Bøger udgivet af Texas A&M University Press

"In fall 2016, lifelong birdwatcher, naturalist, and esteemed Texas artist Margie Crisp decided to take up a shotgun and start hunting ducks. Few nature enthusiasts understand the role that the hunting industry plays in the conservation of wildlands and wildlife-protecting far more critical habitat than birdwatchers. With many bird species in a precipitous decline, duck and geese populations continue to rise steadily year after year. Why? Because of the money waterfowl hunters spend on licenses, firearms, and ammunition, or donate to nonprofit conservation organizations. Here, Crisp goes beyond birdwatching to challenge her notions about hunting. Could duck hunters be considered conservationists? Could she overcome a life-long aversion to guns and learn to shoot birds? And could doing so help conservation of habitats for ducks and other migratory bird species? In writing her experiences, Crisp explores these questions and illustrates to both communities -- hunters and naturalists --that one woman can be a birdwatcher, a bird hunter, and above all, a conservationist devoted to preserving habitat for birds and other wildlife. Readers journey with the author as she learns to hunt -- to experience the emotional impacts of killing, cleaning, cooking and eating birds. First-hand accounts are seamlessly integrated with information about conservation history as well as interviews with hunters, biologists, and birdwatchers. Along the Central Flyway from the Texas coast to Canada, this revealing personal narrative traces hunting and birdwatching trips, and even a solo road trip following the birds' migration, all through the eye of an artist whose words and drawings bring her journey to life"--

"After his release from the Green Bay Packers, realizing that his football career was abruptly over, Delvin Williams asked himself some hard questions: What happened to the game he fell in love with as a kid? What is a retired football player supposed to do? Where did he fit in? Nothing had prepared him for life after football. From his childhood in inner-city Houston and school days at all-Black Kashmere High School, Williams tells the story of a young boy who realized that football filled some of the empty places in his spirit left by an absent father, a poverty-stricken childhood, and the ongoing sting of racism. His determination carried him through a four-year degree at the University of Kansas and, ultimately, an All-Pro career with the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins. Football afforded him an education and a good living. But it also had an impact on his body and soul beyond anything he could have imagined ... Delvin Williams brings readers on the long journey from Houston's Fifth Ward to the packed stadiums of the NFL, continuing with his decades-long fight for the compensation due an athlete who sustained injuries on the job. Here, Williams recounts the circumstances that motivated him to meet challenges at every level, exceeding his own expectations, telling the story of a career that produced a head-on collision between a starry-eyed kid from the tough streets of Houston and the industry of football"--

"In 2023, the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife marks the 100th anniversary of the state park system. From its inception in 1923, the Texas park system has grown to 95 sites, covering more than 627,000 acres and comprising 74 state parks, 13 historic sites, and 8 natural areas. This vast collection of natural lands and public places now accommodates almost 9 million visitors each year. "The Art of Texas State Parks" celebrates this rich tradition, offering an engaging visual arts survey of Texas state parks as seen through the eyes of leading artists from across the state. Editors Andrew Sansom and Linda J. Reaves have collected original works from thirty of the state's most influential artists. These stunning visual works are accompanied by a thoughtful essay by William E. Reaves on the time-honored legacy of landscape painting in Texas and by Sansom's reflections on the vital place of landscape art in Texas conservation. Rounding out the collection, assistant state park director Kevin Good offers an informative profile of Texas state parks, and the work concludes with profiles of the artists whose pieces appear in this special centennial collection. The centennial of the state parks system offers the perfect occasion to create a lasting visual record of Texas parks in art while memorializing the past and ongoing development of the distinctive collection of Lone Star parks and natural areas. The Art of Texas State Parks offers readers increased awareness of Texas parklands and heightens their popular appeal through the elegant and inspired works of some of Texas' finest contemporary artists"--

"Black Dragon is the unique account of a single Marine Rifle company-2-F-23, or "Fox" Company-and its drive through the central Pacific in World War II. Author Steven D. McCloud, through painstaking research in battlefield reports and extensive interviews with surviving members of Fox Company, has reanimated the grueling, day-by-day slog through the Pacific theater through the eyes of the US Marines who endured it. This is the story of American teenagers who left home, many for the first time, trained together, and formed a team that held strong until, at last, those who survived tried to leave it all behind as they dispersed, returned home, and sought to build their lives. Decades later they reformed through correspondence and reunions. Fox Company also welcomed McCloud into their midst and began telling their stories. McCloud took notes, chased down company reports and other documents to fill in the gaps, and reconstructed their journey. As one member of Fox Company recalled after returning to Iwo Jima half a century later, "I think the pilgrimage to Iwo has helped me conquer my black dragons-those bloody and stinking nightmares that made nightly uninvited visits for fifty-six years. My dreams were in color, predominantly bloody red. Those remaining are in black and white and shades of gray, not so violent and stinking. These I can live with.""--

