Bücher veröffentlicht von Texas A & M University Press

Texas has a whole remuda of writers, some native-born and Texas-raised and some immigrants to the state. They range from poets and playwrights to newspapermen and novelists. Pat Bennett has rounded up twelve of the most respected of them to discuss their work and their opinions about Texas writing and literature in general. A. C. Greene is fascinated by characters who have a flaw they just can't overcome. Though Elmer Kelton reads widely when he can, he concentrates on specific research when working on a project. Frances Mossiker says that she struggles hard to give each person in her books a distinct voice. Leon Hale claims he doesn't mind being criticized occasionally, Just so long as they don't get too close to the truth. These are just a few of the insights into the minds of Texas writers that these conversations provide. Others who contribute their views are Larry McMurtry, John Graves, Max Apple, Shelby Hearon, Preston Jones, Tom Lea, William Goyen, and Larry King, but since they all talk about the work of many colleagues, the scope of the book is not limited to this particular dozen. Readers of Texas writing as well as anyone interested in literature will value the light these interviews shed on the work of those authors they have read and will be stimulated to sample the works of those authors they have not.

The full cost of the failing energy policies of the United States can be measured by out vulnerability to the dictates of foreign oil-producing countries. U.S. government policy has traditionally been aligned in support of independent oil refiners against the dominance of refining by the major oil companies, with the intent of ensuring competition. At the same time, petroleum policies of the last quarter-century have been justified on grounds of the need for national energy security. Those combined national security and antimonopoly policies have resulted in unacceptably high costs and have only undermined the government's attempts to achieve any kind of long-term energy goals. Beginning with a thorough economic history and analysis of the refining industry's growth and structure, E. Anthony Copp shows how government import and domestic pricing policy has tended to subsidize the less economic sizes of independent refiners while reinforcing the market power of major refiners, thus failing to provide adequate additions to domestic petroleum proved reserves or to encourage more efficiency in refining capacity. The weakness of natural gas policies (which government has consistently failed to coordinate with national petroleum policy) and state prorationing and other policies since 1948 has also contributed to the current energy crisis. A major theme of this book is that with energy resource allocation now heavily weighted by government planning, the independents may not gain at the expense of the major oil companies, but more likely both groups will yield actual or potential market power to governments, both foreign and domestic. How well government and industry learn to alter this pattern will have great bearing on the success of this nation in filling its energy needs and in preventing or allaying a more severe energy crisis in the 1980's. Examining recent and current administration efforts at regulation, and the impact of OPEC's rise to world economic power on those policy efforts, the author presents ideas that should be considered in the development of a new national energy policy.

Here, for the first time, what is known of the tribe Gossypieae (the cotton tribe) is brought together in a single study that examines, on a global basis, the systematics and evolution of the eight genera (about one hundred species) in the tribe and presents a unified interpretation of these diverse plants, including a consideration of their phytogeography, ecology, karyology, and reproductive biology. The tribe Gossypieae is an especially valuable subject for such a study because it comprises an entire gamut of plants ranging from those that are exceedingly rare (on the verge of extinction) to those that have been eminently successful in adaptational terms. The tribe includes the cultivated cottons, which have had a long history of domestication and can shed light on patterns of crop evolution and, to some extent, human prehistory. It also includes plants that are less intensively used by man (often for their fibers or as ornamentals) and still others that are not used at all or whose uses have not yet been discovered. Thus we find, in this single group of plants, the complete range of possible interaction of plants with man. This book examines the place and value of broad natural history studies as a means of gaining a deeper knowledge of the biological world and man's place therein.

