Bücher veröffentlicht von Texas A&M University Press

"As historian Gunnar Tote Nerheim states in his introduction, "Norway is a foreign country to Texans, and Texas is a foreign country to Norwegians. Neither in Norway nor Texas has there been any awareness that so many Norwegians settled in antebellum Texas." Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas brings Norwegian settlement in Texas to light and in doing so offers the first-ever comprehensive history of Norwegians in Texas. Fluent in both English and Norwegian, Nerheim has done what no other historian has done by combining primary and secondary sources from both languages and both countries. A well-established European scholar, Nerheim examines these never-before-referenced sources, telling the story of Norwegian immigration to Texas, explaining the contexts of Norwegians immigration to Texas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and uncovering its significance to the histories of both countries. The larger historical context reveals that immigration to Texas operated as part of dynamic circumstances on both sides of the Atlantic, including slavery and the Civil War. Drawn from the perspectives of both regions, the history of Norwegian settlement in Texas provide new insights into European immigration. Readers interested in Texas, Norwegian, and trans-Atlantic history, as well as nineteenth-century immigration, will find new horizons in "Norsemen Deep in the Heart of Texas.""--

In 1821, although Spain claimed what is now Texas, American Indian groups occupied it. Less than forty years later, they had been largely displaced, and their subsistence economy, supplemented by raiding and trade, had been replaced by an Anglo-Texan agricultural economy linked to a rapidly expanding and industrializing capitalist system. For the Karankawas and the Tonkawas, the period from 1821 to 1859 was particularly devastating. Once thriving communities, the Karankawas survived only as scattered individuals after a small remnant on the banks of the Rio Grande was massacred, and the few remaining Tonkawas had been pushed across the Red River into Indian Territory. Kelly Himmel has written an account of this conquest that gives new understanding of the processes. He explores geopolitical and economic factors, as well as the role of individual and collective human actors and the effects of cultural orientations of the conquered and conquering groups toward each other. Among his findings is the importance of geopolitical location. During the early Spanish period, the coastal Karankawas offered a buffer against French, English, and Anglo-American intrusion into Texas. Later, during the early days of Anglo-American settlement, the Tonkawas provided a barrier against the Wichitas and Comanches. For both groups, when the threat to their European-origin allies ended, so did the alliances. In considering the social construction of the "other," he describes how early trade patterns predisposed Anglo-Texans to characterize Karankawas as cannibals, while viewing the Tonkawas, for whom much stronger evidence of cannibalism exists, as harmless beggars and petty thieves. Through the detailed analysis of factors such as these, Himmel not only portrays a period in the history of these two peoples that has been largely unstudied, but also offers lucid explanations of the framework of Anglo-Texan conquest. Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists will find new insight and information in this valuable addition to the literature on Texas Indians and Texas history.

Mountains rise like islands from deserts and grasslands along the US-Mexican border. The stunningly varied borderlands offer a laboratory for studying historical trends and ecological cycles. This work describes the stability and changes in the Borderlands' climate, landforms, and natural communities and in its distinctive plants and vertebrates.

""Transcendence came with a price," Brian T. Atkinson writes in his introduction to this collection of reflections by and about pioneer psychedelic rocker Roky Erickson (1947-2019). The singer and songwriter who fronted the 13th Floor Elevators burst onto the Texas music scene in 1966 with the release of "You're Gonna Miss Me," the band's only charting single, which featured Erickson's primal vocal stylings. The band attracted considerable regional attention, including interest from a young Janis Joplin, who considered joining the group before opting to go to San Francisco instead. Through his interviews with those who were there and presentation of Erickson's own words, Atkinson chronicles how Erickson was haunted for most of his life by mental illness, likely compounded by his liberal usage of hallucinogenic and other drugs. Despite that, however, his influence on Texas musicians of various genres is vast. As Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top attests in his foreword, "He stands alone to this day and is revered as an artist because he had the gift of a wonderful voice." As with his previous books on Townes Van Zandt, Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Mickey Newbury, Atkinson has recorded hours of interviews with veteran and upcoming musicians who were impacted by Roky Erickson. Along with the insights of long-time music journalists like Joe Nick Patoski and the bittersweet recollections of friends and family members like Mikel Erickson, brother of the singer, this work includes poetry and lyrics written by Erickson during his confinement at Rusk State Hospital in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The picture that emerges is that of a brilliant, troubled mind and an artist whose influence extended far beyond the period of his greatest notoriety, continuing even beyond his death"--