"The 1922 Dixie Classic, a post-season football matchup between the Aggies of the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College and the Praying Colonels of Kentucky's Centre College, was remarkable in several respects. For the Aggie faithful, it is well known as the game where the revered Twelfth Man tradition originated, as E. King Gill was summoned from the stands to don the uniform of an injured team member and to serve as the Aggies' sole substitute player, ensuring that the game could continue. What may be less well remembered, however, is that the game also featured a contest between two championship coaches with strong ties to Texas A&M: D. X. Bible, who mentored the Aggies from 1916 to 1928, and whose 1917 and 1919 teams were not only undefeated but did not surrender a single point to opponents -- a feat unduplicated to this day in college football -- and Centre College's 'Uncle Charlie' Moran, who coached at A&M from 1909 to 1914, compiling a 38-8-4 record. At Centre, Moran had built a team of national reputation, cemented by the Colonels' 6-0 upset of powerhouse Harvard in 1921 en route to the squad's second consecutive undefeated season. Historian John A. Adams Jr. '73 has mined the archives at both Texas A&M and Centre College and has also obtained interviews with key participants, including athletes, coaches, and game promoters. For the first time, he presents enthralling details of the runup to and progress of the historic game: the Texas recruiting connection that enabled Moran to obtain dominant athletes for his Centre College program, the pregame conversation between Bible and E. King Gill that helped place Gill in uniform on the sidelines, the wedding celebration involving the Centre College team at the historic Adolphus Hotel the night before the game, the diagram of the play the Aggies used to score the game-winning touchdown, and so much more. Sports fans and historians, especially those interested in the early days of American football, will savor the rich, previously unknown anecdotes surrounding this storied contest between two iconic coaches and their resolute squads"--

""Transcendence came with a price," Brian T. Atkinson writes in his introduction to this collection of reflections by and about pioneer psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson (1947-2019). The singer and songwriter who fronted the 13th Floor Elevators burst onto the Texas music scene in 1966 with the release of "You're Gonna Miss Me," the band's only charting single, which featured Erickson's primal vocal stylings. The band attracted considerable regional attention, including interest from a young Janis Joplin, who considered joining the group before opting to go to San Francisco instead. Through his interviews with those who were there and presentation of Erickson's own words, Atkinson chronicles how Erickson was haunted for most of his life by mental illness, likely compounded by his liberal usage of hallucinogenic and other drugs. Despite that, however, his influence on Texas musicians of various genres is vast. As Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top attests in his foreword, "He stands alone to this day and is revered as an artist because he had the gift of a wonderful voice." As with his previous books on Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Mickey Newbury, Atkinson has recorded hours of interviews with veteran and upcoming musicians who were impacted by Roky Erickson. Along with the insights of long-time music journalists like Joe Nick Patoski and the bittersweet recollections of friends and family members like Mikel Erickson, brother of the singer, this work includes poetry and lyrics written by Erickson during his confinement at Rusk State Hospital in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The picture that emerges is that of a brilliant, troubled mind and an artist whose influence extended far beyond the period of his greatest notoriety, continuing even beyond his death"--

"While sometimes mischaracterized as the last respite of alcoholism, despair, and questionable motives, Texas dive bars are a reminder that life is not limited to the pressures and profits of the 9-to-5 world. A true dive earns its status through age and patron loyalty, so while dives are outposts from much of society, they're typically stable businesses and often active in their neighborhoods. Dives are also gathering places, where the members, lubricated by affordable beer and long pours of whisky, solve the world's problems on a regular basis. In Texas Dives: Enduring Neighborhood Bars of the Lone Star State, veteran writer Anthony Head and internationally recognized photographer Kirk Weddle visit twelve bars in twelve Texas cities. With pithy text and revealing images, they tell the stories of some of these off-the-radar hangouts of Americana, shining light on the bars and their owners, staffs, and regulars. Head and Weddle are quick to point out that this book is not about drinking, per se: it's a book about Texas culture intimately observed, plus just enough participation to claim with confidence that dives also serve as community anchor points, social clubs, and even, on occasion, places where enduring friendships are made. This witty and sympathetic portrayal is sure to become a bucket-list book for general readers, fans of Texana, and almost anyone who has ever ducked around to the corner pub for a quick drink"--

This important new study examines the intricately linked phenomena of interwoven population growth, economic power, quality education, business leadership, and fiscal significance as exemplified in the "Texas Triangle," a network of metropolitan complexes that are reshaping the destiny of Texas and adding a strong pinnacle in the global system of economic mega-centers. The Texas Triangle consists of three metropolitan complexes: Dallas-Fort Worth at the northern tip, Houston-Galveston at the southeastern point, and Austin-San Antonio at the southwestern edge. It consists of four US Census-designated metropolitan statistical areas and includes 35 urban counties that comprise those areas. The Texas Triangle soon will include four of the ten most populous cities in the United States. Together these metro areas represent the fifteenth largest economy in the world. The authors describe the trajectories of each of the Texas Triangle metros in which they live and work and integrate them into a larger dynamic of functioning cohesion and effective collaboration. The Texas Triangle offers community leaders, elected officials, policy makers, and others a more nuanced understanding of an important moment in America's continuing urban development. With broader perspectives for how community-building advances the public interest, this book lays important foundations for matching the path of economic prosperity to an informed sense of what is possible.