Being there . . . . to join true Texians in applauding two University Press topnotch texts about their finest, not only in World War II, but also during the entire recorded history of the territory.
LIKE THE TEXAS RANGERS, THEY FOUGHT PROUDLY FOR THE LONE STAR
“GIVE IT YOUR BEST!
YOU CAN’T AFFORD
TO MISS EITHER!
BUY BONDS EVERY PAYDAY”
. . . a WW II poster worth remembering
Part Ten Of a Ten-Part Series
Celebrating America’s Best WW II Publishers
. . . from the Texas A&M Consortium
800-826-8911
Fax 888-617-2421
bookorders@tamu.edu
John H. Lindsey Building, Lewis St.
College Station, Texas 77843-4354
Two New Consortium Books
Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNevi
“Texas and Texans in World War II,” edited by Christopher B. Bean. Texas A&M University Press: 392 pp, hc; $40.
“A Military History of Texas, 1941-1945”, University of North Texas Press,
www.untpress.unti.edu; 448 pages, hc; $34.95.
In the above, “Texas and Texans in World War II” is a highly instructing compendium of carefully selected essays written by ten proven scholars on topics ranging from both the African American and Tejano lifestyles to each serving the nation in the Second World War. Randolph “Mike” Campbell, in a brilliant, respectful 350-word Foreword points out that editor Christopher B. Bean has filled a long sought, much-needed look back at the transformative effect WW II brought on both on the Lone Star State and America’s in general. He writes, “Texas, on December 7, 1941, entered the war as a largely impoverished, rural, agricultural state and emerged as a productive giant well on the road to urbanization and industrialization. Texas recovered from the Depression, but never looked back to study and educate what war meant to the state.”
One would have believed the intelligentsia would be all over the question. After all, 750,000 Texans, including 12,000 women, served in the armed forces, and 22,022 killed defeating the Axis.
Campbell and all the book’s contributors, including virtually all the primary scholars of Texas today, agree with editor Bean who writes, “The memory of World War II is fading rapidly. The essays in this splendid collection will remind Texans and Americans everywhere that four years of war with such momentous results for the state deserves to be remembered by anyone who wishes to understand what Texans were and are today.”
In the first and only fully documented historical appraisal of the state’s safety and security assets, “A Military History if Texas” brings to buoyancy the early decades of its defenders, the mounted volunteers, the loose-knit militias in the service of the state.
Asks author Loyd Uglow, chairman of the History Department at the Southwestern Assemblies of God University and author of numerous biographies, novels, and early Texas histories, cogent masterpieces such as “Standing in the Gap: Army Outposts”, and others, “Aren’t there enough books around on the military history of Texas? They are abundant, to be sure, but they are almost all monographs or period histories rather than general military histories of broad scope as I endeavored to contribute”.
Thus, “A Military History of Texas” is a general military treatment, comprehensive in score but not in detail. Uglow’s chapters eloquently cover topics-of-warfare in Texas before the Europeans; Spanish military activities; revolutions against Spain then Mexico; ante-and-post-bellum warfare on the Texas frontier; the Civil War in Texas; birth and growth of the Texas Rangers; Texas in WW 1 and WW II, and the modern military.
Loyd Uglow has provided readers with a highly informative, professionally written, solid narrative, an easy index, and unbelievable 23-page selected bibliography. Add forty-nine pages of endnotes and well-planned maps with thoughtfully placed photos, adds to the book’s demand it be placed among the avid reader’s most valuable Texas collectibles.
WATCH THIS SPACE IN COMING WEEKS FOR ADDITIONAL CONSORTIUM TITLES.
