Big Wonderful Thing: A History Of Texas
by Stephen Harrigan
Buy on AmazonThe story of Texas is the story of struggle and triumph in a land of extremes. It is a story of drought and flood, invasion and war, boom and bust, and of the myriad peoples who, over centuries of conflict, gave rise to a place that has helped shape the identity of the United States and the destiny of the world. “I couldn’t believe Texas was real,” the painter Georgia O’Keeffe remembered of her first encounter with the Lone Star State. It was, for her, “the same big wonderful thing that oceans and the highest mountains are.” Big Wonderful Thing invites us to walk in the footsteps of ancient as well as modern people along the path of Texas’s evolution.…
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"Journalist and author Stephen Harrigan is essentially to Texas literature what Willie Nelson is to Texas music, and his latest book might just be the one he was born to write. Big Wonderful Thing, a sprawling history of the Lone Star State, showcases Harrigan’s enthusiasm for Texas – it’s an endlessly fascinating look at how the state has evolved over the years. Harrigan covers the state’s political and cultural history, paying special attention to Texans who have been overlooked in the past. Endlessly readable and written with great care, Big Wonderful Thing is just that."
NPR Books We Love — 2019 · apps.npr.org