The Long, Lonesome Road
Fred Thomas was young, poor, and black. Not only was he afflicted with the terror of schizophrenia, he was also faced with the chaos of the Texas mental health system.
Articles by Joseph Nocera
“It’s Time To Make a Deal”
The inside story of Boone Pickens' adventures in the Wall Street merger game, featuring action, suspense, drama, a few laughs, and a special guest appearance by President Ronald Reagan.
On Assignment: Prime Pickens
Up close and extremely personal with Boone Pickens, the takeover titan who changed Texas business.
Silber Lining
Former UT dean John Silber's tough talk is about to make him the next governor of Massachusetts.
Texas Monthly Reporter
The Harris Count Administration Building isn’t big enough for both Jon Lindsay and Mike Driscoll; Ray Perryman, a reporter’s best friend; a lucky accident brought Ethiopians—and Ethiopian restaurants—to Dallas.
Texas Monthly Reporter
Will Shelby Coffey lead the Dallas Times-Herald to victory? Will Muse aficionados ever find happiness aloft again? Will Tommy Pierce keep real-estating and a-rocking?
Texas Primer: The Petroleum Club
People who have watched a certain prime-time soap opera think they know what goes on at the Petroleum Club. They don’t.
Why Boone Can’t Lose
An old hand at Pickens-watching reveals the key to the Amarillo oilman’s corporate-takeover antics.
Texas Primer: The Oil Depletion Allowance
Assailed by presidents, skewered by senators, decried by the New York Times, the oil depletion allowance has survived it all. It helps to have friends in high places.
The Eccentric Genius of Trammel Crow
He changed the face of Texas by building warehouses that looked like office buildings. Then he built office buildings that looked like warehouses.
Why I Hate Lamaze
New parents, beware! The only think I got out of my six Lamaze classes was permission to enter the delivery room with my wife.
Texas Monthly Reporter
A heated race for the Senate; a leisurely trip to Astrotown; a cool master of Dallas protocol; a steel-industry success story in Seguin.
Death of a Computer
Four critical mistakes forced Texas Instruments to pull the plug on the home computer that it had once expected would dominate the market.
Big Oil Paranoia
Robert Sherrill’s Oil Follies of 1979-1980 leaves no detail unremarked in its effort to pin the blame on Big Oil; in Ronnie Dugger’s On Reagan the author is as unbending an ideologue as his subject is.
Fantasy Island
It’s a high-rise developer’s dream. Houston’s old guard wants to turn 34 acres of downtown warehouses into an island of classy shops and pricey condos. They thought they had it wired, until Kathy Whitmire was elected mayor.
In the Boredom of the Storm
Hurricane Alicia roared through Houston, but somehow it seemed much more real on TV than it did outside my hotel room window.
And Yet the Dream Endures
Don’t give up! There’s still money to be made finding oil. Up in Graham the Creswells are striking it rich with the help of Jesus and, er, creekology.
The Gambler
Jack Young was the eighties’ oil boom in the flesh. Unfortunately, he also personifies the aftermath of the bust.
Oil Rigged
The Great Energy Scam purports to uncover the collusion of the feds and the oil companies, but the real scandal is what the author overlooks. Yet another book on killer Ted Bundy sheds no light on his crimes. Roughneck is a rousing look at America’s most radical labor union.
The Four R’s
In Corpus Christi’s schools, testing kids is as important as teaching them—which has greatly improved test scores but not the quality of public education.
The Bishop Drops A Bomb
When an Amarillo bishop decried the nearby H-bomb plant, he wooed the press, alienated the city, and picked on his parishioners.