You worked for Mitchell for many years. Why do you think he was so motivated to advance these ideas?

Schmandt: He always searched for answers to urgent questions. Early on he read Rachel Carson, who warned against the overuse of DDT. The breakthrough came when he met Buckminster Fuller. His image of Spaceship Earth — the world can take only so many people — impressed him deeply. He would say: protection of the environment is important. But you have to aim a notch higher: protection of the planet, sustainable development.

TAMU Press: You note in your book that while Mitchell made many strides to advance the idea of sustainability through the creation of conferences and prizes, support of scholars and scientists, and funding of research and publications, he did not take measures to advance sustainability in his own energy company. Through your research were you able to discover why this was the case? What did you discover?

Schmandt: Ray Anderson, a Mitchell Prize winner, rebuilt his carpet business around green principles, and found that he could do so profitably. Mitchell did not follow this path, probably because he did not see how to build a green energy company. Or better: he saw only a partial way to this goal. For twenty years he pioneered the extraction of shale gas. The large companies said it could not be done economically. Mitchell persevered. He argued that gas emits less carbon dioxide than coal and oil and should be used more widely, while work on alternative energy sources — wind, solar, bio fuels—is being up scaled. Today, because of his work, the United States has increased its energy independence and has become a gas exporter. And shale gas is being produced worldwide.

TAMU Press: In the future, will Mitchell be remembered for his commitment to sustainability? Why or why not?

Schmandt: Yes, if the world commits to sustainability. No, if we continue to do business as usual.

Camp Hearne in Lone Star Stalag

2012-02-10T11:20:00.000-06:00

In 1942, a World War II prisoner-of-war camp spanned 250 buildings on three compounds in the small, central Texas city of Hearne.

Surrounded by 10-foot fences and barbed wire, Camp Hearne was guarded by seven guard towers and 500 American servicemen and women, who guarded and operated the camp.

Texas Highways magazine featured an article on the camp and Texas A&M anthropology professor Michael Waters, who -- with a team of 150 students -- investigated the camp’s history through archeological excavation, archival evidence, and oral history in its December 2011 issue. You can read the history of Camp Hearne in Water’s book Lone Star Stalag (Texas A&M University Press, 2006).

“The documents we found, and the archeological investigations we conducted, provided the facts about what happened at the camp,” says Waters of the site, which today is hidden beneath a growth of weeds.

“But when the oral history research began, we started to hear the stories and understand some of the emotions involved.” Waters said the last former Hearne POW that he is aware of visited the site a few years ago.

Texas, Our Texas!

2012-02-09T13:12:00.000-06:00

This semester, a Sam Houston State University class will watch snippets of Urban Cowboy and Hollywood iterations of the Alamo, read iconic Texas writers like Cormac McCarthy and Larry McMurtry, see performances by Cajun musicians and cowboy singers, and take a field trip to the Texas Independence Day celebration.

The "idea of Texas"- in literature, culture, politics and even food - is the focus of courses in college campuses around the state. A recent article in the Houston Chronicle highlighted the influx of new classes, emerging at universities from Huntsville to Houston, Abilene to Austin.

“ . . . students are alternately studying, skewering and celebrating the enduring notion of the Lone Star State as a land of mythic proportions and mighty individualists,” writes Rhor.

Read the full article here. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Colleges-going-deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas-3005748.php

Texas A&M University Press is a leading publisher of Texas history and Texana ─ a genre focusing on Texas culture and history.

Discover Texas culture and history with the following selections:

If you are interested in Texas history and folklore, check out the following Texas A&M Press books!

Just over thirty years ago, Dan Kilgore ignited a controversy with his presidential address to the Texas State Historical Association and its subsequent publication in book form, How Did Davy Die? Now, in this enlarged, commemorative edition, James E. Crisp, a professional historian and a participant in the debates over the De la Peña diary, reconsiders the heated disputation surrounding How Did Davy Die? and poses the intriguing follow-up question, “. . . And Why Do We Care So Much?”

Veteran historian T. Lindsay Baker brings his considerable sleuthing skills to the dark side, leading readers on a fascinating tour of the most interesting and best preserved crime scenes in the Lone Star State. Gangster Tour of Texas traces a trail of crime that had its beginnings in 1918, when the Texas legislature outlawed alcohol, and persisted until 1957, when Texas Rangers closed down the infamous casinos of Galveston. Baker presents detailed maps, photographs of criminals, victims, and law officers, and pictures of the crime scenes as they appear today.

In Why Texans Fought in the Civil War, Charles David Grear provides insights into what motivated Texans to fight for the Confederacy. Mining important primary sources—including thousands of letters and unpublished journals—he affords readers the opportunity to hear, often in the combatants’ own words, why it was so important to them to engage in tumultuous struggles occurring so far from home.

Until They Are Home

2012-02-08T10:20:00.000-06:00

Film Maker Steven C. Barber and Producer Matthew Hausle are setting out on a mission to bring back the fallen soldiers of the WWII Battle of Tarawa. After 68 years, these soldiers will be given the burial they deserve, and their families will receive the closure they have been waiting for. This documentary shows the amazing story of the young men and women of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) who embed themselves in beyond rugged and brutal conditions to bring fallen service members home.

This is not the first time that a mission like this has been attempted. In Thomas T. Smith’s memoir Until They Are Home: Bringing Back the MIAs from Vietnam, a Personal Memoir (Texas A&M Press), he recounts his experiences, leading a joint task force established to recover the remains of Vietnam POW/MIA soldiers.

Describing everything from diplomatic negotiations between the Vietnamese and American governments to his views on commanding a remarkably complex mission in an unforgiving environment, Smith draws on memory, e-mails, letters, and journal entries to recreate the story of his mission in Vietnam. Smith and the forces serving under him found the remains of fourteen lost American servicemen—including two graduates of Texas A&M University.

AAUP 2012 Directory Now Available!

2012-02-06T10:02:00.000-06:00

New this year, AAUP has developed a special discount for faculty and graduate students. Because many presses host publishing information seminars on their campuses, and editors and press directors are often invited to speak at such seminars and workshops on campuses without presses, AAUP now offers attendees at these conferences a 30% discount on a key reference guide.

For more information check out the link below or contact Susan Patton at spatton@aaupnet.org.

http://www.aaupnet.org/aaup-members/annual-directory/member-directory-orders

USS Monitor 150th Launch Anniversary

2012-01-30T11:56:00.001-06:00

USS Monitor (1862) Line engraving published in Harper's Weekly, September 1862, page 433, depicting the launching of the ship at the Continental Iron Works, Greenpoint, New York, on 30 January 1862.

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the USS Monitor’s launch from the Continental Iron Works, Greenpoint, New York. The USS Monitor was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the US Navy and on March 9, 1862 fought the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads, Virginia, only a day after Virginia had ravaged the Union fleet blockading the James River. Less than nine months later, the now-famous Monitor was under tow, heading south to Beaufort, North Carolina, when, in heavy seas, the vessel sank, taking sixteen of its crew with it.

John D. Broadwater, author of USS Monitor: A Historic Ship Completes Its Final Voyage, (Texas A&M Press, March) was the manager of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, where he directed seven major expeditions to the remains of the Civil War ironclad warship. Not until 1973 was the inverted hulk located, and in 1995, partial recovery of the wreck began under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in partnership with the US Navy. The story of the subsequent protection and management of the historic resource, and the raising of major hull components including the gun turret, add another layer of history to the Monitor’s fascinating story.

Kelsey Lawrence

Mordecai Lee on the Reorganization of Federal Government

2012-01-26T14:39:00.000-06:00

On January 21, 2012 the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal Centennial picked up the Texas A&M University Press author Mordecai Lee’s Op-Ed on President Obama’s recent plan for reorganizing the federal government.

“As a professor of public administration, I wholeheartedly support efforts to make the bureaucracy more efficient. But as a professor of public administration history, I am apprehensive that the president is making some fatal first steps.” –Lee

Over the past hundred years, every president from Taft to Johnson has proposed reorganization of the executive branch, and Lee believes that if President Obama were to study up on these histories, he could learn two valuable lessons. One, the president needs supporters in Congress to push for his bill, despite the opposition of parochial committee chairs and the external support of a civic constituency to neutralize the frantic lobbying of special interest groups and two, the president needs to make clear that the main purpose of reorganization is not to cut costs (efficiency), but to improve public administration (effectiveness).

Lee who holds a Ph.D. from Syracuse University, is a professor of governmental affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Previously, he served as a state senator as well as legislative assistant to a U.S. Congressman and is the author of Institutionalizing Congress and the Presidency: The U.S. Bureau of Efficiency, 1916–1933 and Nixon's Super-Secretaries: The Last Grand Presidential Reorganization Effort (Texas A&M University Press).

The Watergate scandal of 1973 claimed many casualties, political and otherwise. Along with many personal reputations and careers, President Richard Nixon’s bold attempt to achieve a sweeping reorganization of the domestic portion of the executive branch was also pulled into the vortex. Lee asserts that Nixon’s reorganization effort represents a significant event in the evolution of the managerial presidency and public administration, Nixon’s Super-Secretaries presents the most comprehensive historical narrative to date concerning this reorganization attempt. The author has utilized previously untapped original and primary sources to provide unprecedented detail on the inner workings, intentions, and ultimate demise of Nixon’s ambitious plan to reorganize the sprawling federal bureaucracy.
Lee’s complete Op-Ed can be found in following link.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/obamas-reorg-plan-lets-take-a-closer-look-833rrcf-137800808.html

The Titanic Centennial and James P. Delgado's "Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine"

2012-01-26T10:31:00.000-06:00

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the infamous RMS Titanic sinking. On April 15, 1912 over 1,500 people, passengers and crew members, died tragically as the Titanic plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after colliding with an unseen iceberg.

The New York Times recently highlighted recurring interest in the site. Cruise ships still sail to the precise spot in the Atlantic where the ship went down.
The down side to these fascinating excursions? The site is becoming littered.

“It could get real crowded out there,” said James P. Delgado, director of maritime heritage at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Despite the legitimacy of wide public interest, he added, “there are some things that shouldn’t happen,” like dumping trash and leaving behind equipment.”

Delgado heads the NOAA division responsible for monitoring the Titanic site. He is also author of the forthcoming book, The Misadventures of a Civil War Submarine (Texas A&M University Press, March). In 2001 while vacationing on Panama’s Pacific coast, the maritime archaeologist came upon the hulk of a mysterious iron vessel. Locals did not know where it had come from. Some said it was the remains of a sunken Japanese “suicide” submarine from World War II. Others said it was a poison-laden “craft of death” responsible for the pearl beds decades before.
Upon investigating the hulk further, Delgado discovered it was the remains of one of the first successful deep-diving submersibles, built in 1864 by Julius H. Kroehl. The invention ultimately led to Kroehl’s demise.

Carl Jung and A Dangerous Method

2012-01-26T10:18:00.000-06:00

In November of 2011 the movie A Dangerous Method starring Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender was released. The screenplay was adapted by Academy Award-winning writer Christopher Hampton from his 2002 stage play The Talking Cure, which was based on the 1993 non-fiction book by John Kerr, A Most Dangerous Method: the story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein. The movie takes place in 1904 and details the deteriorating relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. Carl Jung (Fassbender), a disciple of Sigmund Freud (Mortensen), is using Freudian techniques to treat Russian-Jewish psychiatric patient Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) at Burghölzli Mental Hospital. But the deeper Jung's relationship with Spielrein grows, the further the psychiatrist and his highly respected mentor drift apart. As Jung struggles to help his patient overcome some pressing paternal issues, disturbed patient Otto Gross (Vincent Cassel) sets out to test the boundaries of the doctor's professional resolve.
-Jason Buchanan

Although the movie is a fictitious representation, the lives and studies of Freud and Jung are still continuously explored and studied today. If you are interested in Carl Jung or Jungian theory, check out the book Finding Jung: Frank N. McMillan Jr., a Life in Quest of the Lion (Texas A&M University Press, March) by Frank N. McMillan III ─ the personal story of McMillan Jr.’s life-long quest for meaning. McMillan, a country boy steeped in the traditional culture of rural Texas , began reading Carl Jung’s Collected Works upon hearing impressionist artist Forrest Bess’s description of Jung as a master psychologist, soul doctor, and healer. McMillan went on to establish the world’s first professorship to study the field of Jungian Psychology.

Adopt-A-Beach!

2012-01-11T13:13:00.000-06:00

From the shores of Hawaii to the coast of Texas, America’s beaches constantly serve as the recreational hubs of our vacations. Sunbathing, surfing, sand volleyball, and swimming are only a few of the activities that inch their way into our vacationing day dreams and serve as relief from the drone of the nine-to-five job. But what happens when we begin to take advantage of the beauty of the shore and let carelessness creep in? A recent article by the Texas General Land Office in Galveston’s The Daily News explains that today the composition of the trash being found on Texas beaches is no longer trash from ocean-going vessels but is instead the trash left behind by beach-goers.

The good news for beach lovers is that it is not too late to do something to protect our beaches. On January 13, 2012 at 10:00 am Adopt-A-Beach is holding a Marine Debris Summit at Moody Gardens Convention Center in Galveston. Adopt-A-Beach is an organization that strives to raise public awareness, educate citizens about the sources of debris, and to generate public support for state, national, and international action to clean up coastal waters.

“Panel discussions will be on topics such as how to reduce the trash that comes with people driving on the beach — a protected Texas tradition — as well as how to stop the rising tide of dirty diapers, among other things.” The Daily News

World-renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, chair of the Advisory Board for Texas A&M University’s Harte Research Institute and Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, will be the keynote speaker.
Earle has also contributed to several Texas A&M University Press books including, Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico and Texas Coral Reefs. http://www.harteresearchinstitute.org/

If you are interested in the Gulf Coast beaches please check out our book Sea-Level Change in the Gulf of Mexico by Richard A. Davis Jr. Sponsored by the Texas A&M University Harte Research Institute, this book is a must-read for Gulf Coast scientists, naturalists, and residents.

Kelsey Lawrence

TAMU Press author, Brandon Rottinghaus comments on Perry’s Ad

2011-12-20T15:26:00.000-06:00

Governor Perry's latest ad, entitled "Strong," attracted roughly 750,000 views on YouTube in two days.

Brandon Rottinghaus, author of The Provisional Pulpit: Modern Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion (TAMU 2010) and Associate Professor of political science at UH commented on the controversial ad on KUHF Houston Public Radio. He says commenters who declared the ad promotes hatred and violence are more representative of the general electorate.

"His strategy right now is to ignore the general public at this stage, and focus in on the voters who are of very conservative stripe, but who are also very active. And that is going to be his strategy for trying to pry off some of the votes that have been siphoned by Newt Gingrich." — Rottinghaus

Rottinghaus also said that by hitting cultural issues so strongly, Perry has found a way to differentiate himself from the front-runners in Iowa.

Watch Perry’s ad here:

Rottinghaus’s The Provisional Pulpit: Modern Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion is for sale on the Press website and available in an edition. Read more about the book and get your own copy now!

Texas State students and staff launch Center for Texas Public History under TAMU Press author direction

2011-12-16T11:26:00.000-06:00

The National Park Service needed help researching the history of a former Secret Service command outpost at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park at Stonewall and turned to public history professors Lynn Denton and Dan Utley in the Department of History at Texas State University-San Marcos.

Under Denton and Utley’s guidance, graduate researched a wide variety of records to complete a detailed analysis of the nationally significant historic site and recommended ways to interpret the building’s historic significance to park visitors.

“The students collected many stories from Secret Service agents and others who served at the LBJ Ranch during Johnson’s presidency,” said Utley. “The stories show LBJ’s personal side and his family’s interaction with the Secret Service. Now, the Park Service will be able to relate these stories to the public through that little Secret Service building near the ‘Texas White House.’”

Because Texas State’s History Department receives so many

requests for help with historical research and interpretation, the Center for Texas Public History was created to respond to the requests.

Details on the Center for Texas Public History:

-to be staffed by faculty and students in the department’s graduate program in public history

- Will focus on museum work, oral history, and cultural resource management available to government agencies, museums, historical commissions, community organizations and others that need help in researching and interpreting historical information for the public

Dan Utley is also the co-author of History Ahead: Stories beyond the Texas Roadside Markers (TAMU 2010).

History Ahead offers a rich array of local stories that interweave with the broader regional and national context, touching on themes of culture, art, music, technology, the environment, oil, aviation, and folklore, among other topics. Utley and author Cynthia Beeman have located these forgotten gems, polished them up to a high shine, and offered them along with convenient maps and directions to the marker sites.

For more information on The Center for Texas Public History, read “Texas State establishes new Center for Texas Public History” by Ann Friou.

Visit the Press website to read more about History Ahead, Dan Utley and order your copy!

