Most Recent in Politics:

Most Recent in Environment:

1El Paso School Consolidation Exposes More Kids to Lead and Other Hazards, Parents Say

2Could Kinder Morgan’s ‘Permian Highway’ Scar the Hill Country?

3Millions of Plastic Pellets in Lavaca Bay? Formosa Says it’s Just ‘Trace Amounts’

4Environmentalists Fear Conservative Group’s Push to End Corporate Subsidies is Really Just a Hit on Renewables

5Report: Power Plants are Leaking Cancer-Causing Toxins into Groundwater Across Texas

6The Border Fence vs. Wall Debate is a ‘Trap’ for Democrats

Most Recent in Border:

1Valeria Luiselli’s Third Novel Reckons with the Trauma Inflicted on Migrant Kids

2‘Thrown Under the Bus’: Rio Grande Valley Residents Criticize New Border Deal

3The Border Debate is Changing at the Capitol. With Newfound Influence, Can Democrats Go Beyond Playing Defense?

4Butterfly Refuge Files Restraining Order Against Feds Over Border Wall Construction

5New Border Wall Funding for Laredo Would Devastate Our Landscape, Ecology and Heritage

6Texas Teacher Could Lose Her Home If Trump Gets Any More Border Wall Funding

Most Recent in Criminal Justice:

1Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

2The Tattooed Star of the ‘Progressive Prosecutor’ Movement Braces for His First Death Penalty Trial

3‘Ignored to Death’ in the Bexar County Jail

4The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

5Botham Jean’s Death Could Lead to an Overhaul of Police Oversight in Dallas

6When Prison Reform Goes Bad

Most Recent in Education:

1In Violation of Texas Law, Most High Schools Aren’t Giving Students the Chance to Register to Vote

2Amid Record Youth Suicide Attempts, Texas Lags in Prevention Training for Teachers

3Cash-Strapped Rural Texas Schools Look to Universities for Help

4What’s in a Name? Texas SBOE Tentatively Approves ‘Ethnic Studies: Mexican American Studies’

5SMU Just Lost Its Independent Student Newspaper. Is Your College Next?

6Lawsuit: Texas Art Teacher Suspended Because She Told Students About Her Wife

Most Recent in Health Care:

1Faith Groups: Texas ‘Ignored and Disrespected’ Religious Freedom in Passing Fetal Burial Law

2Expecting Care

3The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

4Six Stories About Rural Texas You Should Read Before 2018 Ends

5‘How Can You Do This to People?’: After Rural Hospitals Close in Milam County, Residents Scramble to Find Care

6Four Texas Abortion Court Cases to Watch in 2019

Most Recent in The Interview:

1Dolores Huerta is Still Knocking on Doors and Registering Voters at 88

2The Interview: Veronica Escobar is Poised to Make History

3Redistricting Guru Michael Li on Texas’ Gerrymandered Maps

4Senfronia Thompson Says #MeToo: Texas Lawmaker on 45 Years of Sexism, Racism at the Capitol

5Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo on Sanctuary Cities, Police Unions and Tommy Guns

6Meet Nueces County’s New DA, a Self-Professed ‘Mexican Biker Lawyer Covered in Tattoos’

Most Recent in Books:

1Valeria Luiselli’s Third Novel Reckons with the Trauma Inflicted on Migrant Kids

2‘Last Woman Standing’ Tackles Toxic Masculinity and Keeps the Pages Turning

3The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

4‘Life Was Her Art’: Nadine Eckhardt Remembered as an Influential Cultural Conduit in Texas and Washington

5Our 10 Favorite Texas Books of 2018

6The Lone Star State Teems with Snakes, Lizards and Toads in ‘Herping Texas’

Most Recent in Features:

1The Texas Observer’s Best Features of 2018

2Raspa Revolution

3100 Ways to Draw a Line

4Homeward Bound

5The Sisterhood

6The Time-Traveler’s Guide to the Lower Pecos

Most Recent in Essay:

1Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

2The Trouble with Yoga

3Heads in the Mud

4The Day the Windows Shook

5Women’s Work

6I Grew Up on the Texas-Mexico Border, but Now I Barely Recognize It

Most Recent in Eye on Texas:

1Eye on Texas: ‘My Joyful Dance’

2Eye on Texas: Ghosts of the City

3Eye on Texas: Fiesta Protesta

4Eye on Texas: Remembering Draylen Mason

5Eye on Texas: Gentrification in East Austin

6Eye on Texas: Transgender Youth in Texas

Most Recent in Poetry:

1Lost in Limbo in the Hays County Jail

2Houston Poet Analicia Sotelo’s Debut Smashes Latino Stereotypes

3Parallel Planes

4Options

5Poem: ‘Resistance’

6Poem: ‘Screenplay for a Homemade Movie’

American Gothic Vs. Gang Pluck

by James E. McWilliams

Fri, Nov 5, 2004 at 12:00 am CST

James McWilliams is an Ingram professor of history at Texas State University-San Marcos.

by James E. McWilliams

Published Fri, Nov 5, 2004 at 12:00 am CST

Get the latest Texas Observer news, analysis and investigations via Facebook, Twitter and our weekly newsletter.

American Gothic Vs. Gang Pluck

Enter your email

You May Also Like: