Books
Burn It All Down
Author Michael Pollan on the Power and Promise of Psychedelics
A rigorous, nerdy, funny and deeply moving book, "How to Change Your Mind" makes a strong case that LSD and mushrooms can do just that.
I admit to feeling an illicit thrill when I opened Michael Pollan’s new book. The third page bears a stern disclaimer, warning that “This book relates the a...Read More
The Encyclopedic ‘Country Music USA’ Tells (Almost) the Whole Story
Laird does a masterful job of showing how, for many performers, the whole question of authenticity has become ridiculous.
Country music historian Bill C. Malone has lived to see the 50th anniversary reissue of his landmark book, Country Music USA. Fellow scholar Tracey E. W. Laird ...Read More
A Masterful New History Explores the Contradictions and Complexities of Ciudad Juárez
Oscar J. Martínez’s new book pushes back against the historical amnesia, toxic politics and stereotyping that have shrouded the city for decades.
A visit to Ciudad Juárez this spring quickly revealed the swirling contradictions in this turbulent city across the Rio Grande from El Paso. I saw crowded rest...Read More
The Ghosts of Abandoned Texas Buildings Rise Up in an Eerie New Photo Book
"Lost, Texas" features starkly beautiful photos of once-thriving rural Texas towns.
The Ghosts of Abandoned Texas Buildings Rise Up in an Eerie New Photo Book “Lost, Texas” features starkly beautiful photos of once-thriving rural Te...Read More
Troubled Waters: New Book Plunges into Texas’ Convoluted Water Law
Seamus McGraw's reporting tour de force goes beyond policy and history by trying to understand the perverse incentives that drive decision-making.
In 2009, the Williams family began an almost decade-long battle over whether the water beneath their land is theirs to do with as they please. Claytie and Jeff ...Read More
How a Texas Author Learned to Love Cockroaches (and Other Tales of Off-Putting Creatures)
Clinton Crockett Peters’ fondness for unpopular species may well temper some of our deepest prejudices.
For Clinton Crockett Peters, the first formative experience with wildlife would strike at a young age. Six years old and living briefly on North Padre Island, h...Read More
Jorge Ramos’ New Book, ‘Stranger,’ is a Journalist’s Manifesto
"We have to be on the opposite side of power, regardless of who is in the White House, a Democrat or a Republican.”
When Mexican-American journalist Jorge Ramos went mano a mano against then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in an Iowa press conference in 2015, he didn’t ...Read More
On Giant’s Shoulders: New Cinema History Dissects Texas Tropes
"Giant" was meant to confront certain ugly implications about Texas, chiefly that it is perpetually big, bigoted and booming.
In 1956, America was ascendant, and Texas was America. Eleven years after the end of World War II, the greasy machinery of capitalism had conquered the country ...Read More
In ‘God Save Texas,’ Lawrence Wright Explains the Lone Star State to Outsiders
The latest entry in the ever-popular explaining-Texas genre, “God Save Texas” is a rambling, impressionistic record of ambivalence.
In 1845, when the United States was hotly debating the imminent annexation of Texas and the prospect of a war with Mexico, Abraham Lincoln wrote to a constituen...Read More