Lawrence Kilham was a Fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union, professor of microbiology emeritus of Dartmouth Medical School, and a distinguished virologist. He passed away in 2000. "This definitive study is a gem for both American birders and serious ornithologists." --The Indianapolis News " . . . remarkable behaviors are reviewed and discussed with a rich assortment of anecdotes from the author's 8,000 hours of field observations. . . . This book explains especially the social systems of these birds, from cooperative breeding to predator mobbing. Difficult topics such as 'play' and 'thinking' in crows are interestingly and critically presented. . . . an appealing volume." --Choice " . . . his book is one of the best, most informative and engaging ones yet written about how some of these birds live, think, and feel. Kilham on crows compares favorably with Tinbergen on gulls, Goodall on chimpanzees, and Lorenz on dogs and jackdaws." --Smithsonian "The book has style and is outstanding in many ways. . . . His method is remarkable: He refuses to intervene and does not even mark individual birds. His intensive observation of birds used to the observer, however, allow him to follow the behavior and fate of particular individuals carefully. --Journal für Ornithologie "His interpretations and descriptions are also remarkable. --Journal für Ornithologie . . . Study of the text promises to be profitable because the author is well-read and displays an outstanding style. Enjoyment of his book is enhanced by its makeup with generous layout and black-and-white pictures. . . . The book could be an incentive for European scientists to re-examine the social systems of crows and other corvids, keeping in mind different conditions of habitat and interpreting results in the light of evolutionary-biological hypotheses. Kilham himself takes an initial step in this regard in a special summarizing chapter." --Journal für Ornithologie "Kilham's independent and somewhat unorthodox approach to research has particular value to amateur birders . . . The many citations in the text and an extensive list of references suggest Kilham has much confidence in his opinions and the 'chance observation' facts he reports. Readers will be motivated to rethink some conventional wisdom on how best to pursue studies of animal behavior. His research activities should inspire other retirees." --Jack DeForest "Kilham's work is a testament to the importance of amateurs to ornithology. . . . Amateurs will certainly enjoy his stories of interesting behaviors and exploits with pet corvids. The illustrations are wonderful and Kilham's insights into crow and raven sociality are important." --Auk "If you are interested in bird behaviour, you will enjoy reading this book. Joan Waltermire's sketches nicely complement the text." --C. Stuart Houston "This is a well-written, thoughtful, beautifully illustrated book that was a joy to read. . . . Kilham is to be congratulated for providing us with a greater level of insight into crows and ravens (particularly the former) than we previously had." --Quarterly Review of Biology " . . . simple, clear descriptive prose, a pleasure to read and fullof fascinating details of American crow and raven life. . . . This should be a prime book for collectors . . . beautifully illustrated in dramatic pen-and-ink drawings that even convey the glossiness of crows' and ravens' plumage." --Books about Birds " . . . an unusually detailed and sometimes inspiring account of the lives of the American Crow Corvus brachhrhrnchos and the Raven C. corax." --British B

Aggies by the Sea tells the story of Texas A&M University at Galveston, an unusual educational institution that began operation in 1962 as a maritime academy with only twenty-three students and now enrolls more than 1,600 undergraduates studying the sciences, technology, business, and cultural aspects of the sea. The first class of students (all men, as Texas A&M required at the time) had no dormitories when class started in Galveston, so the students were bunked in the nurses' dorms at the University of Texas Medical Branch. They borrowed their beds from the University of Texas and their training ship from the New York Maritime Academy. By 1969, though, the school had opened a full campus on Pelican Island. By then, some 150 students were studying in the program and it had its own home ship, the Texas Clipper. In 1973, the campus admitted its first female student-believed to be the first woman maritime cadet in the country-and added maritime science to its degree programs. Nearly one hundred photographs portray the growth of the Galveston school from its humble beginnings to what it is today; a full university, nationally prominent for its focus on the world's oceans. Filled with lively anecdotes, reminiscences, and biographical sidebars, this lavishly illustrated book presents history with a bounce. ". . . provides an interesting window into Galveston's past, considering how many issues-from the political to the meteorological-have brushed and shaped the campus and the island city." -The Galveston County Daily News "Institutional histories generally make dull reading, but Aggies by the Sea: Texas A&M University at Galveston is a pleasant exception." -Journal of Southern History

Shows how Latin American cultures radically transformed, displaced, and subverted Spanish and later European and US cultural impositions. The author theorizes transculturation as the complex process of adjustment and re-creation that allows for fresh configurations to emerge from the clash of cultures and colonial and neocolonial appropriations.

Drawing on historical and sociological data as well as interviews, the author presents a picture of rural life in one- and two-room schools in Texas at a time when school came second to family duties, but still served as the focus of community life.

