Texas

Salute the swagger of a Texas history timeline that features leading ladies, legendary lawmen, and the braintrust that put humanity into orbit. Celebrate the subtle pleasures of a day bracketed by an Austin breakfast taco and a sunset cruise through Galveston history. Our Texas history books don’t shy away from the state’s shameful excesses either—unconscionable tragedies like the 1910 Slocum Massacre demand an accounting. From a promenade down the San Antonio Riverwalk to a furtive exit from the Texas Chicken Ranch, step out with Texas history. [View all Texas books]
7 products
Cover image for The Deadly 1940 Alamo Train Crash, isbn: 9781467155106
The Deadly 1940 Alamo Train Crash
$24.99
Texas Mass Graves
Texas Mass Graves
$23.99
Train Crash at Crush, Texas
Train Crash at Crush, Texas
$24.99
The 1913 McKinney Store Collapse
The 1913 McKinney Store Collapse
$21.99
The Austin Dam Disaster of 1900
The Austin Dam Disaster of 1900
$24.99
The Alton Bus Crash
The Alton Bus Crash
$21.99
Galveston Burning
Galveston Burning
$23.99

The Deadly 1940 Alamo Train Crash

9781467155106

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
On March 14, 1940, a train heading west along Highway 83 from Donna to Alamo struck a truck driver turning north from the highway onto Tower Road. The horrific crash killed twenty-nine of about forty-five farmworkers who were on the truck. A one-day investigation faulted the truck driver and led to meager court settlements for the devastated families. In the wake of these events, several of the victims' children and grandchildren became lawyers and some of the first Mexican American judges in South Texas. Juan Carmona and Taylor Seaver De La Fuente revisit the deadliest traffic accident in Texas history, while seeking to preserve the stories of Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers and their relatives whose backbreaking contributions continue to feed our country to this day.
Cover image for The Deadly 1940 Alamo Train Crash, isbn: 9781467155106

Texas Mass Graves

9781467152488

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%

Every mass grave in Texas offers morbid proof that at one time, in that place, something went very, very wrong.

Texans have resorted to mass graves out of necessity, desperation and appalling indifference. These sites mark natural disasters or hide unnatural crimes that tested the limits of human endurance and empathy. Because of this, memorializing those who lie in mass graves can be controversial. Not everyone wants to dig up the darkness of the past, much less admit that the dirt is still fresh. Nevertheless, to honor those whose bones lie mixed with others, their stories must be told. In so doing, Kathy Benjamin exhumes essential shards of Lone Star history, from the Alamo to the present day.

Texas Mass Graves

Train Crash at Crush, Texas

9781467139342

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
On September 15, 1896, Crush boasted the highest population in Texas. Built near Waco, the town provided the staging ground for a publicity stunt ramming two trains together at top speed. Showrunner and Katy Railroad official William Crush thought he had planned for every contingency. But when elephant-sized chunks of steam locomotive began raining down into the packed stands, the extravaganza quickly unraveled into one of the Lone Star State's most confounding tragedies. The soon-to-be famous Scott Joplin commemorated the debacle in "The Great Crush Collision March,'? and entrepreneurs like "Head-On Joe'? Connolly of Iowa continued the tradition of the staged locomotive duel for decades. But the stupefying incident still slipped into the back pages of Texas lore. In the first-ever book on the subject, writer-historian Mike Cox finally tells the full story of the Crash at Crush.
Train Crash at Crush, Texas

The 1913 McKinney Store Collapse

9781467139502

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
A powerful vibration, a deafening noise and a swell of thick dust brought residents of McKinney pouring into the public square on the afternoon of January 23, 1913. What they saw was horrifying--an entire building had collapsed, demolishing two popular retailers, the Cheeves Mississippi Store and Tingle Implement Store. Their contents, including many shoppers and clerks, spilled out into the streets, where layer upon layer of debris settled into a massive, ragged pile. In spite of a herculean rescue effort, eight people perished. Carol Wilson sifts through the disaster and its aftermath, dredging up some troubling facts about how the tragedy might have been prevented.
The 1913 McKinney Store Collapse

The Austin Dam Disaster of 1900

9781467127455

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
The Austin Dam Disaster of 1900 recreates the era of Gay Nineties Austin, then--as now--a city on the rise and on the make. In 1891, at the behest of ambitious city fathers, the little city of just 15,000 people gambled its future on a project of breathtaking size--a massive hydroelectric dam across the Colorado River. This book follows the epic construction project and the brief golden era of the pleasure resort at Lake McDonald. Though troubled and controversial from the get-go, the dam embodied all of Austin's dreams. Then, on Friday, April 6, 1900, it began to rain . . .
The Austin Dam Disaster of 1900

The Alton Bus Crash

9781467143615

$21.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
A September morning in 1989 changed Alton's history forever. At 7:34 a.m., a Dr Pepper truck collided with Mission School Bus no. 6. After the bus and its occupants plunged into a water-filled caliche pit, twenty-one students lost their lives. The resulting investigation flooded the small South Texas community with reporters and lawyers. The heavily scrutinized legal battle divided the city, but it did ultimately produce changes in school bus safety that continue to save lives today. Juan Carmona navigates the complicated legacy of the tragic accident and its aftermath.

The Alton Bus Crash

Galveston Burning

9781467144650

$23.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Since 1821, when Jean Lafitte sailed away from a burning Campeche, the history of Galveston has often been wreathed in smoke. Over the next century, one inferno breached the walls of Moro Castle, while another reduced forty-two blocks of the residential district to ash. Recognizing the importance of protecting the city, concerted efforts were made to establish the first paid fire department, create a city waterworks and regulate construction standards. Yet even with all the forethought and planning, rogue fires continued to consume architectural gems like Nicholas Clayton's Electric Pavilion. Author James F. Anderson explores the lessons that Galveston has learned from its fiery past in order to safeguard its future.
Galveston Burning