Tag Archives: Civil War
Abbott, Patrick, Bonnen Quietly Vote to Remove Slavery-Denying Plaque from Texas Capitol
“The reality is that plaque never should have gone up in the state Capitol in the first place, and it shouldn’t have taken 60 years to take it down,” state Representative Eric Johnson said.
Since the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville a year and a half ago, Texas officials have faced increasing demands to purge the statehouse of a plaque...Read More
Sarah Bird’s Lively New Novel Resurrects a Little-Known Civil War Hero
Bird produces a memorable re-creation of a freed slave who passed as a man to become a Buffalo Soldier — and of the thoroughly racist country in which she suffered and triumphed.
You want to use phrases like “ripping yarn” and “helluva story” for Sarah Bird’s new page-turner, but that makes Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen sou...Read More
‘A Shout in the Ruins’ Contends with the South’s Violent History
Kevin Powers is intent on making us see that wars don’t so much start and stop as they generate and breed.
Recent years have brought a resurgent round of literary and cinematic attention to the brutality of slavery, drawing on the rich tradition of the slave narrativ...Read More
Tracking a Deadly Cat on the Texas Frontier in ‘The Which Way Tree’
While the frontier Texas subgenre has its limitations, Elizabeth Crook’s new novel is an enduring adventure tale.
Elizabeth Crook’s latest foray into the labyrinths of family and history in Texas is an absorbing coming-of-age adventure set in post-Civil War chaos, a time ...Read More
Will Georgetown’s ‘Old South Ball’ Rise Again?
The organizer of Georgetown's "Old South Ball" doesn't seem to have paid much heed to protesters who said the Civil War-themed party glorified slavery....Read More
End of an Error
East of Brownsville, an unassuming patch of ground hosted the final, pointless battle of the Civil War.
East of Brownsville, an unassuming patch of ground hosted the final, pointless battle of the Civil War. ...Read More
The Hidden Confederate History of the Texas Capitol: An Unofficial Guide
A visitor to the Capitol gleans a particular story of Texas from the monuments and plaques: one that celebrates the state’s involvement in the Civil War and o...Read More
Observer Radio Episode 85: Battleground Texas, plus The Great Hanging
Observer Radio discusses the results of Battleground Texas' first big test. Also, a look at the dark history of the nation's deadliest act of mob violence....Read More
How Do You Memorialize a Mob?
Gainesville, Texas, is a patriotic small town. It's also the site of one of the nation's worst acts of mob violence—a history some citizens would like to forget.
Gainesville, Texas, is a patriotic small town. It's also the site of the nation's largest act of mob violence. One hundred and fifty-two years later, the town f...Read More