Author Tyler Priest comments on Halliburton's BP spill claims

2011-12-16T11:14:00.000-06:00

Halliburton has been in the news in defense against accusations it intentionally destroyed evidence about the quality of cement slurry in an oil well that blew out in the Gulf of Mexico. The cement job on the Macondo well is expected to play a big role in

the court battle scheduled to start Feb. 27 in New Orleans of who should bear the blame for the blowout that killed 11 workers and led to the nation's worst offshore oil spill.

Tyler Priest, a University of Houston historian who specializes in the Gulf oil industry and author of The Offshore Imperative (TAMU 2007) confirms the cement failure will be a big issue in Cain Burdeau’s article “Halliburton defends itself against BP spill claims.”

"It seems like the big litigation is going to be between BP and its contractors," Priest said. "There's a lot of money at stake, and it's going to be decided in the courts."

Read the full article here.

Priest’s The Offshore Imperative gives a detailed account of the modern history of Shell Oil. Drawing on interviews with Shell retirees and many other sources, Priest relates how the imagination, talent, and hard work of personnel at all levels shaped the evolution of the company. The narrative also covers important aspects of Shell Oil’s corporate evolution, but the comp

any’s pioneering steps into the deep water fields of the Gulf of Mexico are its signature achievement. Priest’s study demonstrates that engineers did not suddenly create methods for finding and producing oil and gas from astounding water depths. Rather, they built on a half-century of accumulated knowledge and improvements to technical systems.

Read more about The Offshore Imperative and order your own copy here.

Author Steven Fenberg appears on KUHT-TV’s Science and Technology Night

2011-12-14T11:30:00.000-06:00

Steven Fenberg, author of Unprecedented Power (TAMU 2011), recently appeared on KUHT-TV's Science and Technology night. He talked about Jesse Holman Jones and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s development of synthetic rubber, a perfect topic for Pearl Harbor Day. View the full interview below!

In Unprecedented Power, Fenberg tells the story of Jesse Holman Jones, the Houston businessman who went to Washington as an appointed official and provided the pragmatic leadership that salvaged capitalism during the Great Depression and militarized industry in time to fight and win World War II.

Jones—an entrepreneur with an eighth- grade education who built Houston’s tallest buildings of the time—was considered to be the most powerful person in the nation, next to President Roosevelt. As chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Jones saved farms, homes, banks and businesses; built infrastructure; set the price of gold with FDR each morning in the president’s bedroom; and in the process made a substantial profit for the government. Then Jones turned the RFC’s focus from domestic economics to global defense.

Read more about Unprecedented Power and order your own copy here.

New Rudder exhibit at Texas A&M University

2011-12-12T10:48:00.000-06:00

James Earl Rudder. If you don’t already know the significance of his name, travel to Aggieland and you will find the decorated war hero-turned-transformational A&M president’s name is all over town. The building that houses the current university president, the main local freeway and the University visitor’s center are all named after the esteemed former TAMU president and war hero.

Appropriately, the newest exhibit at Texas A&M University’s Cushing Memorial Library & Archives spotlights the life of James Earl Rudder. The exhibit, "From Pointe du Hoc to College Station," opened with a lecture by Thomas M. Hatfield, author of Rudder: From Leader to Legend (TAMU 2011), a book about the life of Rudder. Rudder: From Leader to Legend pays full tribute to Rudder, a man who exemplified leadership, vision, and courage.

TAMU Times recently gave a detailed look into the exhibit’s features:

“The exhibit highlights correspondence, documents and memorabilia from the James Earl Rudder Collection donated by his wife Margaret E. Rudder in 2002. Items on display include a wooden map case with maps used for the D-Day invasion, a dress uniform, French Legion of Honour and Croix de Guerre medals and his historic speech delivered April 27, 1963, supporting the admittance of women to Texas A&M.”

The exhibit features a June 11, 1954, cover story in Collier's Magazine on how he brought his son, Earl "Bud" Rudder, back to Point du Hoc, France.

The exhibit will remain on display until Jan. 27, 2012.

Find more information on the exhibit, Rudder and Thomas Hatfield’s Rudder: From Leader to Legend here!

Steplings is a big hit!

2011-12-12T10:23:00.000-06:00

Check out this book trailer for C.W. Smith’s new novel Steplings (TCU 2011). One of our favorite book blogs, Shelf-Awareness deemed it “Book Trailer for the Day!” Watch here!

What critics are saying:

“Texas novelist C.W. Smith has received just about every literary award the state and region bestow, and his latest work, the sprightly and wise Steplings, will no doubt add to his reputation as a Lone Star star.” —Dallas Morning News

“It's elegantly written, sometimes funny, often heartbreaking, and it never hits a false note.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“…rich in psychological insight and lit by occasional flashes of humor.” —Kirkus Reviews

“It's a wonderful story for parents and should be required reading for teens to meet this ordinary family and share those three extraordinary days

with them. They will break your heart but you'll also want to hug them and welcome them home.” —San Antonio Express-News

“Set in 2002, Steplings has the feel of a traditional coming of age novel mixed with a road story, yet the characters are realistically grounded in the problems and anxieties of our early 21st century.”—Houston Culture Map

“If one were to highlight only one of Smith's talents as a writer, perhaps what stands as the best representation of his work and the clearest example of his artistic capacity is his ability to draw a reader so fully into his creative world that they are, at the concluding lines, loathe to leave it at all. Readers will find themselves worrying after Smith's p

rotagonists long after the last page is turned, restlessly concerned for the dear souls of the very real young people…who unknowingly and unintentionally inspired this all‐too realistic contemporary tale.” —Dallas Observer

“Smith's story rings true and never feels stale. A dash of international politics spices up the personal politics of Steplings in a way that isn't forced or incongrue

nt.”—Austin Chronicle.

“ The characters take on vivid personality and the relationships deepen in a delightfully believable way. We follow Jason as he desperately tries to contact Lisa and Emily discovers that her father is not the saint she had believed. The two make page-turning strides toward responsibility and maturity as they learn what an awesome task it is to take responsibility for each other.” —Texas Book Lover

Read more about Steplings and order your own copy now!

Remembering Pearl Harbor

2011-12-07T13:16:00.000-06:00

On this day, 70 years ago, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor killed more than 2,400 Americans, wounded 1,000 and almost wiped out an entire fleet. While the attack was designed to hurt the United States Navy, it instead drew Americans together, creating a spirit that Japanese leadership never expected.

TAMU Press remembers and reflects on the bravery and sacrifice that occurred at Pearl Harbor. In the spirit of remembrance, we encourage readers to check out William Bartsch’s December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor.

Bartch’s detailed account of the Pearl Harbor attack received the Arthur Goodzeit Award, presented by the Board of New York Military Affairs Symposium in 2004. December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor will be reprinted in paperback this spring.

In December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor, Bartsch draws upon 25 years of research into American and Japanese records and interviews with many of the participants themselves, particularly survivors of the actual attack on Clark and Iba air bases. The dramatic and detailed coverage of the attack is preceded by an account of the harried American build-up of air power in the Philippines after July, 1941, and of Japanese planning and preparations for this opening assault of its Southern Operations. Bartsch juxtaposes the experiences of staff of the U.S. War Department in Washington and its Far East Air Force bomber, fighter, and radar personnel in the Philippines, who were affected by its decisions, with those of Japan’s Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo and the 11th Air Fleet staff and pilots on Formosa, who were assigned the responsibility for carrying out the attack on the Philippines 500 miles to the south. In order to put the December 8th attack in broader context, Bartsch details micro-level personal experiences and presents the political and strategic aspects of American and Japanese planning for a war in the Pacific.

Despite the significance of this subject matter, it has never before been given full book-length treatment. This book represents the culmination of decades-long efforts of the author to fill this historical gap. Read more about December 8, 1941: MacArthur's Pearl Harbor and order your own copy here.

Interested in World War II? The TAMU Press Consortium has published 80+ books covering the details of the war events. Whether you are a World War II scholar or reader searching for a great read, you are guaranteed to find a book that fits your interests. See our wide selection of World War II books here.

Congratulations Loflins!

2011-11-29T16:29:00.000-06:00

Brian and Shirley Loflin accepted the 2011 Carroll Abbott Memorial Award at the fall meeting of the Native Plant Society of Texas for their book Grasses of the Texas Hill Country. Named for the society's founder, the award is given to books on Texas plants written for a popular audience.

Their photographic guide to grasses gives all who have been frustrated trying to identify these difficult plants an easy-to-use, visually precise, and information-packed field guide to seventy-seven native and introduced species that grow in the Texas Hill Country and beyond.

With a blade of grass in hand, open this book and find:
- Handy thumb guides to seedhead type, the most visible distinguishing characteristic to begin identification
- Color photographs of stands of grasses and detailed close-ups
- Concise information about economic uses, habitat, range, and flowering season
- Quick-reference icons for native status, toxicity, growing season, and grazing response

Read more about Grasses of the Texas Hill Country and order your own copy here!

The First Lady

2011-11-18T11:22:00.000-06:00

One of our favorite book blogs, Shelf Awareness recently featured books about the country’s First Ladies. However, they missed a must read! MaryAnne Borrelli’s The Politics of the President's Wife (TAMU 2011) gives both theoretical and substantive insight into behind-the-scenes developments from the time of Lou Henry Hoover to the unfolding tenure of Michelle Robinson Obama.

Borrelli offers compelling counter-perspective: that the president’s wife exercises power intrinsic to her role within the administration. Like others within the presidency, she has sometimes presented the president’s views to constituentsand sometimes presented constituents’ views to the president, thus taking on a representative function within the system. In mediating president-constituent relationships, she has given a historical and social frame to the presidency that has enhanced its symbolic representation; she has served as a gender role model, enriching descriptive representation in the executive branch; and she has participated in policy initiatives to strengthen an administration’s substantive representation.

Read more about The Politics of the President's Wife (TAMU 2011) and order your own copy, now available in cloth, paper and electronic versions, here.

Texas Task Force 1 Conquers Fires

2011-11-10T12:21:00.001-06:00

Check out this video, which contains actual footage from the battle to gain control of the most devastating fires!

Over three and a half million acres were completely scorched. When the worst wildfire in Texas history erupted, the governor enlisted the help of the Texas Forest Service, Texas Task Force 1, the Texas Engineering Extension Service, and the College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M.

Learn more about the Texas Task Force 1 in Bud Force’s Texas Task Force 1: Urban Search and Rescue (TAMU 2011). Force gives readers an intimate picture of Texas Task Force 1 at work, as he follows the team on their major deployments and documents their specialized equipment and training, including time spent at the unique facility known as Disaster City. The result is a lively mix of history, interviews, and photographs that paint a fascinating portrait of these courageous people—and their canine partners—who place themselves in danger in order to save others.

Order your own copy here!

MSC Reopening Quickly Approaches

2011-11-10T10:56:00.000-06:00

The Texas A&M Memorial Student Center, referred to by students and staff as the “MSC” is more than just a building. For more than fifty years, the MSC served Aggies as sort of the “living room” of the Texas A&M University campus. Equipped with lounges, dining, and recreational facilities, the MSC played a vital role in the transformation of Texas A&M from an all-male, all-military, rural college to a university internationally recognized for excellence in a variety of fields.

For most current students at A&M, the MSC is more of an idea and a road block than a place of life, activity and honor. Because of the renovations, since 2009 the MSC currently serves the students and staff of A&M as a massive construction site to navigate around to and from classes. Fortunately, the reopening and re-dedication of the MSC is quickly approaching. On April 21, 2012 the new and improved facility will finally serve the Texas A&M campus again. This is a special time because the MSC was originally dedicated on Muster in 1951.

“. . . I am really looking forward to honoring that piece of our history while allowing the Muster events of 2012 to shine and utilize this amazing new space," said Elizabeth Andrasi ’11, President/CEO for the 62nd Memorial Student Center Council. Andrasi, who has been involved in many aspects of the MSC since she was a freshman, shares her insight on what it is like to make important decisions regarding the MSC on behalf of the student body. Read more here!

Once it’s completed the renovated Memorial Student Center will once again become the campus gathering place featuring: state-of-the-art meeting rooms, grand ballroom on the second floor, new lounge and visual arts spaces, new/revamped dining and retail Spaces, redesigned Hall of Honor, 12th Man Hall, an exterior reminiscent of the original MSC, inviting new entrances and beautiful interior decor promoting Texas A&M’s history.

You can view photos of what the MSC has looked like over the years here.

For more information on the progress of the MSC renovations, visit the MSC website. You can find a service or office relocation, look at construction photos and read progress reports.

Author Amy Bacon, Building Leaders, Living Traditions: The Memorial Student Center at Texas A&M University (TAMU 2009) surveys the development of two functions that quickly became vital to the mission of the Memorial Student Center: its role as a leadership laboratory for students—especially those not in the Corps of Cadets—and its centerpiece location as a place of extracurricular cultural and intellectual enrichment. Bacon demonstrates how the MSC and the traditions that have developed around it blend with the national student union movement in a unique way that enhances the institutional heritage and aspirations of Texas A&M University.

Her attractively illustrated book draws heavily on recorded oral histories, archives, and extensive interviews with key administrative leaders and students, both former and current.

Building Leaders, Living Traditions narrates the story of an institution that has transformed and enriched the lives of thousands of Aggie students and is poised to continue its vital mission for decades to come.

Read more about Bacon, Building Leaders, Living Traditions: The Memorial Student Center at Texas A&M University and order your own copy here, just in time for the reopening!

"Cut, Balance, and Grow"

2011-11-09T11:18:00.000-06:00

Governor Rick Perry’s proposed economic plan “Cut, Balance and Grow” would replace the current income tax with a 20-percent flat tax for everyone. His plan also includes changes to Social Security and Medicare.

University of Houston Political Science Professor Brandon Rottinghaus says the idea of a flat tax is becoming increasingly popular. “This has been something that presidential candidates have batted around for the last few election cycles, so I do think it's likely that he's going to pick up a lot of support by doing something like that,” Rottinghaus told KUHF Houston Public Radio News, “Now of course, the details may present more complicated effects, so that some of the things may be less desirable to the more moderate wing of the party to independent voters."

"His positioning in the race gives him a kind of national credibility that every other candidate is also vying for. If you consider Mitt Romney to be the frontrunner and largely to be the kind of moderate voice of the party, then you'd have to think about who is going to be the conservative alternative to that. And so as long as Rick Perry is articulating these sorts of conservative ideals, he's certainly going to be talked about."

Rottinghaus added that voters often have short memories, and Perry's economic plan could be what it takes to overcome the fallout from what many consider his poor debate performances.

Rottinghaus , author of The Provisional Pulpit (Texas A&M University Press), explores concepts such as the important layer of understanding to the issue of how and under what conditions presidents lead public opinion. All modern presidents clearly attempt to lead public opinion; often, due to factors outside their control, they fail. In his book, Rottinghaus explains how and when they succeed.

The Manis Site Produces New Findings

2011-11-09T11:09:00.000-06:00

In the late 1970s, an adult male mastodon, a large tusked and extinct mammal, was excavated from a pond at a two acre archaeological dig called the ‘Manis site’ near Sequim, Washington. The distribution of the bones and the discovery that some of the bones were broken suggested that the elephant had been killed and butchered by human hunters. However, no stone tools or weapons were found at the site. The key artifact that was found was what appeared to be a bone point sticking out of one of the ribs, but the artifact and the age of the site were disputed because the technology available today to date and identify the bone did not yet exist.

Today with high-resolution CT scanning and three-dimensional modeling, it was confirmed that the embedded bone was a spear point, and DNA and bone protein analysis indicated the bone point was made of mastodon bone. Michael Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans in the Department of Anthropology at Texas A&M, and colleagues from Colorado, Washington and Denmark believe the find at the Manis site demonstrates that humans were in the area 13,800 years ago ─ or 800 years earlier than was originally believed. Their work is published in the current issue of Science magazine.

Waters, the author of Clovis Lithic Technology (Texas A&M University Press, 2011), notes “there are at least two other pre-Clovis kill sites where hunters killed mammoths.” ‘Clovis’ is the name given to the distinctive tools made by people starting around 13,000 years ago. The Clovis people invented the ‘Clovis point’, a spear-shaped weapon made of stone that is found in Texas and across the United States and northern Mexico. These weapons were used to hunt animals, including mammoths and mastodons, from 13,000 to 12,700 years ago.

Waters says “the evidence from the Manis site is helping to reshape our understanding of the earliest inhabitants of the Americas, the last continent to be occupied by modern humans.”

The Silver King

2011-11-04T12:36:00.001-05:00

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled from Washington, D.C. down to the Texas waters of Port Aransas to try his hand at catching a Silver King. The “Silver King” or the Tarpon fish is infamous for its ability to grow to “king” size (the Texas record is 210 pounds, 86 ½ inches). Once caught, these fish are notorious for putting up a fight, jumping in the air, rattling their gills, twisting their massive bodies, and occasionally, even spitting out the offending hook.

Like Roosevelt, Hart Stillwell, a South Texas newspaperman, was also successful in catching a Silver King. Stillwell spent years becoming a skilled Tarpon fisherman. Over the years, Stillwell released most of the Tarpon he caught in order to preserve the sport. Unfortunately, others were not as willing. In the 1970s, Stillwell decided to write a book on tarpon fishing, but the angler pressure, pollution, increased bay water salinity from the damming of rivers, and commercial fishing and shrimping, along with other factors, had just about made the species extinct in Texas.

Though Stillwell passed away before his book could be published, a longtime fisherman and doctoral student at Texas Tech University, Brandon Shuler rediscovered and edited the Stillwell manuscripts. Shuler worked with Texas A&M University Press to get Glory of the Silver King: The Golden Age of Tarpon Fishing published in the spring of 2011. Today, due to conservation efforts and better treatment of the environment, the Silver King once again occupies Texas' coast.

Texas Book Festival Recap!

2011-11-01T15:59:00.000-05:00

Austin, Texas was packed with readers, publishers and authors the weekend of the 22nd at the Texas Book Festival. More than 35,000 book lovers attended the various author events and panels. Featured authors included eight Texas A&M University Press authors:

Tom Hatfield, Rudder
Steven Fenberg, Unprecedented Power
T. Lindsay Baker, Gangster Tour of Texas
Susie Kalil, Alexandre Hogue
William (Bill) Welch, Heirloom Gardening in the South
Cynthia Beeman and Dan Utley, History Ahead
John Whorff, Kayaking the Texas Coast

TAMU Press had a HUGE tent full of books and other TAMU authors that came out to support.

Alan Govenar, author of Texas Blues and Kaleta Doolin, author of Fritos Pie

Judy Barrett, author of What Can I Do with My Herbs?, What's so Great about Heirloom Plants? and the forthcoming Recipes For and From the Garden and Alan Govenar, author of Texas Blues

Texas Book Festival also featured a brand new event: “Saturday Night Lit Crawl.” Authors read and signed books at nontraditional literary venues along the stretch of East Austin bars. The Lit Crawl was a huge success. "We thought it was a cool idea, but we didn't expect that many people,” Clay Smith, Literary Director of the Texas Book Festival said.

River Music Podcast

2011-10-20T09:39:00.000-05:00

Louisiana’s Atchafalaya River Basin, the heart and soul of Acadiana, or Cajun country, is the focus of the compelling narrative River Music: An Atchafalaya Story by Ann McCutchan. A masterful weaving of cultural and environmental history, River Music also tells the life story of Louisiana musician, naturalist, and sound documentarian Earl Robicheaux.

KRVS Public Radio, a listener-supported, public radio station, located in Lafayette, Louisiana, recently interviewed author Ann McCutchan. Listen to the hour-long interview here!

Read more about River Music and order your own copy on the TAMU Press website.

Congratulations!

2011-10-13T14:09:00.000-05:00

Congratulations Holy Ground, Healing Water: Cultural Landscapes at Waconda Lake, Kansas (TAMU 2010) by Donald J. Blakeslee, winner of the 2011 Ferguson Kansas History Book Award!

“In this engaging narrative, Blakeslee, who has written extensively on Kansas ecology, focuses on the multiple uses of the area around present-day Waconda Lake in the north-central portion of the state. ...[Blakeslee] presents a multi-faceted study . . . thoughtful contributions from the perspective of both scientific fields (especially anthropology, archaeology, geography, and geography) and those of the humanities (particularly environmental, social, and ethno-history), such synthesis being no mean feat. Furthermore, he has produced a volume which is appealing and approachable to both an academic and general audience; those intrigued by American Indians, the ‘sod and stubble’ days of homesteaders, utopian movements in Kansas, and broad patterns of economic, cultural, and ethnographic tumult will find much to like here.”—Eric Anderson, Ph.D., Professor of American Indian Studies, Haskell Indian Nations University

Read more about Holy Ground, Healing Water, Blakeslee and order your own copy here!

Just in time for Halloween- Bats in Texas!

2011-10-07T13:14:00.000-05:00

Halloween season has arrived and people are putting out their cobwebs, carving pumpkins and buying decor to achieve the ultimate spooky decor for trick-or-treaters. Texans, however, don't need to invest in any rubber bats to set the mood. Bats- dead and alive are showing up earlier and more frequently across the state. With possibly the worst drought in 80 years, bat behaviors across Texas are changing.

Lack of rain creates a depletion in insects, forcing millions of bats to emerge before nightfall for food runs, hungry. The bats usually emerge around 8:30 at night fall, but they are now forced to "go out to dinner" around 6:30. While the earlier dinner makes for more bat sightings, it also puts the bats at risk, making them more susceptible to natural predators.

"Some experts have already noticed fewer bats emerging from caves and have seen evidence that more infant bats are showing up dead, hinting at a looming population decline," reported Michael Graczyk, Associated Press.

However, Texas A&M biologist Mike Smotherman isn't so sure the behavioral changes are dire. Smotherman said his studies show if bats don't like the food or water, they just move somewhere else.

Read more of Graczyk's article and check out a detailed video featuring the Bracken Bat Cave in Bracken, Texas.

For more information regarding bats, make sure to check out Loren K. Ammerman, Christine L. Hice, and David J. Schmidly's Bats of Texas (TAMU 2011), available in November. With all new illustrations, color photographs, revised species accounts, updated maps, and a sturdy flexible binding, this new edition of the authoritative guide to bats in Texas will serve as the field guide to anyone interested (or afraid) of bats. Order an advance copy and read more about the book here!

Looking ahead to Fall 2012

2011-10-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

Next fall, Texas A&M University Press will publish Miguel A. Levario’s Militarizing the Border: When Mexicans Became the Enemy. The book addresses a bi-national experience that sheds light on other border regions of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as South Texas, and to a lesser degree southern New Mexico and Arizona. Militarizing the Border establishes a historical precedent to current border issues such as undocumented immigration, violence, and racial antagonism on both sides of the border. An evaluation of early militarization and its effect on racial and social relations between Anglos and Mexicans allows for a better understanding of current policy and its potential failure.

Levario’s book covers a controversial and important topic that is at the center of public policy. Texas lawmakers Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin have both suggested modifications to how the U.S. might fight Mexico’s cartels and answer questions of immigration/border laws.

Last April, McCaul, introduced a resolution that would designate Mexico’s seven cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The “resolution would freeze funds tied to the cartels and qualifies persons found guilty of aiding them for 15 additional years of prison time,” Julian Aguilar of the Texas Tribune reported. Perry suggests sending the U.S. military into Mexico to help with the violence. Perry plans to do what it takes in Mexico to keep Americans safe.

Keep a lookout for the Fall 2012 release of Miguel A. Levario’s Militarizing the Border. Read more about Perry’s remarks on Mexico involvement in Julian Aguilar’s article “Perry's Remarks on Mexico Are Praised, Dismissed” here.

James Earl Rudder: Influencing authors, military and even Presidential candidates

2011-10-06T11:15:00.000-05:00

Last spring, the first comprehensive biography of James Earl Rudder was published by the Texas A&M University Press. Author Thomas M. Hatfield went far beyond the usual focus on Rudder’s heroism in World War II to recreate with rich detail exciting events on battlefields and in boardrooms. Rudder: From Leader to Legend paints a full portrait that allows a wider appreciation for every phase of Rudder’s early life, from childhood, to his storied military exploits, to his remarkable postwar achievements and far-reaching public service. Utilizing access to previously unavailable family papers, memoirs, and interviews, Hatfield crafted an insightful and unsparing view of the man that applauds his accomplishments and reveals his weaknesses.

Whether scaling the seemingly insurmountable cliffs of Pointe du Hoc with his advance assault troops during the Normandy invasion, restoring integrity to the Texas Land Office, or overseeing transitions in an academic institution with hallowed traditions during a time of contentious cultural change, James Earl Rudder (1910–1970) forged a legacy of wartime gallantry and peacetime leadership that commands continuing respect. Rudder: From Leader to Legend pays tribute to a man who exemplified leadership, vision, and courage. Months after the initial book release, Rudder: From Leader to Legend is still a hit.

Now that Texas Governor Rick Perry is a presidential contender, Americans are trying to figure out what spurs his “personal mix of aw-shucks conservatism and swashbuckling anti-Washington rhetoric.” In this Wall Street Journal article, Perry’s unique personality is explored and explained through his Aggie roots. A former yell-leader and member of the corps of cadets, Perry was Mr. Popularity on the A&M campus in the early seventies.

“Former classmates said Mr. Perry's popularity was boosted by several daring pranks he pulled on upperclassmen, including one his campaign recently confirmed: The young Mr. Perry placed live blackbirds in a student's closet to create a putrid stink during a vacation break,” reported Miguel Bustillo, Wall Street Journal.

Perry while a student at Texas A&M.

While Perry attended Texas A&M, Rudder served as president of the university. Rudder slowly rooted out these shenanigans and successfully pushed to modernize the school, leading to an increase in attendance rates. Hatfield, who is quoted in the Wall Street Journal article explains that "all male, all military' was the motto of the old Army Aggies, who exercised a great influence.”

Read more about Thomas Hatfield, Rudder: From Leader to Legend and order your own copy here.

For more explanation on Perry’s “Aggieisms” and what the Aggie campus was like during Rudder’s presidency, read the full Wall Street Journal article.

Alexandre Hogue Exhibit

2011-10-05T13:48:00.000-05:00

The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is featuring the Alexandre Hogue: An American Visionary exhibit through November 27. The exhibit accounts the 75-year career of Alexandre Hogue. Hogue, a self-taught artist has work featured in many museums around the country and internationally, as well as in numerous private collections.

The museum is offering two learning labs, providing entertainment for people of all ages. The learning labs offer children a hands-on way to process the art they have just seen. One lab is catered to studying rocks and animals that appear in Hogue's paintings and the other has tables set up with paints, crayons, colored pencils and markers for re-creating Hogue-like art.

The exhibit is the largest Hogue showing to ever be displayed. The 150-plus pieces were collected for the exhibit by independent curator Susie Kalil. Kalil is also the author of Alexandre Hogue: Paingings and Works on Paper (TAMU Press, 2010). Kalil grew close to Hogue from 1986 to 1994, a time during which she interviewed him, considered his oeuvre with him, and came to share his vision of the nature and purposes of art. In Alexandre Hogue she reveals Hogue as he presented himself and his work to her. The book features more than 60 color plates and black and white drawings.

Read more about Susie Kalil’s Alexandre Hogue (TAMU Press 2010) and order your own copy here.

On the opening night of the Alexandre Hogue: An American Visionary exhibit, a young child lost his balance and accidentally damaged a portrait of J. Frank Dobie by Hogue. Chris Vaughn of the Star-Telegram reported that the child lost his balance, reached out and grabbed the frame, and his finger touched the painting and took some of the paint off.

Deborah Fullerton, curator of exhibitions at the Art Museum of South Texas, said she views the incident “as a complete accident” and wants the work to remain on view. Another museum official stated that conservation costs for restoration will come back to the museum.

Read more about the accident here.

Alexandre Hogue: An American Visionary - Paintings and Works on Paper will be open to the public through Nov. 27 at Fort Worth Museum of Science and History located at 1600 Gendy St. in Fort Worth, Texas. Tickets range between $10-$14. For more information on the exhibit, call 817-255-9300 or visit the museum website.

US-Mexico Borderlands

2011-09-29T17:07:00.000-05:00

The primaries and 2012 presidential race are quickly approaching, and hot button issues like immigration are at the center of the discussion. The Texas Tribune’s Ross Ramsey compiled “Inside Intelligence: Bordering on...” depicting insiders’ predictions regarding how Rick Perry might do in the primaries and/or presidential race, focusing on the controversial subject of immigration.

Read Ramsey’s collection of verbatim comments regarding Perry’s support for in-state college tuition for the children of illegal immigrants, Perry's call for a ban on sanctuary cities and his opposition to a border fence here.

If you are interested in borderlands history and natural history; immigration and environmental policy and politics; and conservation of wildlife and natural resources Krista Schlyer’s Continental Divide: Borderlands Wildlife, People, and the Wall (TAMU 2012) belongs on your bookshelf.

Writer and photographer Krista Schlyer contends that the remoteness of the borderlands of the United States and Mexico from most U.S. citizens’ lives, coupled with a news media focus on illegal activity and drug violence, has left many people with an incomplete picture of the southern reaches of four states as well as the northern states of Mexico. Yet, as she shows in Continental Divide, a largely unknown natural area stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico provides safe haven for many wild species of plants and animals.

Documenting the changes to the ecosystems and human communities along the border as the wall was built, Schlyer realized that the impacts of immigration policy on wildlife, on landowners, and on border towns were not fully understood by either policy makers or the general public. The wall destroyed the ancestral routes of wildlife at the same time it re-routed human traffic through the most pristine and sensitive of wildlands, causing more destruction, conflict, and death without solving the original problem.

In her photo essay, Schlyer helps readers understand the full impact and consequences of a policy debated and formed far from the site of its implementation. Her photographs and experiences bring home how much is at stake, whatever one thinks of the efficacy of building walls between nations.

Look for Krista Schlyer’s Continental Divide: Borderlands Wildlife, People, and the Wall in Fall 2012 from Texas A&M University Press.

October brings award-winning books!

2011-09-28T16:19:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to two Texas A&M University Press authors!

Holy Ground, Healing Water (TAMU 2010) by Donald J. Blakeslee is the recipient of this year’s Ferguson Kansas History Book Award. The award is from the Kansas Authors Club, for the best book on Kansas history by an author who is a resident of Kansas. Blakeslee will be presented the award at the 2011 Annual Convention and Writers Conference in Coffeyville on Saturday, October 8, 2011.

In Holy Ground, Healing Water: Cultural Landscapes at Waconda Springs, Kansas, anthropologist Blakeslee traces the usage and attendant meanings of this area, beginning with prehistoric sites dating between AD 1000 and 1250 and continuing to the present day. Addressing all the sites at Waconda Lake, regardless of age or cultural affiliation, Blakeslee tells a dramatic story that looks back from the humdrum present through the romantic haze of the nineteenth century to an older landscape, one that is more wonderful by far than what the modern imagination can conceive.

Read more about Holy Ground, Healing Water and order your own copy here!

Tejanos in Gray (TAMU 2011) by Jerry Thompson is the recipient of this year’s Clotilde P. García Tejano Book Prize. The Clotilde P. García Tejano Book Prize is awarded to books about Tejano heritage that bring attention to the history and contributions of Tejanos. Thompson will receive the award at this year’s Texas State Hispanic Genealogy and Historical Conference, hosted by Los Bexarenos Genealogical Society, Thursday, Sept. 29 – Saturday, Oct. 1 in San Antonio, Texas.

Gathered for the first time in this book, the forty-one letters and letter fragments written by two Mexican Texans, Captains Manuel Yturri and Joseph Rafael de la Garza, reveal the intricate and intertwined relationships that characterized the lives of Texan citizens of Mexican descent in the years leading up to and including the Civil War. The letters, translated by José Roberto Juárez and with meticulous annotation and commentary by Thompson, deepen and provide nuance to our understanding of the Civil War and its combatants, especially with regard to the Tejano experience. Historians, students, and general readers interested in the Civil War will appreciate Tejanos in Gray for its substantial contribution to borderlands studies, military history, and the often-overlooked interplay of region, ethnicity, and class in the Texas of the mid-nineteenth century.

Read more about Tejanos in Gray and order your own copy here!

Texas Task Force 1 sent to help Bastrop wildfires

2011-09-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

Four deaths, more than 1,000 ruined homes and thousands of forced evacuations. The fires across Texas are some of the most devastating wildfire outbreaks in state history. Two deaths occurred just about an hour south of the Press’s office and warehouse in Bastrop, Texas.

As firefighters become stretched to their limits, Texas Governor Rick Perry decided to deploy the elite Texas Task Force 1 to help locate more victims of the wildfires in Bastrop.

Read more about their deployment in this ABC News article. In an ABC News segment, Diane Sawyer commented “one family is losing their home every four minutes to the fire.” Watch the full segment, featuring interviews with victims of the Bastrop fires.

With blazes still continuing to move, the presence of Texas Task Force 1 in Bastrop is crucial.

Texas Task Force 1 is made up of a dozen search dogs and over 100 members. Their previous deployments include New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and New York after the attacks of September 11.

Bud Force, a commercial and editorial photographer specializing in search and rescue, is author of Texas Task Force 1: Urban Search and Rescue (TAMU 2011). His new book gives readers an intimate picture of Texas Task Force 1 through photographs, interviews and history.

Read more about Texas Task Force 1: Urban Search and Rescue and order your own copy here.

TAMU Press author comments on new Texas laws

2011-09-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

Guns, speed limits and respectful language were just some of the issues being covered in over a hundred new Texas laws that were enacted last Thursday. Brandon Rottinghaus, author of The Provisional Pulpit: Modern Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion (TAMU 2010) commented on the immense number of new laws in the Star-Telegram: “These laws are a lot of small things that might add up to be something big." Rottinghaus,assistant political science professor at the University of Houston, sees a “fairly conservative agenda that manifested in the grouping of these laws.”

