Just in time for Texas History Month is a new book on the state that doesn't begin with the Texas Revolution.
Twentieth-Century Texas: A Social and Cultural History (University of North Texas Press, $18.95 trade paper, $39.95 hardcover) covers the enormous changes between 1900 and 2000.
Edited by Lamar University history professors John W. Storey and Mary L. Kelley, the 480-page volume includes 15 historical essays written by Texas writers who cover many topics rarely dwelled on in Texas history books.
I immediately turned to the chapter on "The Games Texans Play" by East Texas historian Bill O'Neal to read his 22-page history of sports in Texas, most of which I already knew. But I enjoyed the way O'Neal pulled it together in a coherent essay.
Don Graham looks at "Lone Star Cinema: A Century of Texas in the Movies" and music historian Gary Hartman writes about "From Yellow Roses to Dixie Chicks: Women and Gender in Texas Music History."
In "Over Here: Texans on the Home Front," Ralph A. Wooster considers the effects that war had on Texas social and cultural history during the 1900s.
In "Pagodas amid the Steeples: The Changing Religious Landscape," Storey points out that by the end of the 20th century, Catholics had overtaken Baptists as the largest religious group. He also points out that church steeples came to share "the urban skyline with pagodas, mosques, mandirs, gurdwaras, and synagogues."
The volume opens with four essays covering the changes affecting American Indians, Mexican-Americans, African-Americans and women in Texas.
Other chapters look at literature, art, philanthropy, public schools, the environment, and science and technology.
At the conclusion of each essay are endnotes and suggestions for further reading.
Unlike some anthologies, this one includes a helpful index of 30 pages or so.
Twentieth-Century Texas: A Social and Cultural History is an important addition to the literature about the history of Texas.
Austin writer Mary Black and Rockdale photographer Bruce F. Jordan have teamed for another historical volume, the handsome coffee table book Early Texas Schools: A Photographic History (University of Texas Press, $39.95 hardcover).
The text and black-and-white photos focus on what the authors call "the first chapter" of the history of education in Texas, from about 1830 to the 1930s.
Many buildings shown in the book are still used as schools and colleges, although some have been abandoned or converted to other uses.
The photographic collection is divided into regions covering East Texas, Central Texas, South Texas and far West Texas.
• Glenn Dromgoole writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
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