Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life - Böcker

As Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain dramatizes, dissenters from the Confederacy lived in mortal danger throughout the South. In scattered pockets from the Carolinas to the frontier in Texas, these dissenters, or ""brush men,"" often died at the hands of their own neighbors as a result of their belief in the Union or an unwillingness to preserve the slaveholding Confederacy. Brush Men and Vigilantes tells the story of how dissent, fear, and economics developed into mob violence in the Sulphur Forks river valley northeast of Dallas. Authors David Pickering and Judy Falls have combed through court records, newspapers, letters, and other primary sources and have collected extended-family lore to relate the details of how vigilantes captured and killed more than a dozen men. Betrayed by links to a well-known Union guerrilla, many dissenters were captured, tried in mock courts, and hanged. Still others met their death by sniper fire or private execution. Their story begins before the Civil War, as the authors describe the particular social and economic conditions that gave rise to such tension and violence. Four more chapters follow, each detailing the horror and hysteria that characterized post-Civil War Texas.

Cotton supplied the Native Americans with clothing fibers before the Spanish ever entered Texas. It drew Southern settlers fleeing U.S. antislavery trends during the Mexican Republic in the 1820s. By the early 1930s, cotton was produced in 223 of the 254 counties in Texas and was a central element in the Texas economy. The Great Depression created a major disruption that threatened to destabilize the entire Lone Star State.In this book, Keith J. Volanto relates the story of the New Deal's efforts to aid Texas cotton farmers, specifically with the production-control policies introduced by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). He explores the reasons the AAA cotton programs in Texas were instituted, the implementation problems the AAA encountered and how they were resolved, and the results of the programs. He draws conclusions concerning how well Texans benefited from the AAA cotton programs and about those who were actually harmed by them. In addition, he also examines the role of Texas politicians and bureaucrats in formulating the policies in Washington and the importance of Texas to New Deal cotton policy broadly.Volanto's study of the AAA cotton programs in Texas is a study not only of agriculture policy but also of the New Deal itself. The AAA provides an example of how the New Deal attempted to solve a natural problem in a largely experimental fashion. The experience of the AAA the political, economic, and legal constraints it faced provides new insight into the (Back Flap) nature of New Deal commodity programs. It also demonstrates how the New Deal's typical broker state priorities tended to address the concerns of organized groups, often to the detriment of unaffiliated individuals.From the initial farm subsidy programs and their impact on Texas during the 1930s to the AAA's cotton programs that were implemented at the state level, very little has previously been written on this important period in Texas history. Texas, Cotton, and the New Deal fills this void.

In 1871, newly freed slaves established the community ofTamina—then called “Tammany”—north of Houston, near therich timber lands of Montgomery County. Located in proximityto the just-completed railroad from Conroe to Houston, thecommunity benefited from the burgeoning local lumber industryand available transportation. The residents built homes, churches,a one-room school, and a general store.Over time, urban growth and change has overtaken Tamina.The sprawling communities of The Woodlands, Shenandoah,Chateau Woods, and Oak Ridge have encroached, introducingboth opportunity and complication, as the residents of this ruralcommunity enjoy both the benefits and the challenges of urban life.On the one hand, the children of Tamina have the opportunity toattend some of the best public schools in the nation; on the otherhand, residents whose education and job skills have not kept pacewith modern society are struggling for survival.Through striking and intimate photography and sensitivelygleaned oral histories, Marti Corn has chronicled the lives,dreams, and spirit of the people of Tamina. The result is a multifaceted portrait of community, kinship, values, and shared history.

Ten Dollars to Hate tells the story of the massive Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s—by far the most “successful” incarnation since its inception in the ashes of the Civil War—and the first prosecutor in the nation to successfully convict and jail Klan members. Dan Moody, a twenty-nine-year-old Texas district attorney, demonstrated that Klansmen could be punished for taking the law into their own hands.