Almost five hundred years ago an obscure Spanish sailor aboard the Pinta spotted the outlines of an unknown land rising above the western horizon. From that moment Spain embarked upon an age of discovery, exploration, and conquest of the New World virtually unchallenged until the coming of the French in 1685. Not until sixteen years after the discovery of the fringe islands of North America did an explorer find the crucial passage into the Gulf of Mexico, or Spanish Sea, which then served as a vital conduit to the discovery of North America and was the theater for the earliest and most determined efforts to conquer the natives and explore and settle the continent's interior. Despite this dramatic role, the Gulf has been grossly neglected--and misunderstood--by historians. In Spanish Sea Robert S. Weddle challenges long-standing assumptions based on generalities or misinterpretation of medieval maps and navigational data. He disputes, for example, the claim that Alvarez de Pineda sailed up either the Rio Grande or the Mississippi River, and he denies the identification of the Rio Grande with the Rio de las Palmas of colonial times. He offers new conclusions on the Florida Landing places of Juan Ponce de Leon and Hernando de Soto and on the transcontinental route of Cabeza de Vaca. He suggests new motivations for some of the early explorers, such as Francisco de Garay, who may have been driven by debts to the venal Genoese merchant-bankers in Spain. Weddle further offers new perspectives on the contest between Cortes and his rivals; Tristan de Luna's attempt to raise a Florida colony from the ashes of Soto's; the continuing effort by virtually all of the explorers to link Florida with Mexico; and the multinational pirate host of the late seventeenth century. Weddle's findings, interpretations, and insights into the interrelatedness of events grow out of three years' research, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in major archives of the Gulf states and in six major archives of Spain. The highly readable result is the first comprehensive treatment of discovery and exploration around the Gulf and an invitation to a more focused, less episodic approach to the study of North American discovery

These thirtyone essays form the foundation of 1986 Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan's work on the constitutional economics paradigm he founded. Following the earlier collection, Economics: Between Predictive Science and Moral Philosophy, these essays include many that appeared in journals not easily accessible as well as some which have not previously been published. The volume is organized in two parts: theoretical foundations and applications. The latter part includes papers on aspects of voting, monetary and fiscal constitutions, public goods supply, taxation and public debt, and property rights and externalities. This edition provides easier access and gives a wider exposure to a set of arguments and ideas that mark important steps in Buchanan's building of the Constitutional Economics Paradigm. The vision of a new political economy developed and applied in the contributions of this volume will be of interest to scholars and students of economics as well as other disciplines from political science to philosophy, providing a valuable perspective and orientation to anyone who is concerned with the practical issues of policy making.

As the twentieth century draws to an end, the changing role of women appears as one of the dominant features of the era. In Now Hiring, historian Julia Blackwelder traces the century-long evolution of the American occupational structure and the ensuing rise in demand for female workers through the closing episodes of the Industrial Revolution and the advent of postindustrialism. Decade by decade, she adroitly traces the main lines of the development of the female work force and its interactions with education, family life, and social convention while developing a nuanced analysis of the differential patterns for various ethnic, racial, age, and socioeconomic groups. Through vignettes of individual women, given context by statistical data that place them within larger patterns of work and family life, Blackwelder presents her arguments "with flesh on them." She offers a pioneering consideration of non-paid employment as part of the picture of women and work and incorporates an intriguing case study of the evolution of the Girl Scout organization. Her consideration of the interaction of race, class, gender, and economic forces in the evolving roles of working women--particularly since she weaves these issues into every discussion, rather than isolating them as afterthoughts--also makes an intellectual contribution to the field of women's studies. In her conclusion, Blackwelder summarizes the effects of a century of change in women's employment and delineates the social and economic challenges that will confront women and families of the twenty-first century. Blackwelder portrays the larger economy as the premier driving force for patterns of female work. She demonstrates that the reconfiguration of the women's labor market followed the shift of the leading sector, from agriculture in the nineteenth century to manufacturing and eventually to service industries. In addition, she shows how changes in the labor market redirected female education and transformed family structures in the United States and how these changes in turn contributed to the further restructuring of job opportunities and salary structures. Blackwelder analyzes how gender conventions have affected the employment of women: what industries would hire them, what positions they were considered for, what pay was considered appropriate. Considering how the shift in the national economy and the growing female permeation of the labor force changed the dynamics and economics of family life, she shows that although wage-earning wives gained more authority within marriage, they also assumed heavier responsibilities for the financial support of their families. As rising rates of separation and divorce further burdened mothers (who generally had child custody), women's economic advances paradoxically worsened their overall financial well-being. This survey of U.S. women and work introduces students and general readers alike to these important topics, and the distinctiveness of Blackwelder's approach, blending quantitative data and oral history materials, as well as the cogency of her underlying arguments, give the book importance to scholars of labor and economic history and women's studies.

