University of Texas Press

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Book Giveaway

“Every white person in America should be required to take a Black history class in either high school or college. Period.” — Dr. Leonard Moore, from his forthcoming book TEACHING BLACK HISTORY TO WHITE PEOPLE Dr. Moore has been teaching Black history for twenty-five years, mostly to white people. Drawing on decades of experience in the classroom and on college campuses throughout the South, as well as on his own personal history, Moore illustrates how an understanding of Black history is necessary for everyone. We’re giving away 5 copies of Dr. Leonard N. Moore’s vital book TEACHING BLACK HISTORY TO WHITE PEOPLE. 

Enter to win: https://bit.ly/TeachingBlackHistoryGiveaway

Winners will be drawn on Monday, September 13.

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Researching Tobe Hooper's Archives at the Harry Ransom Center

Watch Kris Woofter and Will Dodson—the editors of AMERICAN TWILIGHT: The Cinema of Tobe Hooper—discuss the time they spent researching Tobe Hooper’s archives at the Harry @ransomcenter in Austin, Texas, the odd items they found, Hooper's rare documentary on the band Peter, Paul, and Mary, and the passion of his fans.

Learn more → https://bit.ly/AmericanTwilight

[ABOUT THE BOOK] Tobe Hooper's productions, which often trespassed upon the safety of the family unit, cast a critical eye toward an America in crisis. Often dismissed by scholars and critics as a one-hit wonder thanks to his 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Hooper nevertheless was instrumental in the development of a robust and deeply political horror genre from the 1960s until his death in 2017. In American Twilight, the authors assert that the director was an auteur whose works featured complex monsters and disrupted America’s sacrosanct perceptions of prosperity and domestic security. 

American Twilight focuses on the skepticism toward American institutions and media and the articulation of uncanny spaces so integral to Hooper’s vast array of feature and documentary films, made-for-television movies, television episodes, and music videos. From Egg Shells (1969) to Poltergeist (1982), Djinn (2013), and even Billy Idol’s music video for “Dancing with Myself” (1985), Tobe Hooper provided a singular directorial vision that investigated masculine anxiety and subverted the idea of American exceptionalism.

[ABOUT THE EDITORS] Kristopher Woofter is a faculty member in the English department at Dawson College, Montreal. He is the editor of Shirley Jackson: A Companion and coeditor of Recovering 1940s Horror Cinema: Traces of a Lost Decade. Will Dodson is the Ashby and Strong Residential College Coordinator and an adjunct assistant professor of media studies at UNC Greensboro.

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Kristin Hersh and Black Francis: Seeing Sideways

Musician and author Kristin Hersh is joined by friend and fellow musician Black Francis to discuss her latest book, Seeing Sideways: A Memoir of Music and Motherhood. Recorded for Green Apple Books on May 14, 2021.

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Architecture and the Art of Making: A Conversation with Ted Flato, Juan Miró, and Lawrence Speck

Presented by the Advisory Board of the University of Texas Press.

Join three of the most distinguished architects and thinkers in the profession today for a conversation on the role of inspiration, craft, and beauty in the practice of architecture.

In conversation with Lawrence Speck, Ted Flato and Juan Miró will discuss their new books, Lake|Flato: Nature, Place, Craft & Restraint and Miró Rivera Architects: Building a New Arcadia, which present the philosophical underpinnings of both firms through some of their most striking public and private creations. Both firms and their projects honor the delicate interplay between the natural and built environments, and exemplify the ways in which sustainability, community, and culture come together to create a new, vital architecture.

The University of Texas Press is proud to present this conversation with the support of our Advisory Board and look forward to sparking further discussions on critical issues and the culture of our world.

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Announcing the first dates in Kristin Hersh’s Seeing Sideways Book Tour!