Read the rest of the Star-Telegram article featuring more comments from Rottinghaus and brief samplings of many of the new laws here.

Interested in what else Rottinghaus has to say? Check out his book The Provisional Pulpit:Modern Presidential Leadership of Public Opinion (TAMU 2010). He focuses on the ability of the White House to influence, shape, and even manipulate public opinion. Rottinghaus develops a simple theory of presidential leadership, arguing that presidential messages are more likely to be received if there are fewer countervailing agents or messages to contradict the president’s message. Order your own copy and find reviews, summaries and pricing here!

Texas Legacy Project

2011-09-07T15:03:00.000-05:00

A city dweller’s vacant lot . . . A rancher's back forty . . . A hiker's favorite park . . . When the places that we love are threatened, we can be stirred to action. In Texas, people of all stripes and backgrounds have fought hard to safeguard the places they hold dear.

To find and preserve these stories of courage and perseverance, the Conservation History Association of Texas launched the Texas Legacy Project in 1998, traveling thousands of miles to conduct hundreds of interviews with people from all over the state. These remarkable oral histories now reside in an incomparable online and physical archive of video, audio, text, and other materials that record these extraordinary efforts by veteran conservationists and ordinary citizens to preserve the natural legacy of Texas. These stories have been combined to create the extraordinary book, The Texas Legacy Project: Stories of Courage and Conservation (TAMU 2010) edited by David Todd and David Weisman.

Louie Bond of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine summarizes the special diversity of the book in her recent article in the September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine: “Where else can you find enlightenment from ornithologists and grocers, musicians and ranchers, game wardens and politicians, writers and clergy?”

Read more of Bond’s article in the September issue of Texas Parks and Wildlife.

For more details about The Texas Legacy Project visit the Press’s website. Order your own copy now!

Steplings

2011-09-06T15:51:00.000-05:00

Check out the trailer for TCU Press’s upcoming novel Steplings by CW Smith.

Order your own copy of Steplings here!

Bats of Texas A&M?

2011-09-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

Health and safety officials recently reminded Texas A&M students, faculty, and staff to watch out for the significant number of bats on campus.

Did you know the state of Texas is actually home to more than 30 species of bats -- the most diverse fauna of any other state in the U.S.?

In November, the TAMU Press will release its publication of Bats of Texas by Loren K. Ammerman, Christine L. Hice, and David J. Schmidly.

With all new illustrations, color photographs, revised species accounts, updated maps, and a sturdy flexible binding, this new edition of the authoritative guide to bats in Texas will serve as the field guide and all-around reference of choice for amateur naturalists as well as mammalogists, wildlife biologists, and professional conservationists.

The introductory chapter of this new edition of Bats of Texas surveys bats in general—their appearance, distribution, classification, evolution, biology, and life history—and discusses public health and bat conservation. An updated account for each species follows, with pictures by an outstanding nature photographer, distribution maps, and a thorough bibliography. Bats of Texas also features revised and illustrated dichotomous keys accompanied by gracefully detailed line drawings to aid in identification.

Looking to survive the "bat take-over" at Texas A&M? Want to learn more about this unique mammal? Trying to identify the furry creature lurking in your classroom? Reserve your copy of Bats of Texas now!

Pan Am and Flying Down to Rio

2011-09-02T15:20:00.000-05:00

ABC Television is launching a new show at the end of September called "Pan Am."

The series centers on the exploitation of Pan American Airways stewardesses. The show is said to follow the iconic airline Pan American World Airways during the 1960s. The period drama will focus on the pilots and flight attendants working for the world-famous airline in 1963. Watch the trailer here!

In 2004, TAMU Press author, Rosalie Schwartz recounted the exciting early years of Pan American Airways, its launching of routes to Latin America, and the airline's importance to FDR's Good Neighbor policy in her book Flying Down to Rio.

Schwartz uses the 1933 RKORadio Pictures production “Flying Down to Rio” to examine the interplay of technology and popular culture that shaped a distinctive twentieth century sensibility. The musical comedy connected airplanes, movies, and tourism, ending spectacularly with chorus girls dancing on the wings of airplanes high above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Hollywood fantasy capped three decades during which airplanes and movies engendered new expectations and redefined people's sense of wellbeing, their personal satisfactions, and their interpersonal relations. Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their airplane in 1903, at the same time filmmakers began to project edited, filmed stories onto large screens. Spectators found entertainment value in both airplane competitions and motion pictures, and movie producers brought the thrill of aviators antics to a rapidly expanding audience. Meanwhile, air shows and competitions attracted large crowds of tourists. Mass tourism grew as a leisure time activity, stimulated in part by travelogues and feature films. By 1930, the businessmen who envisioned transporting tourists to their destinations by airplane struggled to overcome the movie-exaggerated association of flight with danger.

Schwartz weaves these threads into a story of human daring and persistence, political intrigue, and international competition. From Wilbur and Orville to Fred and Ginger, Schwartz’s narrative follows the fortunes of aviation and movie pioneers and the foundations and growth of Pan American Airways and RKORadio Pictures, the two companies that came together in Flying Down to Rio.

By the end of the twentieth century, aviation, movies, and mass tourism had become powerful global industries, contributing to an internationally-connected, entertainment-oriented culture. What was once unthinkable had now become expected.

Order your own copy of Flying Down to Rio by Rosalie Schwartz here!

Xtreme Hummingbird Lovers

2011-09-01T10:43:00.000-05:00

With spectacular images for birders and nature enthusiasts at every level, Hummingbirds of Texas with Their New Mexico and Arizona Ranges reveals the enormous appeal of this tiniest and shiniest of birds.

Authors Clifford E. Shackelford, Madge M. Lindsay, and C. Mark Klym showcase the 19 different hummingbird species that have appeared in the New Mexico and Arizona regions. Magnificent color photographs and original artwork aid in identification and accompany descriptions, range maps, and abundance graphs for each species.

Read more about Hummingbirds of Texas and order your own copy here!

For those “xtreme” hummingbird lovers, make sure to check out the Xtreme Hummingbird Xtravaganza in Lake Jackson, Texas this September 10th and 17th from 8:00 a.m. to noon. For more information visit the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory website or call (979) 480-0999.

Can our plants survive the heat?

2011-08-30T15:43:00.000-05:00

With the immense heat taking over the country, gardeners are shielding their plants from the heat. While most experts know exactly how to save their plants from this historic drought, novice gardeners may need guidance. Luckily, Bill Welch and Greg Grant, authors of Heirloom Gardening for the South: Yesterday's Plants for Today's Gardens (TAMU Press 2011) know exactly how to help.

Kathy Huber of the Houston Chronicle, looking for assurance, “recently asked [Welch] if he thought faithful old bulbs such as oxblood lilies and lycoris would pull through our historic drought. Heirloom bulbs have survived years of neglect in cemeteries and abandoned homesteads, but are they tough enough for this summer?”

Find out if Heirloom bulbs can survive the heat in Huber’s recent article here.

Not only will readers find out how to help plants survive the heat, but they will also find new essays on naturalizing daffodils, slips and starts, and growing fruit, a completely updated and expanded heirloom plant encyclopedia, revised plant lists (bulbs, cemetery plants, etc.) and new material on the creation of two of the authors' personal gardens.

Read more and order your own copy here.

Top Selling E-Books

2011-08-25T10:33:00.000-05:00

You may have read our blog post in July discussing TAMU Press’s growing partnership with Google Books. We mentioned our top selling e-books and after the Press’s recent e-book report, Seeking Inalienable Rights, The Black Sun Caballero and Danger Close are still the most popular titles.

Our most popular selling e-book is Seeking Inalienable Rights by Debra A. Reid. In Seeking Inalienable Rights, Reid demonstrates that the history of Texans’ quests to secure inalienable rights and expand government-protected civil rights has been one of stops and starts, successes and failures, progress and retrenchment. Read more about the book here. Check out the e-version here!

In a close second for e-book sales is The Black Sun by Stanton Marlan. The black sun, an ages-old image of the darkness in individual lives and in life itself, has not been treated hospitably in the modern world. Modern psychology has seen darkness primarily as a negative force, something to move through and beyond, but it actually has an intrinsic importance to the human psyche. In this book, Jungian analyst Stanton Marlan reexamines the paradoxical image of the black sun and the meaning of darkness in Western culture. Read more here. Don’t forget to check out the e-version as well!

The third most popular e-book is Caballero by Jovita González and Eve Raleigh. Caballero is a milestone in Mexican-American and Texas literature written during the 1930s and 1940s, centering on a mid-nineteenth-century Mexican landowner and his family living in the heart of southern Texas during a time of tumultuous change. Order your own copy or buy the e-version now!

Another top seller, Danger Close by Steve Call, is a gripping first-hand account of Tactical Air Control Parties’s battlefield experiences. Danger Close makes clear that the systematic coordination of air power and ground forces played an invaluable supporting role in the initial military victories in both Afghanistan and Iraq. This first-ever examination of the intense, life-and-death world of the close air support specialist will introduce readers to a crucial but little-known aspect of contemporary warfare and add a needed chapter in American military history studies. See what readers are saying about Danger Close and order your own copy or e-version here!

Natural Music

2011-08-22T11:40:00.000-05:00

Get introduced to the sounds and music of the Atchafalaya River Basin’s bayous, swamps, fields, and forests. Ann McCutchan, author of River Music: An Atchafalaya Story and Earl Robicheaux introduce us to the sounds and music of the Atchafalaya River Basin’ bayous, swamps, fields, and forests. Read and listen here!

T.G.A.C. - Thank Goodness for Air Conditioning

2011-08-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Last week my family went on vacation to Southern California. We spent time in Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The vacation was an absolute blast.

The first thing I share when people ask me how the vacation went is not the beauty of the beaches or the excitement of Universal Studios. What is my favorite memory from California?

If you are reading this from inside your air conditioned office hiding from the heat like me, I’msure you can guess my answer ─ the weather! With blistering and sunburn-friendly temperatures sweeping across Texas and other parts of the country, it seems weather is all Texans can think about. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the 75-degree temperatures and constant ocean breeze that laced the California air.

To say it's been a hot summer would be an understatement. Scorching or miserable would be better terms to describe Texas. The media has gone heat crazy over so-called “record-breaking temperatures.” Every day there is a new headline or story on the radio announcing things like “yesterday’s highs topped the century mark” and “108 degrees today people! Get inside!”

This unavoidable obsession with heat does not get any better with the lack of rain either. An article on Reuters said the nation's triple digit heat wave ─ which hit its 34th day on Friday ─ could last until the end of August, while extensive drought in and around Texas may last into October. A drought that could possibly last until August?! T.G.A.C.! Thank goodness for air conditioning.

When your popsicle melts the second it is out of the freezer, and the “refreshing” pool water is as warm as hot bath water, it is safe to assume that any free time left this summer and possibly the fall, will be spent inside.

Fortunately, Texas Christian University Press has your air-conditioned entertainment covered. Grab a book, nestle into your couch with a big glass of water and stay cool. Elmer Kelton’s The Time it Never Rained will help you forget about your own heat exhaustion.

The Time it Never Rained follows Charlie Flagg, a man living in the 1950s during the longest drought in the memory of most men then living. Charlie is by no means the typical cowboy hero. Self-sufficient, courageous, with a strong sense of right and wrong, he is also old and overweight, a thoroughly believable human being who has trouble communicating with the wife who loyally struggles to keep life in its pattern, the son who has no feel for the land but yearns for the rodeo circuit, the Mexican family who has worked for him for years and whose help he can no longer afford.

Find out if Charlie survives the heat and order your own copy of The Time it Never Rained here! TAMU Press books also now available through Google books! Until then, T.G.A.C. folks!

Master of Pastels and the Plains

2011-08-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

“Frank Reaugh is the greatest painter in pastels that ever graced the landscapes of Texas.”—J. P. Bryan chief executive officer of Torch Energy Advisors and Texas State Historical Association Life Board Member. The work of renowned artist Frank Reaugh is on display at the “Frank Reaugh: Master of Pastels and the Plains of Texas” exhibit at “UNT on the Square,” in downtown Denton. The exhibit opened July 7 and continues through Oct. 1. His work is also featured in Frank Reaugh: Painter to the Longhorns (TAMU Press, 2011) Read more about Reaugh here!

Impressionist art isn't just for quaint French café scenes; the Texas landscape and the legendary longhorn are equally elegant in the beautiful impressionistic artwork of Frank Reaugh. This volume contains a large selection of impressionistic work by Reaugh, who began painting out on the prairies near Dallas in the late 1800s.

"This book comes closer than many art books to conveying the feel of the actual work; many of the illustrations are close to the originals in size, and all 61 are faithfully reproduced in color." --Texas Association of Museums Quarterly

"The expensively turned out book dealing with Frank Reaugh boasts a well-done introduction by Donald L. Weismann, Professor Emeritus of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, which prepares readers for 61 plates of artwork done by his subject in oils and pastels." --Western Library

Order your own copy of Frank Reaugh: Painter to the Longhorns (TAMU PRESS 2011) here!

Grace & Gumption: The Cookbook

2011-08-11T13:30:00.000-05:00

The G&G Cookbook is a social history of Fort Worth told through food and the follow-up book to Grace and Gumption: Stories of Fort Worth Women. Readers will gain glimpses of pantries, kitchens, and dining rooms of the past and learn about the women who presided over them.

We learn a great deal about what the people of Fort Worth have eaten over the past century and a half. The cookbook takes a new approach to American culinary studies, recording the lives of Fort Worth women as well as discussing the food that they prepared and ate.

Want to learn more about The G&G Cookbook? Join us at the Nation Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas for a special event at on August 18th.

Ma Ferguson Featured in Texas Highways

2011-07-26T16:15:00.000-05:00

The August issue of Texas Highways has an article about Miriam “Ma” Ferguson. Ma was the second woman in the United States to take an oath to office and the first female governor of Texas. The first time she ran for office she didn’t know until her husband announced her candidacy to the press. She told voters that said she would follow the advice of her husband and Texas thus would get "two governors for the price of one." As a governor for two terms, she tackled some of the tougher issues of the day.

To learn more about Ma Ferguson, read Hood, Bonnet, and Little Brown Jug: Texas Politics, 1921-1928.

" Captures the rough 'n' tumble nature of Texas politics in the 1920s when three main issues--the Ku Klux Klan (Hood), `Ma' Ferguson (Bonnet), and Prohibition (Little Brown Jug)--were the focus of attention. . . . the Texas political state, always fascinating and colorful, comes to life in Brown's book." --Southern Historian

Ya dig?!

2011-07-26T16:09:00.000-05:00

A group of student researchers at Texas A&M are currently working and living together Monday thorugh Friday in a mini tent city a few hundred yards away from their excavation site in Central Texas. They are dedicated to their archaeological dig in search for more “early-man-in-America” artifacts.

Their dig is enhanced by having Dr. Michael Waters as their leader. Waters is the director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans, the Texas A&M-based entity that operates in various locales throughout North America and, perhaps, eventually in South America. Texas A&M University Press publishes books for the center, including Clovis Lithic Technology: Investigation of a Stratified Workshop at the Gault Site, Texas, which will be available in October of this year.

Clovis Lithic Technology includes research and findCentral Texas, near the banks of Buttermilk Creek. These early hunter-gatherers camped, collected stone, and shaped it into a variety of tools they needed to hunt game, process food, and subsist in the Texas wilderness. They left thousands of pieces of debris, which have allowed archaeologists to reconstruct their methods of tool production. Along with the faunal material that was also discarded in their prehistoric campsite, these stone, or lithic, artifacts afford a glimpse of human life at the end of the last ice age during an era referred to as Clovis. Clovis Lithic Technology provides the technical data needed to interpret and compare this site with other sites from the same period, illuminating the story of Clovis people in the Buttermilk Creek Valley.

The area where these people roamed and camped, called the Gault site, is one of the most important Clovis sites in North America. A decade ago a team from Texas A&M University excavated a single area of the site—formally named Excavation Area 8, but informally dubbed the Lindsey Pit—which features the densest concentration of Clovis artifacts and the clearest stratigraphy at the Gault site.

Now, students are working together to excavate more artifacts and important information lying in the walls of their dig. Watch this exclusive segment featuring Waters and students at the excavation site.

“The students are learning archaeological skills that they will later need and have the opportunity to see and discuss the artifacts as they emerge from the earth. At the same time, the time depth of the human presence in North America is pushed back, with all this learned from the tip of a trowel.”

– Michael Waters, Student Researchers At Texas A&M-led Dig Search For More Early-Man-In-America Artifacts, Aggie Hotline

Want to know more about the dig? Read this article featured on Aggie Hotline!

Growing Up in the Spectre of Space Travel

2011-07-26T16:02:00.000-05:00

Most children grow up in awe of the deep space, spending their summer days looking up at the sky. You look up at space and it’s never ending, full of twinkling stars you want to touch.

Today I don’t have much time to look up at space. But I remember when I was growing up, people would ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Every time my answer was the same, “I want to be an astronaut.” I wanted to be in space, exploring every inch of it. For three years in a row I dressed up as a Star Trek character, thinking it was just a matter of time before I would join them on the USS Enterprise.

In school, I quickly learned science was not my strong suit. I was a far cry from the top Candidates NASA picks for space travel. So, I soon realized I would never realize that dream, and I put aside future thoughts of being an astronaut in space.

Earlier this month, NASA launched its last shuttle. It was a sad moment, knowing my childhood dream was dying ─ not just my dream, but the dreams of all aspiring astronauts. That day I went home and had a space movie marathon, allowing myself to cry just a few times.

Are you interested in space history?

In 2009 Texas A&M University Press released Red Cosmos: K. E. Tsiolkovskii, Grandfather of Soviet Rocketry. Tsiolkovskii conceived multi-stage rockets that would later be adopted as the basis of U.S. and Soviet rocket programs.

Author James Andrews, an associate professor of modern history at Iowa State University, explores Tsiolkovskii life as a science popularizer, novelist, and visionary, whose science fiction writings included futuristic drawings of space stations long before they appeared on any engineer’s drawing board.

". . . the story of a man with a vision for the future. Konstantin Tsiolkovskii . . . opened the door to the space age and built the foundation of rocket science."-Sergei Khrushchev, Brown University

"James Andrews has made a genuine contribution by taking Konstantin Tsiolkovskii out of endless debates over 'who did what first?' to a deeper understanding of this rocket pioneer in the context of Russian history and culture."-Loren Graham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Kudos to Texas Review Press Authors!

2011-07-26T15:59:00.000-05:00

Brian Carr, author of Short Bus (Texas Review Press, 2011) recently won the 2011 Texas Observer Short Story prize for his short story “The First Henley.” Larry McMurtry, legendary author of Terms of Endearment and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove judged the contest.

Read Carr’s award winning short story “The First Henley” here and check out his book, Short Bus on the Press website.

David Parsons, author of Color of Mourning (Texas Review Press 2007) and Editing Sky (Texas Review Press, 1999) is the Texas Poet Laureate for 2011. Read more about Parsons and his award in this article in the Houston Chronicle. Interested in ordering a copy of his published work? Click here!

(Photo Copyright: Melissa Phillip Houston Chronicle)

Against the Workshop: Provocations, Polemics, Controversies (Texas Review Press 2011) by Anis Shivani, is a collection of essays that will be published in September. The title essay of the collection, recently won a Pushcart Prize. Order your own copy of the award winning Against the Workshop here.

Congratulations Texas Review Press authors!

Ebooks Available at TAMU Press

2011-07-25T16:01:00.000-05:00

From the use of cylinder seals in Mesopotamia, woodblock printing, to movable type and the printing press, the printed book has seen many changes and innovations. However, even with the constant technological changes that have occurred over the past 500 years, innovation and change are now happening at a breakneck pace. Readers used to have only one choice when it came to books: hardback or paperback. But now, Nook and Kindles, iPads and smartphones have revolutionized the way we read books. Not only does this affect publishing and bookselling, but it changes how we consume information as a whole.

Luckily, the success of the “virtual reader” has in no way put an end to the “book” as we know and understand it. If anything, the multiple formats and easy accessibility only increases the number of avid readers out there. Readers have more choices than ever before, and TAMU Press is quickly adapting to this “revolution.”

Texas A&M University Press is taking an active part in the reading revolution through a partnership with Google Books. Through the use of Google Books, many books published by the Press can be easily located with a simple search in Google. Google indexes the book’s full text and illustrations, making the reading experience somewhat similar to that of a printed book.

Retailers and authors can also now sell TAMU Press eBooks off their own website through Google eBooks Affiliates Integration.

TAMU Press now has 715 electronic books available through the Google Ebookstore, including some of the Press’s current top-sellers: Rudder: From Leader to Legend, the first comprehensive biography of James Earl Rudder by Thomas Hatfield, and The Texas Tomato Lover’s Handbook, William D. Adams, step-by-step guide to success in the tomato patch.

Through the Google Ebookstore, TAMU Press has already sold several hundred books. Electronic books are vital to our overall strategy of making our authors’ work easily discoverable by readers worldwide.

Interview with Steven Fenberg

2011-07-25T10:35:00.000-05:00

While virtually unknown today, Jesse Holman Jones wielded power comparable to that of FDR, saving a crippled U.S. economy during the Great Depression.

"Jesse Jones redefined Franklin Roosevelt's presidency, the New Deal and World War II mobilization,” said Steven Fenberg, author of Unprecedented Power, a biography of Jones. “If anything, Jones shows us that government can help people and make money at the same time.”

At a crucial time in U.S. history and working largely out of the limelight as chairman of the Reconstruction Finance Corp., Jones saved farms, homes, banks and businesses; built infrastructure; and even set the price of gold with FDR each morning in the President’s bedroom.

Now writer and producer of the Emmy Award-winning documentary film, “Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? The Story of Jesse H. Jones,” Fenberg, tells the story of Jones for the first time.

Check out an excerpt of a newly-released Q&A with author of Unprecedented Power, Steven Fenberg:

When did you first learn about Jesse Jones?

It was impossible to grow up in Houston during the 1950s and ’60s and not be influenced by Jesse Jones. He built the city’s most extravagant movie theaters, its largest hotels and its tallest office buildings. His philanthropic foundation, Houston Endowment, supported every major medical, educational and cultural institution in the city. My family’s first store in Houston was located in a building built by Jesse Jones in 1914. Like so many others, my family came to Houston at the end of World War II, when the city was booming because of the industrial military buildup Jones had initiated. Jesse Jones’s commercial activities and his public service profoundly influenced Houston and all of its citizens.

When did you decide to write a book about Jesse Jones?

When I realized that Jesse Jones had initiated and managed many New Deal agencies that made money for the federal government.

It’s almost as if Jones led a double life, that of a businessman and that of a political appointee. Was that common for the time? Do figures like Jones still exist today with regard to that duality?

When Jesse Jones arrived in Houston in 1898 to manage his uncle M.T. Jones’s estate, everything was locally owned, including the banks, newspapers, hotels, insurance companies and utilities. Like many others of his time, Jones understood that he would prosper only if his community thrived, and from the start as a civic leader, he nurtured his community, while as a capitalist, he built his businesses. Some of today’s corporate leaders understand that their businesses will struggle if the workforce they rely on is undereducated and if the consumers they depend on are unable to buy, but the direct link between success and failure in their corporations and their communities is not as apparent because local ownership and control is no longer the norm. We have become more global and less local.

What were his greatest accomplishments?

Stabilizing and preserving the U.S. economic system during the Great Depression and militarizing industry eighteen months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Was Jones really the most powerful man in the U.S. next to FDR?

Every major magazine and newspaper columnist claimed that next to FDR, Jones was the most powerful person in the nation. In 1940, the Saturday Evening Post reported, “Next to the President, no man in the Government and probably in the United States wields greater powers.” In 1941, TIME magazine claimed, “In all the U.S. today there is only one man whose power is greater: Franklin Roosevelt.”

Fortune magazine called Jesse Jones the “fourth branch of government.” A special Congressional resolution was required to allow Jones to hold two government jobs at once: Federal Loan Administrator and Secretary of Commerce. At the time, conservative Republican Senator Robert A. Taft remarked, “I have no great objection to giving Mr. Jones the additional power to act also as secretary of commerce, but I think it is an extraordinary precedent, which is justified only by the character of the man and which I hope may not be repeated.”

Why didn’t Jones run for political office?

If FDR had asked Jones to be his running mate in 1940, he would have accepted. Otherwise, Jones had more power and independence as an appointed official than he would have had in an elected position.

Despite all the good it did, do you think Jones’s industrial mobilization for WWII led to the military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned against?

In 1939, the federal budget, including New Deal expenditures, was less than $10 billion; in 1942, $62 billion was spent just on defense, and most of that went toward building enormous plants that produced airplanes, ships, trucks, tanks, engines, metals and rubber. Until 1940, the U.S. stood behind at least 17 other nations in terms of military strength. Jones and the RFC built the plants and accumulated the materials that turned the nation into what he called the “storehouse of freedom.” It is important to realize, however, that Jones and others began planning the conversion of the economy from military to civilian, and from government to private, almost as soon as they started to build it, knowing that the new enormous capacity had to be properly channeled to prevent oversupply, monopolies and government dominance over industry.

Jones was primarily a businessman, but he also fancied himself a bit of an architect. He built a large part of the Houston skyline, as well as major buildings in New York City and Fort Worth. How much of his physical legacy remains?

Many of his buildings still stand in Houston and in New York City, including the famous Mayfair House, 10 East 40th Street and 200 Madison Avenue, which is worth a visit just to see the lavish lobby. In Houston, among others, the Rice Hotel, the Gulf Building (now known as the Chase Building) and the Houston Chronicle Building still stand.

Why is this the definitive biography of Jesse Jones?

Unprecedented Power gives Jones his deserved place in history by revealing his remarkable contributions and achievements. Tapping exhaustive archival sources, it covers his story from the 1650s, when his ancestors arrived in North America from Wales, to his death in 1956.

Read more and order your own copy of Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism, and the Common Good here!

2011 University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries

2011-07-18T14:48:00.000-05:00

Whooping Crane: Images from the Wild, Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells, and Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea were all selected for the 2011 University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries, selected by a committee of librarians from the American Association of School Librarians and the Public Library Association.

Whooping Crane received a PLA rating of Outstanding! The other two received "regional" ratings.

Whooping Crane: Images from the Wild

Photographer Klaus Nigge, follows the last remaining natural flock of whooping cranes from Canada to Texas. Nigge is able to capture the beauty and essential mystery that have led humans all over the world to include cranes in their earliest myths and legends.

"Klaus Nigge's photography captures the rarely seen behavior and astounding grace of whooping cranes. More importantly, his photography gives voice to the cranes' continuing struggle for survival."—Kathy Moran, Senior Editor, Natural History, National Geographic

Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells

An essential book for every collector and researcher of American seashells, Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells is a complete sourcebook and up-to-date identification guide, covering an extraordinary 900 species of seashells and mollusks that reside in the marine habitats of the Gulf of Mexico.

"The book will be the new standard for the shells of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, for the foreseeable future. It is a must for Texas shell collectors."

-Lauretta Marr, The Epitonium

Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea

Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea: The Gulf Coast of Texas and Mexico will delight and enchant readers with its deeply felt personal narrative and the power and beauty of its images.

“Why should we love the world, the difficult world? Accomplished picture makers and storytellers, of whom Geoff Winningham is surely one, help us toward an answer by describing individual regions — in this case the relatively little known western Gulf Coast—so vividly and fondly that they impart even to our distant homes a borrowed splendor. I am grateful. Winningham knows that he has composed in some respects an elegy, but it is a tender and redemptive one.”—Robert Adams, photographer

Books on Android market.

2011-07-18T14:31:00.001-05:00

Texas A&M University Press has books available via the Android market. The ability to buy e-books in the Android Market is a new feature from Google. Just a few of our books are listed below:

Texas Legacy Project

Chasing Birds across Texas

A Crunchy Hit

2011-07-18T13:46:00.000-05:00

People sure do love Fritos® Pie! After Kaleta Doolin’s book, Fritos Pie was featured in Texas Highways June 2011 issue, the magazine received more feedback on the crunchy comfort food than on just about any other topic they’ve covered in Texas Highways’s 37 years.

“I loved your story on Fritos Pie. It brought back the times in high school in the ’60s in Grand Prairie, when we would go to the Dairy Queen and order Fritos Pie. My favorite was with onions, chili, mustard, and hamburger dill slices. Yum! Yum!” - JOAN BRONSTAD, Dallas

You can find other reader memories here!

Fritos® Pie is an insider’s look at the never-before-told story of the Frito Company written by Kaleta Doolin, daughter of the company’s founder. Filled with personal anecdotes, more than 150 vintage and newly created recipes, and stories, this book recounts the company’s early days, the 1961 merger that created Frito-Lay, Inc., and beyond.

Read more about Fritos® Pie: Stories, Recipes, and More on the Press’s website and order your own copy here. Book to hit shelves in August!

Revamped

2011-07-15T11:14:00.000-05:00

Gardeners have come a long way in their outlook about water, garden design, organics, and respect for wildlife. Because of these significant changes in gardening philosophy over the years, Cheryl Hazeltine, author of Cheryl Hazeltine's Central Texas Gardener had a lot of updating to do from the 1980 edition of the book.

In 1999, Cheryl Hazeltine and Barry Lovelace revamped the book, and Texas A&M Press published it as The New Central Texas Gardener. In fall 2010, TAMU Press released the expanded and updated resource, Cheryl Hazeltine's Central Texas Gardener.
The newest edition brings readers reliable information on what to grow and how to grow it, including the latest tips on organic methods, a few favorite recipes, and helpful websites. Containing a generous sprinkling of sidebars, bulleted lists, and special icons that quickly guide users to pertinent information, this must-have book has the know-how you need for gardening success throughout the heart of the Lone Star State.

Hazeltine recently appeared on PBS Austin television show “Central Texas Gardener” to discuss the significant changes in gardening philosophy since her first edition of the book in 1980. View the interview segment with CTG host, Tom Spencer here:

Read more about Cheryl Hazeltine's Central Texas Gardener (TAMU PRESS 2010) and order your own copy now!

Make sure to visit PBS Austin’s CTG blog for more information about Hazeltine’s interview and more gardening tips.

Flippin' San Antonio Fiesta

2011-07-15T09:41:00.000-05:00

Artist Rolando Briseño brought some cultural adjustment to an iconic Texas landmark at the June 2011 "Flippin' San Antonio Fiesta" in San Antonio, Texas. Briseño and his art are the subject of Moctezuma's Table (TAMU PRESS 2011) by Norma Cantú. Watch exclusive footage from the event here:

Get an inside look at Briseno's art, order your own copy of Moctezuma's Table here.

TAMU Press author on PBS Austin!

2011-07-08T13:16:00.000-05:00

Author William C. Welch recently appeared on KLRU PBS Austin's Central Texas Gardener to talk about his book Heirloom Gardening in the South: Yesterday's Plants for Today's Garden. Welch illustrates our cultural garden design melting pot and some of its pioneer plants. Watch the segment here!

“In Heirloom Gardening in the South, discover which native plants were respected for survival, those that made their way to our shores, and the ones that have stuck it out through thick and thin. Discover the reason behind 'swept gardens' and how plants like crinums and Phlox paniculata ‘John Fanick’ found their way into our backyards.”— Linda Lehmusvirta, Central Texas Gardener Producer, KLRU-TV, Austin PBS

Read more of Linda’s blog featuring Heirloom Gardening in the South here! Her blog includes pictures from the book, tips from Welch and videos.

Want to see what all the hype is about? Read more about Heirloom Gardening in the South: Yesterday's Plants for Today's Garden and order your own copy here!

How to “Adapt and Overcome”

2011-07-07T14:27:00.000-05:00

“Adapt and Overcome” is the motto Urban Search and Rescue lives by.

Texas Task Force 1, the state’s primary search and rescue team and one of 28 federal teams in the national urban search and rescue system, has been dispatched for state and national emergencies ─ probing the devastation at Ground Zero and saving lives on the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Members are trained for ground, water, and air missions throughout Texas and the nation.

In Bud Force’s book Texas Task Force 1: Urban Search and Rescue, readers get an intimate picture of Texas Task Force 1 at work as he follows the team on their major deployments and documents their specialized equipment and training, including time spent at the unique facility known as Disaster City. The result is a lively mix of history, interviews, and photographs that paints a fascinating portrait of these courageous people — and their canine partners — who place themselves in danger in order to save others.

Texas Task Force 1 hits stores in August! Order your own copy here!

With 289 color photos, readers get a truly inside look on how to “adapt and overcome.”

Enjoy these exclusive photos from the book:

Multiple Transformations…Not Just for Celebrities

2011-07-06T16:33:00.000-05:00

Did you know that the Texas Clipper, which currently sits off the coast of South Padre Island, was once an attack transport in World War II? The Texas Clipper has undergone transformation…after transformation… after transformation.

After the war, the ship became the SS Excambion, one of the “4 Aces” of American Export Lines: the only fully air-conditioned ships in the world at the time.

In 1965, the versatile Excambion underwent yet another transformation—into a floating classroom. Recommissioned as the USTS Texas Clipper, the ship began a third life as a merchant marine training vessel with its home port in Galveston. For the next three decades the Texas Clipper would be home to merchant marine cadets, and by the time it was retired in 1996, it was the oldest active ship in the U.S. merchant marine fleet. Finally, the Texas Clipper, after lengthy bureaucratic wrangling, was designated to be sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef to provide habitat for marine life. In 2009, the ship was towed to its final resting place, 17 nautical miles off the coast of South Padre Island. Now, 136 feet below the surface, the venerable Texas Clipper lives on as home to a wide variety of underwater species.

If this series of transformations captivates you, order a copy of Stephen Curley’s The Ship That Would Not Die now!

