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
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?
In the early twentieth century, long-simmering tensions in South Texas erupted into a grim and brutal race war.
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.
As the Civil War violently divided the nation, Texan turned against Texan.
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.
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.
Dream of building your own medieval fortress? You aren’t alone.
A keepsake taken from a fallen warrior’s body 135 years ago hasn’t lost its power.
It’s the nation’s biggest spread within the confines of a single fence—more than eight hundred square miles extending across six counties. So it’s fitting that the family feud over its future is big too. And mythic.