Tuesday, May 4 at 5 PM PT

Powell's Books—Portland

Kristin Hersh in conversation with John Doe of X

Tuesday, May 10 at 7 PM ET

A Capella Books—Atlanta

Kristin Hersh in conversation with Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls

Tuesday, May 11 at 7 PM CT

Seminary Co-op—Chicago

Kristin Hersh in conversation with Jessica Hopper

Tuesday, May 14 at 6 PM PT

Green Apple Books—San Francisco

Kristin Hersh in conversation with Black Francis of The Pixies

@kristinhersh-blog @thekristinhersharchives

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Behind the Scenes at our Warehouse!

Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Phillips officially publishes this week! Our sales manager is ready to fill your order.

Get your copy → https://bit.ly/SolangeMatters

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Deliver Us from Evil: Seamus McGraw on Thoughts and Prayers

In this reading from Seamus McGraw—adapted from his new book From a Taller Tower: The Rise of the American Mass Shooter—a veteran journalist weighs concepts of good and evil, hope and grief in how we think about victims and perpetrators of gun violence.

"That very night, the fathers and brothers are some of the slain, also did the only thing they could possibly do in the face of such a horror. They made a pilgrimage. Not to the schoolhouse, the scene of the massacre, but to the murderer's home. There, they consoled the killer's widow, and themselves. They allowed that 'evil' had been done that day. But, they also told the widow and her father, they were there to offer forgiveness.

In the days immediately after the massacre, those words would give comfort to some people. But they'd also be appropriated by others—weaponized and used as a cudgel to impose and enforce the deep and deafening silence between gunshots. That act of seeming selflessness and grace would become the story. The only story. It would all but drown out entirely any discussion about the malignancy in the psyche of the killer, and it would be wielded to shut down debates about guns or mental health, closing off any examination of the signs and portents that were missed or misread.

What got lost in that rush to stretch Amish forgiveness so thin that it covers us all is the understanding that the concept of forgiveness does not mean to the Amish what it means to the rest of us. In the Anabaptist and Pietist tradition of the Amish and Mennonites, forgiveness is not synonymous with absolution. That can only be granted by God.

And it is not a choice. It is a commandment, an obligation, a willingness to submit—without question—to the judgment of an inscrutable God, even when that God allows a murderer to execute little girls in their classroom. It is an obligation to accept whatever God permits—even if it's 'evil.'

Evil.

That word does mean the same thing to the Amish that it does to the rest of us.

It's a word we've used time and again to describe these atrocities. When a gunman opened fire on congregants at Fort Worth Texas church in 1999, killing seven, then Governor George W. Bush laid the blame on a 'wave of evil' sweeping the nation. When Stephen Willeford, one of the heroes of the Sutherland Springs massacre in 2017, called to the gunman inside the church, it wasn't a man he summoned to face him in the street. It was, he told me, the embodiment of pure evil. It's become so woven into the fabric of our discussions of these atrocities that it's not inconceivable that one of the Columbine killers was mocking us with the concept when he allegedly—and perhaps apocryphally— asked one young girl, 'Do you believe in God?' before shooting her point-blank through a library table.

'Evil' is a convenient word, and it may even give solace, for it holds out the hope that someone's loved one did not die in a random act of cruelty, but as part of an epic struggle between the forces of good and evil—a struggle that will, they believe in perfect faith, conclude with the ultimate victory of good in the End Times.

And the people all say, 'Amen.'

If indeed it is 'evil' that drives these murderers, it follows that 'thoughts and prayers' can exorcise that same evil, even if there must be martyrs along the way.

But there's also great peril in that definition of evil. To the degree that we blame some force beyond human control for the deeds humans do, we grant ourselves absolution; we 'forgive us our sins' of omission and commission.

I console myself sometimes with the thought that maybe there's something between thoughts and prayers, good and evil.

'Stay with her!' he barked.

I still choke up every time I revisit that story, and so does pretty much everyone who hears it. And you know what? I thank God that I still can because it means that despite more than half a century of senseless mass slaughter, we have not yet completely surrendered to this horror.

And in that maybe, just maybe, there's a glimmer of hope."