Curley’s book is filled not only with meticulously researched technical and historical data about the ship’s construction, service record, crew procedures, and voyages, but also features lively anecdotes from crew members, passengers, and officers. More than 140 color and black-and-white photos illustrate the ship’s construction, its wide variety of shipboard life, the exacting process of making the Texas Clipper ready to become an artificial reef, and its final sinking in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read more about The Ship That Would Not Die and order your own copy here!

High Hopes

2011-07-06T15:26:00.001-05:00

"Two toymakers have literally written the book on building chimney swift nesting towers- vital to the declining bird’s survival-and turned their Texas property into a thriving Audubon sanctuary."

These toymakers are not only innovative bird watchers but TAMU Press authors as well! Paul and Georgean Kyle were recently featured in Audubon Magazine for their ability to turn their Texas property into a prosperous sanctuary. The magazine features the Kyles and their books Chimney Swift Towers and Chimney Swifts.

If you are not a subscriber to Audubon Magazine, make sure to check out this web exclusive here! It features YouTube videos, an article excerpt, and photos about how the Kyles have dedicated their spare time—and their property—to providing summer homes for chimney swifts. Or, read the FULL article here!

TAMU Press is offering both Chimney Swift Towers and Chimney Swifts for just $5 each! Get your own copy now!!!!

A book-loving ape and a tech-savvy donkey talk digital vs. print?

2011-06-30T15:48:00.000-05:00

Watch the It's a Book trailer here!!!

Judging by the book trailer, It’s a Book by author and illustrator Lane Smith (Roaring Brook Press), will sure be a hit! A book “for the technorati and literati alike”, it features a book-loving ape and a tech-savvy donkey talking digital vs. print. Quite a treat for those of us who fondly remember a time before e-readers, computers, iPods and WiFi.

This is a must read for book lovers, book readers and just anyone who needs a little lesson in what a book is and what a book is not.

To learn more about author/illustrator Lane Smith, check out his website here!

Serious Tomato Problem!

2011-06-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

What if your next tomato harvest produced 200 tomatoes?!

Cliff Shackelford, author of Hummingbirds of Texas has a serious problem with tomatoes! After reading a copy of The Texas Tomato Lovers Handbook (Texas A&M University Press), by Bill Adams, his kitchen is now over-run with homegrown tomatoes. Obviously, this is a VERY good problem to have!

Shackelford says:
". . . Holy smokes! They are juicy, tasty, and wonderful. We've enjoyed a lot of tomato sandwiches, fresh tomato sauce, Julie's homemade pico-de-gallo, and more. Because we cannot eat them all, a small sack-full can sure put a smile on the faces of friends."

Tomatoes from Cliff’s own kitchen. (His set of keys in the photo are merely to demonstrate that these are not little tomatoes.)

Looking to create your own “tomato problem?” Order your own copy of The Texas Tomato Lovers Handbook here!

New York Times features TAMU Press author!

2011-06-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

Did you know a student can participate in both professional and college rodeo at the same time?

“Our students may have a college rodeo one weekend and a professional rodeo the next weekend,” said Roger Walters, commissioner of NIRA and a former rodeo coach at Sam Houston State in Huntsville, Tex. “Or they may be up in a college rodeo on Friday and a professional rodeo on Thursday.”

Read more about these incredible students in the New York Times.

Sylvia Mahoney, author of College Rodeo: From Show to Sport is featured in the article!

Mahoney’s book College Rodeo: From Show to Sport gives readers an inside look to a sport that most people know very little about. In fact, seldom does a college sport exist for eighty years without having a book written about it, but college rodeo has. Sylvia Gann Mahoney has written the first history of the sport, tracing its growth parallel to the development of professional rodeo and the growth of the organizational structure that governs college rodeo. Mahoney draws on personal interviews as well as the archives of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association and newspaper accounts from participating schools and their hometowns.

Mahoney chronicles the events, profiles winners, and analyzes the organizational efforts that have contributed to the colorful history of college rodeo. She traces the changing role of women, noting their victories that were ignored by much of the contemporary press in the early days of the sport. College Rodeo highlights outstanding individuals through extensive interviews, giving credit to the pioneers of college rodeo. This book includes rare photographs of rodeo teams, champions, and rodeo queens, blended with the true life details of sweat and tears that make intercollegiate rodeo such a popular sport.

Read more about College Rodeo here and order your own copy!

But I am not a Tomato Lover?!

2011-06-28T15:05:00.000-05:00

Not a Tomato Lover? Who cares?!

Betsy Friauf of The Dallas Morning News reports that William D. Adams’s Texas Tomato Lover’s Handbook is advice that is “applicable to gardening in general, especially vegetable gardening, making [the] book a bargain.”

Friauf describes her judgement of the book's $25.00 price:
"At first I thought $25 might be pricey for this slender little book. I wasn’t reassured by the first chapter’s title: “History of the Garden Tomato.” Who has time for history when sudden 100-degree weather has seared my once-robust tomato vines?"

But after reading the first paragraph, she was hooked:
"..the first paragraph hooked me. For it’s the history lesson that tells me the tomato is not, as I’d imagined, a naturally tough customer that loves heat. No, it’s a native of mid- and high-altitude Peru, where mild climate and fertile soil combine to make tomatoes flourish. Now I understand where these babies are coming from."

Want to read Friauf's full article? Visit the Dallas Morning News website!

Read more about William D. Adams and his book, Texas Tomato Lover’s Handbook here and order your own copy now!

Author Thomas Hatfield featured in Humanities Texas

2011-06-27T15:28:00.000-05:00

Thomas Hatfield’s "Rudder: From Leader to Legend" was recently featured in the June 2011 Humanities Texas e-newsletter! Check out this excerpt “The First Night on Point du Hoc” for a quick look into the book. You can order your own copy on our website here!

Reveille-The First Lady of Texas A&M

2011-06-27T15:20:00.000-05:00

Reveille needs no introduction to Aggies; she is surrounded by traditions, honored and privileged anywhere on campus. Reveille By Rusty Burson and Vannessa Burson gives readers an inside look to the First Lady of Texas A&M.

Check out this video of Reveilles VII and VIII visit the spa for shampoo, blowout and trim!

Supporting in more ways than one: Aggie Moms

2011-06-27T14:51:00.000-05:00

Aggie Mothers Know Best, about Aggie Moms’ Clubs and Mothers’ Club representatives talk about scholarships these clubs sponsor and what these gifts mean to both parents and students. Watch here!

Not only do Aggie Moms' Clubs offer great support to Aggie students, but they sure can cook! Their recipes are featured in the TAMU Press's book: Aggies, Moms, and Apple Pie, edited by Edna Smith.

The college experience revolves around many things, not the least important of which is food. From dorm room cuisine to tailgate parties to care packages, higher education can present some distinctive new demands on a person's cooking skills, time, and recipe file. This special cookbook will help both students and parents meet these challenges. It offers an array of good fare for late-night suppers, gatherings at your house, and regional specialties to impress the new roommate from New Jersey. Edna M. Smith, mother of two Texas Aggies, prepared this specially tailored cookbook from the recipes submitted by the members of seventy Federation of Texas A&M University Mothers' Clubs. The nearly five hundred recipes focus on the needs of families with college students and of the students themselves. Those who are novice cooks, perhaps just starting their own families and traditions, will appreciate the helpful suggestions for solving culinary mysteries. Any cook will enjoy the varied dishes that have been favorites for parties, covered dish suppers, and family feasts.

Read more and order your own copy of Aggies, Moms, and Apple Pie here!

Harvey Weil Sportsman Conservationist of the Year!

2011-04-21T08:54:00.000-05:00

The outdoor tents at Welder Wildlife Refuge were packed Saturday night with people there to honor Texas A&M Press advancement board member Dick Bartlett as the Harvey Weil Sportsman Conservationist of the Year and, as the Professional Conservationist of the Year, Wes Tunnell, the long-time general editor of two press book series on the Gulf of Mexico (here with his wife, Kathy). Also honored, in memoriam, was friend of the press Dick Conolly, whose wife, Norma, is shown here with Dick Bartlett. It was a sensational evening of tribute to these internationally known conservationists.

Remembering Tom Hargrove

2011-01-27T14:16:00.000-06:00

There were four guys from Fisher County who came to Aggieland (and Spider-D) in two-year staggered classes—Jim Lanning ’64, Tom Hargrove ’66, Lee Lanning ’68, and Raford Hargrove ’70. Their friendship embodied the best of the Aggie bonding. When Tom and Lee were both serving in Vietnam in 1969, their wives, Susan Hargrove and Linda Lanning, shared an apartment in San Francisco. TAMU Press published Linda’s moving account of their experience as waiting wives, Waiting: One Wife’s Year of the Vietnam War, in 2009. When Tom was kidnapped in Colombia, the Lannings were at the head of the list of friends who supported Susan in seeking his release, through ransom money, negotiating privately with the guerillas, and surviving the emotional rollercoaster.

It did not take knowing Tom long to understand how he generated that kind of loyalty and commitment. He was a leader in the Green Revolution of finding rice strains that would support Third World agriculture, a man of principle and courage, an agricultural journalist and international development worker. His mind was sharp, and his heart was as big as the West Texas that never left his accent or his perspective.

If you didn’t know Tom in person, you can know him through his books, which offer a unique account of and reflection on two dramatic episodes in America’s twentieth-century history: our involvement in Vietnam and our vulnerability to international drug runners. Even now, after his too-early death this week, Tom is worth getting to know; he will enlarge your heart and your experience.

Tom’s books: Long March to Freedom: The True Story of a Colombian Kidnapping
American History (TAMU Press edition 2007); A Dragon Lives Forever: War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (TAMU Press edition 2008).

Authors Tell the True Story of Lawmen "Warts and All"

2010-12-07T14:58:00.000-06:00

"Most of these lawmen memorial volumes have exploded since 9-11. And most of them sing the praises of the brave heroic officer who, with guns blazing, goes down in a hail of lead from Evil Roy Slade, blah, blah, blah. What we've done is tell the stories of the bad guys as well as the good guys. And sometimes it's hard to tell the difference because all of these officers weren't saints."--Richard F. Selcer to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Richard F. Selcer and Kevin S. Foster, co-authors of Written in Blood: The History of Fort Worth’s Fallen Lawmen, Volume 1, 1861-1909 talk to the Star-Telegram/Associated Press about their efforts to chronicle the lives and deaths of 13 early lawmen: police officers, sheriffs, constables and even a police commissioner. Read more here.

Find TAMU Press Consortium Authors at Texas Book Festival

2010-08-26T08:36:00.000-05:00

The Texas Book Festival has just announced authors who will be present at the free event, happening Oct. 16-17 at the State Capitol Building.

TAMU Press Consortium authors include:

Birkelbach, Alan (Smurglets Are Everywhere)

Bush, David (Hill Country Deco: Modernistic Architecture of Central Texas)

Crimm, Carolina Castillo (Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas)

de la Teja, Jesus F. (editor, Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas)

Hardin, Stephen (contributor, Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas)

* Hobby, Bill (How Things Really Work: Lessons From a Life in Politics)

Kruvand, Charles (The Living Waters of Texas)

Monroe, Debra (On the Outskirts of Normal: Forging a Family Against the Grain)

Parsons, Jim (Hill Country Deco: Modernistic Architecture of Central Texas)

Ramos, Raul (Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas)

Tijerina, Andres (Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas)

Todd, David (The Texas Legacy Project: Stories of Courage and Conservation)

Winningham, Geoff (Traveling the Shore of the Spanish Sea)

Wood, Jane Roberts (Out the Summerhill Road)

Zamora, Emilio (Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics during World War II)

For a full list, see the Austin American Statesman Reader.

Stop by the TAMU Press Consortium tent!

A&M System and Harte Research play instrumental role in response to the oil spill

2010-07-09T14:00:00.000-05:00

Released earlier this week, Governor Perry named the Texas A&M System a participant in the Gulf Project, a coalition of energy and environmental scientists, policy experts, academic researchers, private sector research scientists and state officials.

Consultants for the Project include Dr. Larry McKinney, executive director of the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. The Harte Research Institute has proved instrumental in providing data and research for information on the Gulf of Mexico and the oil spill. McKinney has also authored a foreword to the forthcoming book Glory of the Silver King edited by Brandon Shuler.

Texas A&M University Press authors Sylvia Earle and Wes Tunnell are both active at HRI, providing articles, interviews and access to research for greater understanding of the Gulf of Mexico and the effects of the recent oil spill.

Human Origins and Human Evolution: "The Human Edge. Without it, we might just be up a tree."

2010-07-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

NPR recently released an article by Christopher Joyce about the about the station's latest radio addition. NPR will be investigating 500 million years of human evolutionary history to determine the development cycles and "how we ended up the way we are." This will all be examined in "The Human Edge" radio show. The summer special will feature radio and web series.

"In Human Origins, by Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall, two of the world's foremost scientists show how research into the human genome confirms what fossil bones have told us about human origins. Human Origins serves as a companion volume to the American Museum of Natural History's permanent exhibit as well as an overview of recent insights into what it means to be human."

The information available on this topic is extensive. NPR's radio show will cover topics such as why feet ache, what is the cause of backache and the evolutionary developments that led to modern women having complexes about their hip size. In addition to these physical changes, "The Human Edge" will explore the mental complications of self doubt, the blues and delusions of grandeur, to name a few. Joyce comments that there's a reason "chimps don't need shrinks or Viagra."

Q&A with Gay Gomez, author of The Louisiana Coast: Guide to an American Wetland

2010-07-07T12:42:00.000-05:00

Gay Gomez is associate professor of geography at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Gomez, a professional nature guide and longtime activist and champion for the state's wetlands, has served on the board of directors for the Coalistion to Restore Coastal Louisiana and the Louisiana Ornithological Society. She is actively involved in many other organizations and is the author of The Louisiana Coast: Guide to an American Wetland.

What is a wetland environment? And, why should we preserve them?

"Wetlands are transition environments between dry land and open water. They are places where standing water is present for all or part of the year, and, because of this, they support vegetation that is adapted to saturated soil conditions. In the Gulf Coast region, swamps and marshes predominate. Swamps are forested wetlands, while marshes feature many species of grasses, sedges, rushes, and submerged aquatic vegetation. 'Water brings life,' and these wetland habitats are high in both plant and animal diversity. Humans also are part of these ecosystems; we impact them by managing water and wildlife and use them for a variety of commercial and recreational activities, from bird watching to seafood harvesting. Without coastal wetlands, valuable fish and shellfish like brown shrimp, white shrimp, redfish (red drum) speckled trout (spotted sea trout), gulf menhaden, blue crabs, and American oysters would not have a place to grow to adulthood. Without these wetlands, many species of waterfowl and other wildlife would not have a refuge in winter, or a place to breed in summer, or a spot to rest and feed during migration."

Photo by Gay Gomez at the Cameron East Jetty Park and Pier, Camero, LA

2. In your book, The Louisiana Coast: Guide to an American Wetland, you describe the coast as a "place of interaction among land, people, and ideas." Can you tell us more about this connection between the land and local people? Why is this connection unique to the Louisiana coast?

"People are an integral part of the Louisiana coastal environment. Generations of families of many ethnicities have adapted to the opportunities and challenges of the region, which include a long growing season, bountiful fishery, and location along the Mississippi and central flyways, as well as threats from hurricanes, storm surges, flooding and insects. Louisiana coastal culture reflects these adaptations in its architecture, food ways, wetland and wildlife management, commercial and recreational activities and attitude toward life. According to 2007 U.S. Census estimates, approximately 47% of Louisiana’s population lives in the state’s coastal parishes. There is a strong emotional attachment and sense of identity associated with living in or near the coast and using its resources. People here feel we are part of the coast, and it is part of us."

3. Over many years, hurricane damage, erosion, human land development, and the byproducts of oil exploration have taken their toll on the coast. What are the specific, long-term implications of the recent BP oil spill with which you are most concerned?

"I’m concerned about the presence and effects of both oil and toxic dispersants in our wetlands, on our beaches, and in our marine environment. All these habitats are interconnected; foul one habitat and the others will also be affected. I fear the contaminants will have long-lasting effects on our fisheries and of course on the entire food web. I’m also wondering how the presence of oil will affect water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico. If the presence of oil results in higher water temperature, this could cause hurricanes to intensify as they pass over the warmer area. I recall how rapidly Hurricane Katrina strengthened to a category 5 storm as it passed over a warm water eddy west of Florida in 2005. On the subject of hurricanes, I’m concerned that a hurricane and storm surge crossing oil-impacted wetlands will both convey oil further into fragile wetland areas and cause land loss where wetland plants have already succumbed to the suffocating effects of the oil."

Photo courtesy of Gay Gomez. Shrimp boat and the Gulf of Mexico shoreline at Holly Beach, LA.

4. You also discuss coastal restoration at length, in your book. The environmental devastation associated with this spill seems to be massive and widespread, with broad implications. What can individuals do now to aid both in recovery from the spill and long-term restoration?

