Mary Jo Hibbert Powell, ’75
Texas: On-The-Road Histories, by Mary Jo Hibbert Powell, ’75. Paperback,
312 pages, Interlink, July 2005.
Powell is a fourth-generation Texan who lives in Austin, where she earned
a Ph.D. in history at the University of Texas.
Her Texas travelogue begins with a panorama of the vast Texas landscape,
from the Piney Woods to Big Bend Country, before turning to the people of the
land now called Texas. She writes about the peoples who inhabited the area before
the Spanish arrived, the story of the Alamo, the movement from independent nation
to state, the role of slavery in Texas, the state’s role in the Civil War
and Reconstruction, and how the state survived both World Wars and the Depression.
Along the way,
the author addresses some uniquely Texan phenomena, such as the myth and realities
of the Texas cowboy; how the discovery of oil and logging changed the land and
its identity; and the rancorous and spirited world of Texas politics, which made
its mark on U.S. politics with the rise of Lyndon B. Johnson and the Bush family.
She also introduces readers to the spicier side of the state, including its food,
the movies it inspired, its music, and its writers.
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