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Gestures of Language: A Conversation on Art of Translation with Gloria Susana Esquivel & Robin Myers

Today we are joined by Colombian author Gloria Susana Esquivel and Mexico City–based translator and writer Robin Myers in conversation about the art of translation. Our moderator is the International Rights Manager for the University of Texas Press Angelica Lopez-Torres. Our conversation will explore how both the original Spanish and the English translation bring to life Gloria Esquivel's first novel, Animals at the End of the World.

If you'd like to order Animals at the End of the World, you may use discount code AWP21 for 30% off the book and any other book on our website www.utexaspress.com through April 1, 2021.

Animals at the End of the World is a poignant tale of childhood imagination that follows lonely six-year-old Inés as she explores both her fears about the outer world and the even greater mysteries of family life. The book is the fourth in the University of Texas Press's Latin American Literature in Translation series, which publishes translations of contemporary Latin American literary fiction. The series aims to explore the realities of life in North, Central, and South America through novels that reveal the hopes and struggles of the peoples in these countries in recent decades.

More about the book

Animals at the End of the World begins with an explosion, which six-year-old Inés mistakes for the end of the world that she has long feared. In the midst of the chaos, she meets the maid’s granddaughter, Mariá, who becomes her best friend and with whom she navigates the adult world in her grandparents’ confined house. Together, they escape the house and confront the “animals” that populate Bogotá in the 1980s. But Inés soon realizes she cannot count on either María or her preoccupied and conflicted parents. Alone, she must learn to decipher her outer and inner worlds, confronting both armies of beasts and episodes of domestic chaos. In the process, she also learns what it means to test boundaries, break rules, and cope with the consequences.

The first novel by Colombian author Gloria Susana Esquivel, Animals at the End of the World is a poetic and moving coming-of-age story that lingers long after its final page.

About the panelists

Gloria Susana Esquivel (Bogotá, Colombia) teaches in the creative writing master’s program at the Instituto Caro y Cuervo in Bogotá and has one published book of poems, El lado salvaje. Animals at the End of the World is her first novel.

Robin Myers is a Mexico City–based translator, poet, and author of Conflations/Amalgama, among other collections published in Mexico, Argentina, and Spain.

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Book Trailer for Kristin Hersh’s Seeing Sideways

“Beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, and frequently surreal. Hersh is not out of touch with reality, though; she’s just very much in touch with the unconscious. Which is right where a legit bohemian should be. This book is as close to being inside an artist’s head as you’re going to get.”

Black Francis, The Pixies

Seeing Sideways: A Memoir of Music and Motherhood

By Kristin Hersh

Doony, Ryder, Wyatt, Bodhi. The names of Kristin Hersh’s sons are the only ones included in her new memoir, Seeing Sideways. As the book unfolds and her sons’ voices rise from its pages, it becomes clear why: these names tell the story of her life.

This story begins in 1990, when Hersh is the leader of the indie rock group Throwing Muses, touring steadily, and the mother of a young son, Doony. The chapters that follow reveal a woman and mother whose life and career grow and change with each of her sons: the story of a custody battle for Doony is told alongside that of Hersh’s struggles with her record company and the resulting PTSD; the tale of breaking free from her record label stands in counterpoint to her recounting of her pregnancy with Ryder; a period of writer’s block coincides with the development of Wyatt as an artist and the family’s loss of their home; and finally, soon after Bodhi’s arrival, Hersh and her boys face crises from which only strange angels can save them. Punctuated with her own song lyrics, Seeing Sideways is a memoir about a life strange enough to be fiction, but so raw and moving that it can only be real.

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Felipe Hinojosa Tells the Story of Latino Freedom Movements

In the new book Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio, associate professor of history at Texas A&M University Felipe Hinojosa examines case studies from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston to reveal how Latino freedom movements frequently crossed boundaries between faith and politics to protest against urban renewal, poverty, police brutality, and racism.

