Art
February 10, 2020
What Would a Frontier-Era Explorer Take Home From Modern-Day Texas?
Installation artist Mark Dion displays his findings in a tongue-in-cheek Fort Worth museum exhibition.
Texas History
Latest
151-200 of 666 Articles
Texas History
December 30, 2019
19 Moments That Shaped Texas in 2019
It was a long, eventful year.
Texas History
November 27, 2019
The Lost Texans of the Louisiana Pines
A visit to the Zwolle Tamale Fiesta and Los Adaes, where our state’s Spanish colonial roots live on just across the Sabine River.
By Wes Ferguson![Wes Ferguson's Profile Photo]()
Film & TV
November 25, 2019
The Story Behind the Long Lost Alamo Movie of 1911
’The Immortal Alamo’ says much about the silent film era, and how San Antonio could have been Hollywood.
Texas History
November 22, 2019
JFK’s Assassination Only Grows More Distant at Dallas’s Sixth Floor Museum
Thirty years after opening, the museum approaches its dark history from an increasingly detached remove.
Texas History
November 11, 2019
“We Cannot Forget About Them”: A Southwest Pilot Brings His Father’s Remains Home to Dallas
Roy Knight Jr. was killed in action in Vietnam, and his remains were missing for decades. Now his family has finally found closure.
By Cat Cardenas![Cat Cardenas's Profile Photo]()
Texas History
October 30, 2019
A Final Toast to the Quirkiest Little Dive Bar in the Piney Woods
Ray Gene, proprietor of Longview’s singular It’ll Do Tavern, passed away last weekend.
By Wes Ferguson![Wes Ferguson's Profile Photo]()
Texas History
September 24, 2019
Dallas’s Newly Reopened Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Calls Visitors to Action
The institution has changed its mission to also acknowledge traumas experienced by other groups.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Author Stephen Harrigan Explains Why Davy Crockett Was the Taylor Swift of His Day (Sort Of)
The Austin author on his fascination with H.L. Hunt, his inability to hate Santa Anna, and how he met the challenges of writing a history of Texas for the twenty-first century.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
The New Texas History
Stephen Harrigan’s ’Big Wonderful Thing’ sweeps away decades of mythmaking. Are we ready to remember the Alamo—and the Texas Rangers and the Civil War—differently?
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Excerpt: “Sediciosos”
In the early twentieth century, long-simmering tensions in South Texas erupted into a grim and brutal race war.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Excerpt: “Savage Ware Fare”
After breaking away from Mexico, the combative Republic of Texas took its fight against Native Americans to the heart of Comanchería, led by a group of militiamen who called themselves Rangers.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
‘Big Wonderful Thing’ Excerpt: “Reason Had Left Its Throne”
As the Civil War violently divided the nation, Texan turned against Texan.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
Américo Paredes vs. J. Frank Dobie
For years, the great folklorist convinced many scholars and activists that the vaunted “Texas Man of Letters” was an anti-Mexican racist. Maybe it’s time to reconsider that judgment—as Paredes himself eventually did.
Texas History
September 18, 2019
The Battle to Rewrite Texas History
While a new generation of scholars is rewriting our history, supporters of the traditional narratives are fighting to keep their grip on the public imagination.
Music
August 30, 2019
Remembering The Texas International Pop Festival, The Lone Star State’s Answer to Woodstock
The Lewisville music festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend.
Texas History
August 23, 2019
Why Billy Bob’s, Texas’s Most Famous Honky-Tonk, Isn’t a True Honky-Tonk
A brief history of one of our most beloved (and endangered) cultural institutions.
Music
August 19, 2019
How Explosions in the Sky Became the Sound of Film and Television
Twenty years on, the band is Texas’s most subliminally recognizable export.
Personal Essay
June 28, 2019
Farewell to the “Rambling Boy,” Lonn Taylor
The Fort Davis historian and raconteur knew and loved Texas and its people like no one else.
Texas History
June 25, 2019
The Space Issue
This summer marks the fiftieth anniversary of the trip that changed the world: the Apollo 11 moon landing. Texas Monthly has written about Texas’s role in the space program for decades, and our July collector’s issue combines the best of our archives with new perspectives on the final frontier.
Texas History
June 25, 2019
Was Apollo 11 a Beginning or an End?
Fifty years after man walked on the Moon, mankind is still stranded on Earth. That’s not the way it was supposed to be.
Texas History
June 25, 2019
From the Archives: After the Apollo Program Ended, NASA Settled on a New, Less Glamorous Mission
The shuttle age commences, becomes routine, and draws to a close, while Mars beckons.
Texas History
June 25, 2019
From the Archives: During the Space Race’s Early Days, Americans Dared to Do the Impossible—and Did.
America finds inspiration and salvation on the moon—and then keeps going.
Texas History
June 19, 2019
Why This Mexican Village Celebrates Juneteenth
Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions.