"Individuals can stay informed about the spill and can learn about its impacts on coastal wetlands by exploring sites like the coalition to restore coastal Louisiana, http://www.crcl.org/, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/. Becoming informed about and supporting coastal restoration, and urging your U.S. congressmen and senators to do likewise, will also help. One way you can support the gulf coast seafood harvesters and businesses is by refusing to buy imported shrimp, crabs and oysters; don’t let the spill be an opportunity for foreign competitors to steal the market from domestic producers and suppliers. In addition, people might want to help by coming to the gulf coast and directly patronizing businesses impacted by the spill. There is much to see and do, even if fishing and swimming are currently unavailable in some areas."

5. Tourism will, no doubt, be affected by the spill. Will it be safe for families to visit the coast this summer? If so, what are some of your favorite, must-see spots?

"I believe tourism is still a possibility, especially eco-tourism. It is still possible to visit many wildlife refuges and coastal communities. Some of my favorite spots in Louisiana are the Creole Nature Trail in Cameron Parish, Grand Isle in Jefferson Parish, and the Louisiana Great Gulf Coast Birding Trail, which stretches across the state’s entire coast region. My book, The Louisiana Coast: Guide to an American Wetland, has information on these and other locations.

Huffington Post names Texas Review Press one of 15 'feisty small presses'

2010-07-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

Huffington Post released this article late last week naming Texas Review Press of Sam Houston State University one of the top fifteen feisty small presses. Featured in the paragraph below, was Richard Burgin's new novel, Rivers Last Longer.

Guest Blogger: Gay Gomez, Associate Professor of Geography at McNeese State University

2010-07-02T12:36:00.001-05:00

As published in the Baton Rouge Business Report Letters to the Editor section June 15:

GULF OIL SPILL’S LESSON: THE ENVIRONMENT IS THE ECOMONY

From my home 30 miles from the Gulf of Mexico I feel the moist air the south wind carries from the southwest Louisiana coast. There is no odor of petroleum yet, but that may be present soon, since the oil continues to gush from the punctured sea floor, and the prevailing current along the northern shores of the Gulf flows from east to west. This was, of course, what carried the Mississippi River’s voluminous sediment to Louisiana’s shores and built the state’s vast coastal wetlands during most of the past seven thousand years, before humans intervened by building tall levees along the river’s banks. The levees have served the state’s and the country’s economic interests well, as have the thousands of miles of canals and pipelines and the myriad oil and gas operations that are as much a part of this coastal region as are its shrimpers, fishermen, and hunters. As the Gulf oil spill disaster has at last forced us to realize, however, everyone—from our national leaders to oil company executives to wildlife harvesters to seafood eaters—has a common interest in a healthy coastal and marine environment.

Damage lands and waters, and there will be damage to economies and cultures. Countless events throughout the U.S. and the world during past decades have proclaimed this message, but governmental decision makers and corporate executives have rarely given the message a hearing, much less acted as though they understood the correlation. Instead, a myopic focus on and prioritization of economic gain trumps restraint, caution, and defense of environmental quality. As BP’s spill-related expenditures climb, as federal aid packages for beleaguered coastal fisheries and tourist operations multiply, and as Louisiana’s already threatened coastal wetlands endure contamination from oil and chemical dispersants, isn’t the message clear? The environment IS the economy. It is time for people everywhere to absorb this fundamental lesson and to act accordingly.

Restoring environmental quality and economic strength in the Louisiana coastal region will be a long and difficult process. Everyone can help by learning about and supporting the state’s coastal restoration efforts, and by urging their U.S. senators and representatives to do likewise. Visit the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana’s site, www.crcl.org, to read about the issue or to volunteer to help with the recovery. Also consider supporting Gulf Coast seafood businesses by refusing to buy imported shrimp, crabs, and oysters; let’s not let this disaster allow foreign competitors to steal the market away from U.S. harvesters and suppliers. Finally, BP must pay the full price for the disaster its negligence and greed have caused to our intertwined environment, economy, and culture. BP should pay off the mortgages of every affected seafood harvester, seafood business owner, and tourist operator in the spill-affected areas of the Gulf Coast, as well as provide funding to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries for restoration of the state’s coastal resources and livelihoods. Having “fouled the nest,” the least the oil giant can do is to leave resource users with the “nest egg” that could allow them to remain in the region and facilitate its recovery.

Gay Gomez

Associate Professor of Geography, McNeese State University, Lake Charles, Louisiana

Author of The Louisiana Coast: Guide to an American Wetland and A Wetland Biography: Seasons on Louisiana’s Chenier Plain

'Sea Monster' fossil found

2010-07-01T11:14:00.000-05:00

An article on CNN notes the recent discovery of the fossilized teeth of the "Leviathan Melvillei." The teeth were recently found in fossils in the Pisco-Ica desert in coastal Peru. Originally thought to be elephant tusks because of their size, the teeth indicate that these sea monsters fed on large prey like baleen whales. At about the size of three modern day killer whales, the reason for their extinction is unknown but as they were top predators, only few thrived at any given time.

In The Archaeology of Animal Bones, Terry O'Connor analyzes bone composition and the archaeological evidence left by the processes of life, death and decomposition. Tim Tokaryk, a Canadian Field Naturalist, said the book "proves to be a useful guide not only for zooarchaeologists and event paleontologists alike, but for mainstream archaeologists as well."More information on O'Connor's work can be found here, or purchased on Amazon.

This rare archaeological find will be detailed in the scientific journal Nature, published today.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Not Largest in US

2010-06-30T09:45:00.000-05:00

In a news conference with Pepperdine's Joe Hahn and Kenny Franks, author of Early California Oil, discuss the largest oil leak ever, not in the Gulf, but in California. To see the video, click here.

Franks tells the history of oil in California from 1865 to 1940 through vivid photographs illustrating the early exploration to the boom years of the twentieth century.

Early California Oil is available on Amazon and more information can be seen here.

Spanish Water, Anglo Water author featured in Texas Observer

2010-06-29T11:06:00.000-05:00

Charles Porter, author of Spanish Water, Anglo Water was featured in this month's Texas Observer. For more on his book, click here.

For more information on the Texas Observer, go to TexasObserver.org.

Publishers Weekly Review of SMU Press's One Day the Wind Changed

2010-06-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

"The lone characters in Daugherty's (Desire Provoked) 16 loose-limbed, well developed stories brave a sense of isolation as big as the arid Texas landscape they mostly inhabit. Many of these characters find themselves chafing against an unpopular decision like the architect in "Purgatory, Nevada" who in 1945 risks losing his bride, his reputation, and his professional integrity for the "fascinating challenge" of creating a ghost town in the desert for the Allies to test the effects of a spectacularly lethal firebombing. In the similarly smartly hewn tale "Magnitude," the beleaguered first-person director of the Dollman Planetarium has to break it to the visiting middle-schoolers that there is some doubt about Pluto's being a planet, sending the children into paroxysms of disappointment. A besotted young grad student hangs on disastrously to his infatuation with a stunningly manipulative girlfriend in "The Saint," while the drifting narrator and native of Oklahoma City in "The Republic of Texas" finds himself back among a community of hate-filled secessionists the week after Timothy McVeigh is put to death. With their strong sense of historical context, Daugherty's stories are stirring and relevant."

Klaus Nigge's photos featured in National Geographic

2010-06-23T11:13:00.000-05:00

In Nigge's forthcoming work, Whooping Cranes, he captures the beauty and essential mystery that have led humans the world over to include cranes in their earliest myths and legends.

A recent article in National Geographic featured Nigge's photographs of the whooping crane. The article can be seen here.

Kathy Moran, senior editor of natural history for National Geographic, said "Klaus Nigge's photography captures the rarely seen behavior and astounding grace of whooping cranes. More importantly, it gives voice to the cranes' continuing struggle for survival."

For more on Klaus Nigge's book, click here. His photographs can be seen on his website, www.nigge.com and in the National Geographic Image Collection.

25 years later: Lonesome Dove

2010-06-22T11:12:00.000-05:00

This month's Texas Monthly features a cover story about the 25th anniversary of Lonesome Dove. It is characterized as "our Gone with the Wind," an enduring tale of adventure, friendship and the western frontier. For more on the Texas Monthly cover story, click here.

TexasMonthlyReads is a new blog by John Spong and magazine that welcomes Larry McMurty's novel as its first review. Spong writes that "they were able to explain it in terms of the history of Texas, the myth of the West, and McMurtry's career. It was like being back in a college lit class, and almost as much fun as rereading the book."

University of North Texas Press, one of the Texas A&M University Press' consortium partners, has the first major book in twenty years to examine the life and work of Texas' foremost novelist. Mark Busby's Larry McMurtry and the West: An Ambivalent Relationship is available here.

Related titles that may be of interest:

Larry McMurtry and the Victorian Novel by Roger Walton Jones

HRI Panel to be Broadcast Live on Internet

2010-06-17T11:48:00.000-05:00

The third of four panels the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (HRI) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is holding to discuss the long-term impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster on the world’s sixth-largest body of water will be broadcast live over the Internet on Ustream tomorrow (Friday, June 18), from 3:30-4:30 p.m. in the Harte Research Institute, Conference Room 127.

Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico author John Wes Tunnell Jr will speak on comparisons between the Deepwater Horizon spill and the 1979 Ixtoc I oil spill in the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico.

Celebrated oceanographer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Sylvia Earle, is speaking on putting the Gulf oil spill in a world perspective. Earle is the author of the foreword to both Tunnell's Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico and Jesse Cancelmo's Texas Coral Reefs. Earle has recently been quoted in many articles and publications about the current issues facing the Gulf of Mexico and will be attending the independent TEDxOilSpill conference in Washington DC at the end of this month.

The panel discussion is free and open to the public. The meeting can also be viewed on the Internet by going to http://www.ustream.tv/user/tamuccvideogallery and clicking on “TAMUCC HRI Panel Discussion on Gulf Oil Spill.” The final panel in the series will be held on Friday, June 25.

The Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies supports and advances the long-term sustainable use and conservation of the Gulf of Mexico through research, public policy initiatives and public education. Advisory board members represent leaders in academia, industry, and conservation from the United States, Mexico and Cuba.

Guest Blogger: Alan J. Watt -- Fortieth Anniversary of Historic Contract between Farm Workers and California Growers

2010-06-14T09:35:00.000-05:00

Guest Blogger: Alan J. Watt

This summer will mark the fortieth anniversary of the historic signing of a binding contract between the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee–later the United Farm Workers–and most of the table grape growers in California. On July 29, 1970, after a grueling five-year struggle, farm labor leader Cesar Chavez and grower John Guimarra, Sr., sat down at a table and signed the contract in the Filipino farm workers’ union hall in Delano, California. Standing behind them were Catholic clergy who had served as mediators.

This arbitration team served as the last of three religious expressions playing pivotal roles in this victory. The other two were the pan-Protestant National Migrant Ministry and Chavez’s use of Mexican devotional piety. During various stages of the table grape strike, each religious entity provided support without which the farm workers could not have achieved their hard-won goal.

In September of 1965, Filipino farm laborers called a strike and were soon joined by Mexican-American workers. Immediately, the Migrant Ministry supported the workers’ demands for higher wages and better working conditions. It was an ecumenical ministry originally conceived, funded, and operated by middle-class women belonging to the moderate arm of the Social Gospel and had maintained a presence among farm workers from the 1920s. It provided traditional support, including food, clothing, health care, and religious education. Later, however, it undertook a more aggressive approach, advocating for legislation to improve the lives of farm laborers. In the 1960s, it adopted yet another tack, calling itself a servanthood ministry and thus operating at the beck and call of the farm worker union. Without the organization’s support in the early months of the strike, it would have failed.

Chavez himself was largely responsible for tapping into another religious expression to promote the movement, namely, Mexican devotional piety. More accurately, he creatively combined it with elements of the civil rights struggle, for example, the 1966 planning and execution of a march from the union headquarters in Delano to the state capitol in Sacramento. The very name of this event, “Pereginacion, Penitencia, Revolucion,” spoke to the intent to appeal to various segments of the general population. First, this event was likened to a Lenten pilgrimage. Second, it was a penitential act among farm workers, who were harboring feelings of resentment and hate toward the growers. Third, it was an act of self-determination, by which the union protested against the growers, the governor, and other interests. Another example of Chavez’s use of popular religion was his first public fast in 1968. Again, its ostensible purpose was to quell threats of worker violence and otherwise maintain the moral high ground. The union’s headquarters was converted into a virtual shrine, and the room in which Chavez held his fast became a monastic cell. Once again, witnesses identified with at least one of the meanings of the fast. For many Catholics, it espoused the ideals of Franciscan self-denial. For the Mexican faithful, it was a reminder of their own suffering. For the general public, it was regarded as a nonviolent means to effect social change, in which Chavez took a cue from the African-American civil rights movement.

Finally, the Bishops Ad Hoc Committee laid the groundwork for final negotiations. Representing the prolabor wing of the Catholic Church, it was able to approach the growers, who were primarily second-generation Catholics from Italy and Yugoslavia and who, in spite of strained relations, were still on speaking terms with California bishops.

Thus, all three of the aforementioned religious expressions aided the union to reach a binding contract with growers. They were by no means sufficient factors in the success of this event, but were certainly necessary factors.

Debra Monroe is On the Outskirts of Normal

2010-06-11T16:47:00.000-05:00

"Debra Monroe's adoption of a black baby puts her On the Outskirts of Normal" read page 78 of this May's edition of Vanity Fair. Monroe has also recently been featured in the Austin Chronicle.

Monroe grew up in Wisconsin and moved to Texas in 1992. She is the author of two collections of stories, The Source of Trouble, which won the Flannery O'Connor Award, and A Wild, Cold State, and two novels, Newfangled and Shambles. She teaches at Texas State University and lives in Austin, Texas.

Sylvia Earle, Wes Tunnell on BP Oil Spill

2010-05-24T07:49:00.000-05:00

"The exploratory oil well two miles below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico exploded in a ball of fire, spurting millions of gallons of crude into the sea. As weeks turned to months, oil executives grappled with capping the well. The growing slick turned into an immediate ecological nightmare."--Miami Herald, May 23, 2010, on the 1979 Ixtoc oil spill in the Bay of Campeche
John "Wes" Tunnell Jr., associate director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies

That year, John W. "Wes" Tunnell Jr., now associate director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies and co-editor of the multivolumed work Gulf of Mexico: Origin, Waters, and Biota (Texas A&M University Press, 2009) and the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells: Identification, Ecology, Distribution, and History, worked with other researchers to predict how long it would take the current to carry the oil 600 miles to south Texas.

"The south Texas restaurant and hotel organizations, at the time, claimed they lost $50 million in revenue. Back then that was a lot," Tunnell told the Herald.

However, with the lead time on the Ixtoc spill, Tunnell told reporters that workers were able to lay boms across entrances to the area's lagoons, keeping much of the oil out of some of the most fragile ecosystems.

The recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill, touching marshes along the Louisiana coast, is far different, Tunnell told the Herald. Read the article in its entirety here, and see this article in the Seattle Times for further analysis of the Ixtoc and BP disasters by McClatchy Newspapers.

Tunnell is one of several Texas A&M University Press authors and prominent Gulf of Mexico experts who have been in the news recently, in connection to the catastrophic BP oil spill.

Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic Society's explorer-in-residence and foreword contributor to Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico (co-edited by Tunnell, 2007) and Texas Coral Reefs (2008), recently told a House panel she came "to speak for the ocean."

"We are pointing anywhere we can for blame," she told the panel. "But actually, the blame of this and other catastrophes were costs related to our demand for cheap energy. (It) is something that all of us need to bear. We all must share the cost of those who demand cheap oil at any price."

See Earle's recent appearance on the Charlie Rose Show (below) and a recent CNN story about her testimony.

Visit Texas A&M University Press for more reading on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, the Louisiana coast, and business history, as it pertains to offshore oil exploration, written by some of the world's leading experts.

Dan K. Utley (History Ahead) on Think Radio Program

2010-04-08T08:25:00.000-05:00

"Something I have always joked about is that we could someday tell the history of the world in four paragraphs . . . it's an impossible task; we do the best we can."─Dan K. Utley, co-author of History Ahead: Stories beyond the Texas Roadside Markers (Texas A&M University Press, 2010)

More than 13,000 historical markers line the roadsides of Texas, giving drivers a way to sample the stories of the past. But these markers only tell part of the story.

In a lively interview with Krys Boyd, host of KERA's Think radio program in Dallas, Utley discusses his career as a chief historian of the Texas Historical Commission, the back- and forth- compromise between state and county officials on historical marker inscriptions, and fascinating stories of the people behind the markers.

At the end of the interview, listeners offer their suggestions for Utley and co-author Cynthia Beeman's next book, which will include even more stories behind the roadside markers.

Hear the full interview here.