Learn more → https://bit.ly/ApostlesOfChange

[ABOUT THE BOOK] In the late 1960s, the American city found itself in steep decline. An urban crisis fueled by federal policy wreaked destruction and displacement on poor and working-class families. The urban drama included religious institutions, themselves undergoing fundamental change, that debated whether to stay in the city or move to the suburbs. Against the backdrop of the Black and Brown Power movements, which challenged economic inequality and white supremacy, young Latino radicals began occupying churches and disrupting services to compel church communities to join their protests against urban renewal, poverty, police brutality, and racism.

Apostles of Change tells the story of these occupations and establishes their context within the urban crisis; relates the tensions they created; and articulates the activists' bold, new vision for the church and the world. Through case studies from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Houston, Felipe Hinojosa reveals how Latino freedom movements frequently crossed boundaries between faith and politics and argues that understanding the history of these radical politics is essential to understanding the dynamic changes in Latino religious groups from the late 1960s to the early 1980s.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR] Felipe Hinojosa is an associate professor of history at Texas A&M University and the author of Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture. His work has appeared in Zócalo Public Square, Western Historical Quarterly, American Catholic Studies, and Mennonite Quarterly Review and in edited collections on Latinx studies.

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Why Marianne Faithfull Matters by Tanya Pearson

A remarkable feminist history and biography that features fragments from the five-decade career of an iconic artist, who, despite a private life that overshadowed much of her early work, sculpted her own musical rebirth. Out July 2021 → http://bit.ly/MarianneFaithfullMatters

[ABOUT THE BOOK] First as a doe-eyed ingénue with “As Tears Go By,” then as a gravel-voiced phoenix rising from the ashes of the 1960s with a landmark punk album, Broken English, and finally as a genre-less icon, Marianne Faithfull carved her name into the history of rock ’n’ roll to chart a career spanning five decades and multiple detours. In Why Marianne Faithfull Matters, Tanya Pearson crafts a feminist account that explains the musician’s absence from the male-dominated history of the British Invasion and champions the eclectic late career that confirmed her redemption.

Putting memoir on equal footing with biographical history, Pearson writes about Faithfull as an avid fan, recovered addict, and queer musician at a crossroads. She’s also a professional historian unafraid to break from the expectations of the discipline if a “titty-centered analysis” or astrology can illuminate the work of her subject. Whether exploring Faithfull’s rise to celebrity, her drug addiction and fall from grace as spurned “muse,” or her reinvention as a sober, soulful chanteuse subverting all expectations for an aging woman in music, Pearson affirms the deep connections between listeners and creators and reveals, in her own particular way, why Marianne Faithfull matters.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR] Tanya Pearson is a public historian and director of the Women of Rock Oral History Project, a collection of digital interviews and written transcripts documenting the lives and careers of women-identified rock musicians. Her work has appeared in Bust Magazine, Memoir Mixtapes, and Oral History Journal.

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Why Bushwick Bill Matters by Charles L. Hughes

An astute chronicle of the life and cultural significance of Bushwick Bill, who remixed spectacle as he exposed and exploited ableist and racist assumptions to become a singular voice in rap and the relentless battle over free speech in the United States. Out May 2021 → https://bit.ly/BushwickBillMatters

[ABOUT THE BOOK] In 1989 the Geto Boys released a blistering track, “Size Ain’t Shit,” that paid tribute to the group’s member Bushwick Bill. Born with dwarfism, Bill was one of few visibly disabled musicians to achieve widespread fame and one of even fewer to address disability in a direct, sustained manner. Initially hired as a dancer, Bill became central to the Geto Boys as the Houston crew became one of hip-hop’s most important groups.

Why Bushwick Bill Matters chronicles this crucial artist and explores what he reveals about the relationships among race, sex, and disability in pop music. Charles L. Hughes examines Bill's recordings and videos (both with the Geto Boys and solo), from the horror-comic persona of “Chuckie” to vulnerable verses in songs such as “Mind Playing Tricks On Me,” to discuss his portrayals of dwarfism, addiction, and mental illness. Hughes also explores Bill’s importance to his era and to the longer history of disability in music. A complex figure, Bill exposed the truths of a racist and ableist society even as his violent and provocative lyrics put him in the middle of debates over censorship and misogyny. Confrontational and controversial, Bushwick Bill left a massive legacy as he rhymed and swaggered through an often-inaccessible world.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR] Charles L. Hughes is the director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College. He is the author of Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, which Rolling Stone named one of “Best Music Books of 2015,” as well as numerous articles that have appeared in a variety of publications.