By Wes Ferguson![Wes Ferguson's Profile Photo]()
Texas History
June 18, 2019
It’s Time to Rename Fort Hood for a Truly Texan Hero: Roy Benavidez
We should honor this badass Medal of Honor winner, not an incompetent Confederate general who fought against the United States government in defense of slavery.
Texas History
June 5, 2019
Five Creative Proposals for the Battleship Texas’s Future
What should be done with the historic dreadnought once it’s relocated from its longtime home?
Books
May 14, 2019
Does Tony Horwitz’s New Book Get Texas Right?
In ‘Spying on the South,’ the author of the bestselling ‘Confederates in the Attic’ offers a few pungent opinions about the Lone Star State.
Texas History
April 16, 2019
Is This the Most Houston Historical Marker of All Time?
First of all, it memorializes a parking garage.
Texas History
January 3, 2019
Marfa’s Blackwell School Has a Painful Past. That’s Why the Town Wants to Save It.
A segregated school for Mexican American children until 1965, the building now serves as a community center and celebration of Hispanic life.
Texas History
December 17, 2018
H.W. Brands: “We Appreciate Presidents More After They Leave Office”
The historian and author on how we reassess past presidencies and when he believes we’ll have enough perspective to begin judging Trump's.
Politics & Policy
December 10, 2018
George H.W. Bush and the Texas Media
The 41st president was described as his own best press secretary—especially with the Texas media.
Texas History
December 6, 2018
The Economy and ‘Read My Lips,’ Not Ross Perot, Cost President Bush His 1992 Reelection
Dallas billionaire Ross Perot often is miscast as a spoiler in the election that saw Bill Clinton replace George H.W Bush in the White House.
Texas History
December 5, 2018
Notes from President George H.W. Bush’s Funeral
It was a funeral marked far more often by humor than by maudlin sentiment.
Texas History
December 1, 2018
Reactions to the Death of George H. W. Bush
The 41st president was the oldest living former president in the history of the United States
Texas History
November 30, 2018
President George H. W. Bush Dies at 94
The 41st president's death comes less than eight months after that of his wife, Barbara.
Texas History
November 28, 2018
Barack Obama and James Baker Show Houston Crowd the Art of a Bipartisan Discussion
The former president held a conversation with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, with whom he found much common ground.
Texas History
November 10, 2018
One Texan’s POW Memories On Veterans Day
Plano Representative Sam Johnson kept two artifacts from those dark days that now belong to the Smithsonian.
Texas History
October 30, 2018
Sugar Land May Relocate Skeletal Remains of African American Inmates Against Advice of Task Force
After discovering the convict cemetery in March, the city appointed a panel of stakeholders. Now it’s ignoring their recommendation.
Texas History
October 5, 2018
Vintage Postcards of Texas: Music Hall at Fair Park, Home of the State Fair
With the state fair in full swing and the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners teeing it up in the Cotton Bowl, we start our series in Dallas.
Texas History
September 6, 2018
Should Texas Schoolchildren Be Taught That Alamo Defenders Were ‘Heroic’?
A committee is recommending that the State Board of Education cut the word from the school curriculum standards because it is ’value-charged.’
Texas History
August 1, 2018
As First Anniversary of Harvey Approaches, Online Museum and Archive Set to Debut
In a city notorious for neglecting its history, two new initiatives aim to preserve memories of the storm.
Texas History
July 20, 2018
For Local Activist, Discovery of Sugar Land Cemetery for Convict Laborers Was No Surprise
The Richmond resident warned Fort Bend ISD of the presence of graves, but no one listened—until they started finding human remains.
Feature
June 22, 2018
The Jackie Robinson of Rodeo
Five decades ago, Myrtis Dightman broke the color barrier in professional rodeo and became one of the best bull riders who ever lived. But his imprint on the sport was only just beginning.
Texas History
April 17, 2018
A Nation Reacts to the Death of Barbara Bush
Presidents past and present, as well as leaders from across the political spectrum, mourn the death of the former first lady.
Texas History
April 17, 2018
Former First Lady Barbara Bush Dies
She was only the second woman in U.S. history to have been married to one president and the mother of a second president.
Texas History
April 17, 2018
Barbara Bush Had a Good Life But a Hard One
As I have aged and faced my own challenges as a female on this planet, I have come to a different understanding of Barbara Bush.
By Mimi Swartz![Mimi Swartz's Profile Photo]()
Texas History
April 15, 2018
Barbara Bush, in Failing Health, Forgoes Medical Treatment, Family Says
In an announcement, the former first lady has decided against any further medical treatment and will focus on comfort care.
Texas History
April 13, 2018
Newly Discovered Cemetery Vindicates Sugar Land Activist
Over 30 bodies have been discovered on a former prison farm in Fort Bend County.
Texas History
April 13, 2018
The Remarkable Rise of One of Texas’s Most Accomplished Families
How an African-American family managed to rise to prominence during the height of Jim Crow-era segregation.
Texas History
April 13, 2018
San Antonio Is the Mother of Texas
The city that gave birth to the republic continues to nourish the traits that distinguish the state’s character.