A guide to one of the great surviving battleships of World War II, visited by thousands of tourists each year at its berth near Houston. Filled with contemporary photographs of the ship from stem to stem, as well as historical shots, this work is for anyone interested in naval history and in one of Texas' best-loved state park attractions.

Time and increasing popularity have eroded the Big Bend that Kenneth Ragsdale first visited in 1928. In this nostalgic farewell to a unique corner of North America, he tells the stories of those who lived the legends of blood feuds, mining, and ranching and who gently brought healing and learning to the region before its splendid isolation and a national park attracted tourists and developers.

During World War I, nearly half a million immigrant draftees from 46 nations served in the US Army. This work explores how the US War Department integrated this diverse group into a united fighting force, and illuminates what it meant for the military to re-examine early-20th-century nativism.

Examines the challenges of winning the White House and becoming president in the twenty-first century. Beginning with the resources candidates must secure to gain their party's nomination, continuing through the general election campaign, and concluding with the challenges that the victor will face upon taking office, it presents a cogent analysis of the path from campaign to governance.

Although no woman has yet served as president of the United States, women have played important roles within the executive branch and have found many ways to exert pressure on the president. This book offers an understanding of the nation's largest interest group.

Tom Slick was a legend among the ""independents"" - those who hunted for oil the way mountain men hunted for furs. Ray Miles traces the growth of Slick's career and the modern petroleum industry.

First published in 1969, this book was originally designed to serve as a guide and source of information for undergraduate courses in agrostology. Experience has shown, however, that its documentation of facts, theories, and hypotheses and its literature citations also make it eminently suitable for graduate studies and systematic grass research. Principal emphasis has been placed on the structure and growth of the grass plant and on the characteristics of the grass genera of the United States. Discussion of tribes and subfamilies relates particularly to grasses of subtropical and temperate North America, but reference is also made to worldwide representatives of these groups. The listings of genera and higher taxa are in phylogenetic sequence, and the key to U.S. genera is based on the most readily observable characters of the inflorescence. Information has been brought up to date in this edition, and studies in biochemical development of grasses, C3 and C4 relationships, and taxonomy have been included to reflect changes in agrostology since the original edition was written.

Interests readers concerned with Mexican economic development and its prospects for the future. The authors center their study of the Mexican oil and gas industry. They cogently assess Mexico's goals of sustainability and the major policy changes that will be required to achieve them.

Traces the experiences of Mexican workers on the American home front during World War II as they moved from rural to urban areas and sought better-paying jobs in industries. This title investigates the intervention by Mexico in the treatment of workers and Texas' emergence as a key site for negotiating the application of the Good Neighbor Policy.

Who, exactly, are these close air support (CAS) experts and what is the function of the TACPs (Tactical Air Control Parties) in which they operate? Drawing on first-hand accounts of their battlefield experiences, this work allows the TACPs to speak for themselves. It also includes an analysis of the development of CAS strategy.

In the US, two-thirds of lands are private, and 85 percent of all wildlife is found on these private lands. Who is responsible for wildlife found on private? The authors examine ways that public and private sectors can work together using recreation, tax advantages, and cost shares as incentives.

Focusing on Texas between 1821 and 1836, this book provides background facts for a better understanding of the exchange of land, power, culture, and social institutions that took place between the Anglo-American frontier and the Hispanic frontier during those critical years. This work is a foundation for the study of the early Mexican-American culture in Texas.

K E Tsiolkovskii was a science popularizer, novelist, technical inventor, and visionary, whose science fiction writings included futuristic drawings of space stations long before they appeared on any engineer's drawing board. This title shows that Tsiolkovskii was more than either a rocket inventor or a propaganda tool.

Camp Hearne, located on the outskirts of rural Hearne, Texas, was one of the first and largest German prisoner-of-war camps in the United States. This work tells the story of the five thousand German soldiers held there during World War II. It reveals the shadow world of Nazism that existed in the camp.

From 1955 to 1958, American and Soviet engineers battled to launch successfully the world's first satellite. Matt Bille and Erika Lishock tell this story from both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Here, the author provides a history of ""musica tejana"", a vibrant form of American music. He relates its ups and downs and its importance to Mexican Texas culture in the context of Anglo-Mexican relations. He also discusses the recently-developed recording industry and the role of women.