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Why Solange Matters by Stephanie Phillips

A Black feminist punk performer and important new voice recounts the dramatic story of an incandescent musician and artist whose unconventional journey to international success on her own terms was far more important than her family name. Out April 2021 → https://bit.ly/SolangeMatters

[ABOUT THE BOOK] Growing up in the shadow of her superstar sister, Solange Knowles became a pivotal musician in her own right. Defying an industry that attempted to bend her to its rigid image of a Black woman, Solange continually experimented with her sound and embarked on a metamorphosis in her art that continues to this day.

In Why Solange Matters, Stephanie Phillips chronicles the creative journey of an artist who became a beloved voice for the Black Lives Matter generation. A Black feminist punk musician herself, Phillips addresses not only the unpredictable trajectory of Solange’s career but also how she and other Black women see themselves through the musician's repertoire. First, she traces Solange’s progress through an inflexible industry, charting the artist’s development up to 2016, when the release of her third album, A Seat at the Table, redefined her career. Then, with A Seat at the Table and 2019’s When I Get Home, Phillips describes how Solange embraced activism, anger, Black womanhood, and intergenerational trauma to inform her remarkable art. Why Solange Matters not only cements the place of its subject in the pantheon of world-changing twenty-first century musicians; it introduces its writer as an important new voice.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR] Stephanie Phillips is a London-based music journalist and musician who writes for The Quietus, She Shreds, Noisey, Bandcamp, and The Wire. She started the Black feminist punk band Big Joanie and played backup for Bikini Kill and Sleater-Kinney. She is also part of the collective behind Decolonise Fest, a festival celebrating punks of color.

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Our forthcoming books for Spring | Summer 2021!

See our full catalog PDF → https://bit.ly/UTPS21 

Browse on www.utexaspress.com 

Or flip through on ISSUU → https://issuu.com/utexaspress/docs/ss2020 

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From a Taller Tower The Rise of the American Mass Shooter By Seamus McGraw April 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/TallerTower

A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles A History of Politics and Race in Texas By Bill Minutaglio May 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/SingleStarBloodyKnuckles

Seeing Sideways A Memoir of Music and Motherhood By Kristin Hersh May 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/SeeingSideways

A Singing Army Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School By Kim Ruehl March 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/SingingArmy

Far From Respectable Dave Hickey and His Art By Daniel Oppenheimer June 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/FarFromRespectable

Why Solange Matters By Stephanie Phillips April 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/SolangeMatters

Why Bushwick Bill Matters By Charles L. Hughes June 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/BushwickBillMatters

Why Labelle Matters By Adele Bertei March 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/LabelleMatters

Why Marianne Faithfull Matters By Tanya Pearson July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/MarianneFaithfullMatters

Razabilly Transforming Sights, Sounds, and History in the Los Angeles Latina/o Rockabilly Scene By Nicholas F. Centino July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/RazabillyBook

The Politics of Patronage Lawyers, Philanthropy, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund By Benjamin Márquez July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/PolitcsOfPatronage

Reverberations of Racial Violence Critical Reflections on the History of the Border By Sonia Hernández and John Morán González June 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/ReverberationsRacialVi...

Grandmothers on Guard Gender, Aging, and the Minutemen at the U.S.-Mexico Border By Jennifer L. Johnson May 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/GrandmothersOnGuard

Violence in the Hill Country The Texas Frontier in the Civil War Era By Nicholas Keefauver Roland February 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/ViolenceInTheHillCountry

Lone Star Vistas Travel Writing on Texas, 1821-1861 By Astrid Haas March 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/LoneStarVistas

The Myth of the Amateur A History of College Athletic Scholarships By Ronald A. Smith May 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/MythOfTheAmateur

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban By Patrick Keating May 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/AzkabanBook