Don't Miss it! "Skulls. Slaves, and Sex: Secrets of Early Texas"

2010-04-02T08:07:00.000-05:00

In 1837, American naturalist John James Audubon picked up four skulls of Mexican soldiers from the San Jacinto battleground and sent them to his friend, Dr. Samuel Morton, in Philadelphia.

Last year, Symposium Founder Jeff Dunn discovered the skulls' existence, and renowned anthropologist Doug Owsley conducted a forensic examination on behalf of the Friends of the San Jacinto Battleground.

He will present his findings publicly for the first time in April, at the Battle of San Jacinto Symposium, "Skulls, Slaves, and Sex: Secrets of Early Texas."

The event will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 17 at the Hilton Hotel and Conferece Center at the University of Houston. The $50 registration includes lunch and parking.

If skulls, slaves, and sex isn't quite enough to grab you, consider the impressive line up of speakers:

Owsley, division head of physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. He is also the author of the forthcoming Arch Lake Woman: Physical Anthropology and Geoarchaeology (Texas A&M University Press, 2010).

The book, which focuses on the third-oldest human remains found in North America (in eastern New Mexico) will be the first volume in the new Peopling of the Americas Publications ─ released by Texas A&M University Press for the Center for the Study of the First Americans.

Ron Tyler, director of the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth. Tyler will speak about Audubon's visit to Galveston, Houston, and San Jacinto Battleground in 1837.

Tyler, who spent 20 years as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and executive director of the Texas State Historical Association, is also a member of the Texas A&M University Press faculty advisory council.

Speaking on Slaves:

"The Slaveholder's Republic"

Andrew J. Torget, assistant professor of history at the University of North Texas. Torget, creator of the digital Texas Slavery Project, will discuss slavery and its impact on revolutionary Texas. He is currently working on a book titled Cotton Empire: Slavery, Texas, and the Origins of the Mexican-American War.

Speaking on Sex:

"Was Sam a Bigamist? ─ A Lawyer Looks at Sam Houston's Divorce"

James W. Paulsen, professor of law at South Texas College of Law. Paulsen, who specializes in family law, legal history, and civil procedure, will discuss Sam Houston's legal problems following the breakup of his marriage to Eliza Allen in Tennessee and subsequent romance with Anna Raguet of Nacogdoches during the Texas Revolution and the early years of the Republic.

"Revolutionary Sex: Texas' Philandering Founders"

Lael Morgan, author, journalist, lecturer, photographer, and teacher. Morgan currently lectures at the department of communications in the University of Texas at Arlington. She is author of Good Time Girls of the Alaska Yukon Gold Rush (Epicenter Press, 1999).

Also:

James E. Crisp, associate professor of history at North Carolina State University. Crisp, author of the newly released How Did Davy Die? And Why Do We Care So Much? (Texas A&M University Press, 2010), will moderate the event.

In the commemorative edition of Dan Kilgore's original book ─ where Kilgore had the audacity to state publicly that historical sources suggested Crockett did not die on the ramparts of the Alamo, swinging the shattered remains of his rifle, "Old Betsy" ─ Crisp examines the origins and subsequent impact of Kilgore's work.

Crisp will also sign and discuss his book with 2009 speaker Jim Bevill, author of The Paper Republic: The Struggle for Money, Credit, and Independence in the Republic of Texas (Bright Sky Press, 2010) 6-8 p.m. April 15 at Brazos Bookstore (2421 Bissonnet in Houston).

The special luncheon presentation will focus on the Hon. William P. Hobby, Jr., Lt. Governor of Texas, 1973-1991.

Frank de la Teja, professor and department of history chair for Texas State University in San Macos and former state historian. He will comment on his new book, Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas (Texas A&M University Press, 2010).

In this book, de la Teja and ten other scholars examine the lives, careers, and influence of many historically-significant but long-neglected Tejano leaders who were active in the formation, political and military leadership, and economic development of Texas.

David Sedaris to Recommend Irish Girl!

2010-03-29T09:13:00.000-05:00

In December, Playwright, NPR commentator, and bestselling author David Sedaris selected Irish Girl by Tim Johnston (University of North Texas Press, 2009) as one of his favorite books of the year.

Now, he has chosen the short story collection as the book he will be recommending on his 34-city, 2010 book tour, which he starts next week!

Bookslut recently called Johnston's stories "sharp and smart, infused with a small-town sensibility that renders them eerie and restless."

Read the review in its entirety here.

Also, be sure to catch Sedaris on his tour, which lands first in Wilmington, DE on April 6!

Houston Celebrates James Surls

2010-03-23T10:42:00.000-05:00

The Houston Chronicle's Zest section Sunday featured a cover story on the arrival of seven pieces by artist James Surls to the Rice University campus, after their turn on New York's Park Avenue.

Surls will give a lecture at noon Tuesday in the university's Herring Hall, Room 100. His work will be on display through Aug. 31 as part of the exhibit, Magnificent Seven: Houston Celebrates Surls.

Surls's work is also featured in James Surls: In the Meadows and Beyond, edited by Jeanne Chvosta (Southern Methodist University Press, 2004). The book is the first full-length examination of Surls's life and art. It also includes an interview with the artist, a tribute by his wife, Charmaine Locke (also an artist), and commentary by Mark A. Roglán, curator of the exhibition In the Meadows: Recent Sculpture, Drawings, and Prints of James Surls (2003).

As part of the ongoing exhibit, three of Surls's bronze and steel scultures, featuring flower-, diamond-, vortex- and needle-like forms currently stand in a green space near Brochstein Pavilion, the Chronicle reported. Another three are located near the campus parking garage beneath McNair Hall, and the seventh stands in front of the BioScience Research Collaborative on University near Main.

For more on the exhibit, read the article in the Houston Chronicle.

The Pacific Premiers!

2010-03-15T08:28:00.000-05:00

Last night, millions of users tuned in to the first installment of HBO's new miniseries, The Pacific, which tracks the stories of three U.S. Marines in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

The series, executive produced by Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Gary Goetzman, "tracks the intertwined real-life stories of" U.S. Marines Robert Leckie, John Basilone, and Eugene Sledge from their first battle with the Japanese on Guadalcanal to their return home after V-J Day.

In conjunction with the premier, HBO.com has posted an excellent historical video, "Anatomy of the Pacific War:"

Anatomy of the Pacific War

For history, memoirs, analysis, and more on the Pacific Theater, check out these great titles from Texas A&M University Press Consortium:

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

The Ghosts of Iwo Jima

2010-03-12T07:23:00.000-06:00

The 5th Division hits the beach on D-Day, 19 February 1945. The dead and living mingle.

"I've lived with those memories all of my life and it was not something I ever wanted to go back to."─Jerry Yelin, World War II P-51 fighter pilot, to CNN

In a recent story on CNN, World War II veterans talked about their emotional pilgrimage to Iwo Jima for the Tour of Honor, an annual commemoration of the 35-day battle.

In February 1945, some 80,000 U.S. Marines attacked the heavily defended fortress thatt the Japanese had constructed on the tiny Pacific Island. About 22,000 Japanese soldiers died defending Iwo Jima, along with more than 6,000 Americans.

The article alludes to how the battle proved to be "longer and deadlier than planners had anticipated, depleding much of the U.S. military's resources."

In The Ghosts of Iwo Jima (Texas A&M University Press, 2006), Captain Robert S. Burrell reconsiders the costs of taking Iwo Jima and its role in the war effort. He asserts that the Air Forces' fighter operations on Iwo Jima subsequently proved both unproductive and unnecessary.

An excerpt:

"With the start of World War II, the U.S. armed services made enormous transitions. The size of the naval operations dwarfed anything witnessed in American history. At the same time, the Army and Navy were forced to work together as never before in ambitious joint operations. Since the pre-war military had distinctly divided Army and Navy responsibilities based upon geographical boundaries of land and sea, amphibious operations in the Pacific left much ambiguity over how best to integrate service efforts. The creation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was a giant leap forward in unified command of the armed services. Still, the Army and Navy had great difficulty working together, both in Washington and abroad. Intense rivalry continued to influence problematic command arrangements and had tragic repercussions, especially in the Pacific.

Army/Navy division of the Pacific Theater, 1942

Considering Iwo Jima within the overall context of the Pacific war demonstrates that Operation Detachment was influenced by U.S. service interests. Plans to seize Iwo Jima began as a result of Army Air Forces strategy. The Army Air Forces sought to provide fighter escort from an intermediate air base between the Marianas and Japan in order to improve B-29 Superfortress performance. Although there were many small islands in the Nanpo Shoto, none had both the ideal terrain and the proper location to meet the Army Air Forces' requirements. Because General Arnold desperately sought to demonstrate the value of an independent air force through the performance of the B-29, he strongly urged the capture of the most suitable island anyway. Although Iwo Jima had an appropriate landscape for large airfields, distance from mainland Japan, adverse weather conditions, and limitations of the P-51 Mustang proved detrimental to effective U.S. fighter support. Planners from 1943 onward had expressed doubts that seizing Iwo Jima would justify its cost. They also doubted the ability of fighters to operate such long distances to mainland Japan. Admiral Spruance, ther leading Navy officer to adhere to the Army Air Forces' desires, retained deep reservations about the island's value throughout the planning and preparation process. In retrospect, one could certainly question whether the price was worth the gain─an approach that strongly contrasts with the embellished justifications given in most scholarship on the subject. . . "

Texas State Historical Association Annual Meeting and Awards

2010-03-10T10:16:00.000-06:00

Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas Editor Jesús F. de la Teja and contributors sign copies of the newly released book at the Texas State Historical Association annual meeting.

The Texas State Historical Association's annual meeting is always a huge event for the Texas A&M University Press Consortium. And, this past weekend in Dallas was no exception.

Authors for most of our imprints ─ Texas A&M University Press, TSHA Press, University of North Texas Press, Texas Christian University Press, Southern Methodist University Press, Texas Review Press, and State House/McWhiney Foundation Press ─ attended in force to sign books, and at least a dozen authors received awards or other recognition.

The highlights:

Drs. James E. Crisp of North Carolina State University and Emilio Zamora of the University of Texas were named 2009 Fellows of the association with Donaly E. Brice of the Texas State Library.

Crisp is co-author of How Did Davy Die? And Why Do We Care So Much? (TAMU Press, 2010) and an author of the expanded edition of With Santa Anna in Texas: A Personal Narrative of the Revoluation (TAMU Press, 1997).

Zamora is author of Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas: Mexican Workers and Job Politics in World War II (TAMU Press, 2009), Mexican Americans in Texas History, Selected Essays (TSHA Press, 2000), and The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas (TAMU Press, 2000).

Zamora also picked up the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, for the best book on Texas published during the calendar year.

Emilio Zamora, author of Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, accepts the Tullis Memorial Prize.

Dr. Kyle G. Wilkison, author of Yeomen, Sharecroppers, and Socialists: Plain Folk Protest in Texas, 1870-1914 (TAMU Press, 2008),received the Kate Broocks Bates Award for Historical Research for a signigicant piece of historical research dealing with any phase of Texas history prior to 1900. Wilkison, a professor of history at Collin College, is also co-author of the newly released The Texas Left: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism (TAMU Press, 2010).

Kyle Wilkison, author of Yeomen, Sharecroppers, and Socialists, accepts the Kate Broocks Bates Award.

Congrats to Dr. Michael Botson of Houston Community College received the Mary M. Hughes Research Fellowship in Texas History for the best research proposal on twentieth-century Texas History. He is author of Labor, Civil Rights, and the Hughes Tool Company (TAMU Press, 2005).

Dr. Elizabeth Hayes Turner of the University of North Texas received the John H. Jenkins Research Fellowship in Texas History for the best research proposal having to do with Texas history. Hayes Turner was an editor of Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in Texas (TAMU Press, 2006).

Also, the Texas A&M University Department of History and Texas A&M University Press presented the 2010 Robert A. Calvert Book Prize to The Texas Left, by Wilkison and Dr. David Cullen of Collin College, during the annual meeting.

Congratulations to our award-winning authors!

The Texas A&M University Press Consortium team at the Texas State Historical Association annual meeting. Photo includes Ron Chrisman (UNT), Paula Oates (UNT), Karen DeVinney (UNT), Melinda Esco (TCU), Sharon Mills (TAMU), Kent Calder (TSHA), Stephen Hardin (State House/McWhiney Foundation Press), Don Frazier (SHMFP), George Ann Ratchford (SMU), Kathie Lang (SMU), Beth Alvarez (TSHA), Amy Smith (SHMW), Susan Petty (TCU), Gayla Christiansen (TAMU), Holli Estridge (TAMU), Keith Gregory (SMU), and Paul Ruffin (TRP)

Rolando Briseño in San Antonio Express-News

2010-03-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

As the twentieth century drew to a close, renowned Mexican American artist Rolando Briseño mounted an exhibition of work titled "La Mesa de Moctezuma/Moctezuma's Table."

A number of artists, writers, poets, and scholars who know his work will soon be featured as part of a forthcoming book on the exhibit, Moctezuma's Table: Rolando Briseño's Mexican and Chicano Tablescapes, edited by Norma Cantú. The book is currently scheduled for a Fall 2010 release.

The San Antonio Express-News recently featured a seven-course dinner Briseño hosted for ten family members at his home, commemorating a meal his ancestors held in Mexico on Jan. 27, 1910, for his grandparents after they returned home from their honeymoon.

The Express-News describes the dinner party, which Briseño calls "Ancestral Tablescape" as "part gourmet meal, part art project and part memorial to family members who died long ago."

Read the article in its entirety here, and follow this link to see a slideshow of photos from the dinner.

Civil War Officer's Descendant on Moss Bluff Rebel

2010-02-26T08:53:00.000-06:00

It isn't often that our history authors make personal contact with descendants of the individuals they research.

So imagine Moss Bluff Rebel: A Texas Pioneer in the Civil War author Phil Caudill's surprise when he heard recently from the great-great grandson of Texas pioneer cattle drover turned reluctant Civil War commanding officer William Berry Duncan.

In his book (Texas A&M University Press, 2009), Caudill draws from Duncan's previously untapped diaries and letters written by candlelight on the Gulf Coast cattle trail to New Orleans, in Confederate Army camps, and on his southeast Texas farm after the war, to paint a picture of Texas life the Republic's early citizens. Caudill's carefully crafted narrative reveals Duncan's wartime emotions and his postwar struggle to reinvent the lifestyle he knew before the war.

John Urban had the following to say:

". . . enjoyable and informative. . . my wife and I were thoroughly captivated by your story and style of writing. We feel that because of your writing, we were able to get a lot of insight into my family."

For more on Moss Bluff Rebel, visit the author's Web site.

The Leadership of George Bush on CBS News

2010-02-24T13:39:00.000-06:00

"For Bush, a leader is someone who can bring people together to get things done."─Roman Popadiuk, author of The Leadership of George Bush

As President Obama and Congressional Republicans prepare for tomorrow's health care reform summit, CBS News White House Correspondent Peter Maer says in an article on today's Political Hotsheet that the leaders could "profit" from the words of two presidents named George ─ Washington and Bush.

In his book, The Leadership of George Bush: An Insider's View of the Forty-first President (TAMU Press, 2009), Roman Popadiuk examines the ways in which Bush's personal leadership style influenced the formation and execution of policy.

Maer, who cites Popadiuk's book in the article, refers to the book as a "surprisingly frank and objective account. . . Popadiuk provides fascinating details of the Bush administration's internal debate on many of the same health care issues that confound the current administration and Congress."

The correspondent goes on to say, "Since the former president adamantly insists he will not write an autobiography, The Leadership of George Bush will serve as a definitive record of his White House tenure.

In the story, Maer also reflects on a quote from George Washington's Farewell Address, "The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it."

Read the story in its entirety here.

Welcome Back, Dat Nguyen!

2010-02-19T14:01:00.000-06:00

COURTESY: 12th Man Magazine

Texas A&M University Press is home to some of Dat Nguyen's most die-hard fans! We would like to congratulate Nguyen on his upcoming post, as an assistant linebackers and defensive quality control coach to the Aggies.

Front row: Texas A&M University Press Marketing Manager Gayla Christiansen. Second row (l to r) former Publicity and Advertising Manager Jennifer McDonald, Dat Nguyen, Rusty Burson. Third row: (l) Press Director Charles Backus.

Five years ago Nguyen ─ a leading tackler of A&M's famed Wrecking Crew and the first Vietnamese football player to make the pros, playing as middle linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys ─ graciously signed more than 1,000 copies of his autobiography, Dat: Tackling Life and the NFL (Texas A&M University Press, 2005) for Bryan High and A&M Consolidated High School students at a Bush Library-hosted event.

His book, which he wrote with Rusty Burson, offers an insightful look at his faith, his family, and his career, recounting his father's decision to flee Vietnam, the boat that took his family to freedom, and their eventual settling in Rockport, Texas, where a community of Vietnamese shrimpers established an economic livelihood using skills brought from their homeland.

In addition, Nguyen also examines the personalities and playing (or coaching) styles of many celebrated stars of college football and the NFL.

Find out more about the book and view a Google Preview here.