Tragedy Plus Time National Trauma and Television Comedy By Philip Scepanski April 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/TragedyPlusTime

American Twilight The Cinema of Tobe Hooper By Kristopher Woofter and Will Dodson June 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/AmericanTwilight

Below the Stars How the Labor of Working Actors and Extras Shapes Media Production | By Kate Fortmueller July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/BelowTheStars

Building Antebellum New Orleans Free People of Color and Their Influence By Tara A. Dudley August 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/AntebellumNO

Monsters and Monarchs Serial Killers in Classical Myth and History By Debbie Felton July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/MonstersAndMonarchs

Arrian the Historian Writing the Greek Past in the Roman Empire By Daniel W. Leon April 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/ArrianTheHistorian

Poggio Civitate (Murlo) By Anthony Tuck June 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/PoggioCivitate

The Ancient Greek Roots of Human Rights By Rachel Hall Sternberg July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/AncientHumanRights

Playing with Things Engaging the Moche Sex Pots By Mary Weismantel August 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/SexPots

Surviving Mexico Resistance and Resilience among Journalists in the Twenty-first Century By González de Bustamante Celeste and Jeannine E. Relly July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/SurvivingMexico

Electrifying Mexico Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City By Diana Montaño August 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/ElectrifyingMexico

Roots of Resistance A Story of Gender, Race, and Labor on the North Coast of Honduras By Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda March 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/RootsResistance

Vital Voids Cavities and Holes in Mesoamerican Material Culture By Andrew Finegold May 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/VitalVoids

Egypt’s Football Revolution Emotion, Masculinity, and Uneasy Politics By Carl Rommel July 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/EgyptFootballRevolution

It Can Be This Way Always Images from the Kerrville Folk Festival By David Johnson; essay by Jason Mellard; foreword by Mary Muse March 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/ItCanBeLikeThisAlways

The Republican Party of Texas A Political History By Wayne Thorburn June 2021 | Pre-order → https://bit.ly/RepublicanPartyTX

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The Life & Legacy of Robert E. Howard

You may not know his name, but you probably know his work. His most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian, is an icon of popular culture. In hundreds of tales detailing the exploits of Conan, King Kull, and others, Robert E. Howard helped to invent the sword and sorcery genre.

RENEGADES AND ROGUES is a comprehensive biography of Robert E. Howard, the enigmatic creator of Conan the Barbarian and progenitor of the sword and sorcery genre, who published hundreds of short stories and poems before taking his own life at the age of thirty. The book RENEGADES AND ROGUES by Todd B. Vick is out January 19, 2021!

Pre-order here → https://bit.ly/RenegadesRogues 

[ABOUT THE BOOK] Todd B. Vick delves into newly available archives and probes Howard’s relationships, particularly with schoolteacher Novalyne Price, to bring a fresh, objective perspective to Howard's life. Like his many characters, Howard was an enigma and an outsider. He spent his formative years visiting the four corners of Texas, experiences that left a mark on his stories. He was intensely devoted to his mother, whom he nursed in her final days, and whose impending death contributed to his suicide in 1936 when he was just thirty years old. RENEGADES AND ROGUES is an unequivocal journalistic account that situates Howard within the broader context of pulp literature. More than a realistic fantasist, he wrote westerns and horror stories as well, and engaged in avid correspondence with H. P. Lovecraft and other pulp writers of his day. Vick investigates Howard’s twelve-year writing career, analyzes the influences that underlay his celebrated characters, and assesses the afterlife of Conan, the figure in whom Howard's fervent imagination achieved its most durable expression.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR] Todd B. Vick, a researcher and independent scholar, has presented papers at multiple PCA/ACA conferences and runs "On an Underwood No. 5," an award-winning blog devoted to Howard and pulp studies. He has contributed to Weird Fiction Review, The Dark Man Journal: The Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies, and REH Changed My Life.

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How Comprehensive is the New Field Guide 'Common Insects of Texas'?

In this video, John and Kendra Abbott outline the exquisite detail, unique features, and thoroughly researched presentation for their brand new, comprehensive field guide to the Common Insects of Texas and Surrounding States! (Watch for a cameo from their cat!)

Out now! → https://bit.ly/CommonInsectsOfTX

[ABOUT THE BOOK]

Thanks to its size and geographic position, Texas is home to nearly 30,000 species of insects, likely making its insect population the most diverse in the nation. Ranging from eastern and western to temperate and tropical species, this vast array of insects can be difficult to identify. In Common Insects of Texas and Surrounding States, John and Kendra Abbott have created the state's most comprehensive field guide to help readers recognize and understand these fascinating creatures.

Containing 1,300 species and more than 2,700 photographs, this guide offers a wealth of information about the characteristics and behaviors of Texas's insects. Each chapter introduces an order with a discussion of general natural history and a description of other qualities helpful in distinguishing its various species, while every species' entry provides a state map showing where it is most likely to be found, a key displaying its seasonal distribution, information about its habitat, and corresponding photos. Featuring colored tabs for quick reference, a glossary, and information about other arthropods, this guide is the perfect companion for anyone wanting to identify and learn more about the many insects of Texas.

[ABOUT THE AUTHORS]

John Abbott is Chief Curator and Director of Museum Research and Collections at the University of Alabama. Kendra Abbott is a research scientist in the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama.

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BORDER LAND, BORDER WATER: A History of Construction on the US-Mexico Divide, by C. J. Alvarez

A 150-year history of the border region between the United States and Mexico, told through the fences and barriers, the river engineering projects, and the surveillance infrastructure that have reshaped the natural landscape. 

BORDER POLICING: A History of Enforcement and Evasion in North America, edited by Holly M. Karibo and George T. Díaz

An interdisciplinary group of borderlands scholars provides the first expansive comparative history of the way North American borders have been policed—and transgressed—over the past two centuries. 

AGENT OF CHANGE: Adela Sloss-Vento, Mexican American Civil Rights Activist and Texas Feminist, by Cynthia E. Orozco

The first comprehensive biography of a formidable civil rights activist and feminist whose grassroots organizing in Texas made her an influential voice in the fight for equal rights for Mexican Americans. 

READING, WRITING, AND REVOLUTION: Escuelitas and the Emergence of a Mexican American Identity in Texas, by Philis M. Barragán Goetz

The first book on the history of escuelitas, Reading, Writing, and Revolution examines the integral role these grassroots community schools played in shaping Mexican American identity. 

THE SPORTS REVOLUTION: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics, by Frank Andre Guridy

The story of Texas’s impact on American sports culture during the civil rights and second-wave feminist movements, this book offers a new understanding of sports and society in the state and the nation as a whole. 

BORDERLANDS CURANDEROS: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo, by Jennifer Koshatka Seman

A historical exploration of the worlds and healing practices of two curanderos (faith healers) who attracted thousands, rallied their communities, and challenged institutional powers.

APOSTLES OF CHANGE: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio, by Felipe Hinojosa

Unraveling the intertwined histories of Latino radicalism and religion in urban America, this book examines how Latino activists transformed churches into staging grounds for protest against urban renewal and displacement. 

FORTHCOMING

LONE STAR VISTAS: Travel Writing on Texas, 1821-1861 by Astrid Haas

In the early and mid-nineteenth century, travelers from Mexico, Germany, and the United States wrote vivid accounts of their experiences in Texas, helping to craft a lasting yet contested identity for the territory. 

A SINGLE STAR AND BLOODY KNUCKLES: A History of Politics and Race in Texas by Bill Minutaglio

A new look at the last 150 years of Texas’s contentious political history, told decade by decade through the prism of the state’s famous, infamous, and unsung figures.

VIOLENCE IN THE HILL COUNTRY: The Texas Frontier in the Civil War Era by Nicholas Keefauver Roland

An in-depth history of the Civil War in the Texas Hill Country, this book examines patterns of violence on the Texas frontier to illuminate white Americans’ cultural and political priorities in the nineteenth century.