Customer Reviews

Houston: The Unknown City, 1836-1946

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Uh, these reviews are really hard on this book, I mean get real, of course this book focuses on the powerful in Houston at the time and their impact on the city, it's a history of Houston's rise, people, not The Grapes of Wrath. I for one enjoyed this book, I found the history very interesting and got a real feel for why Houston has emerged at the dawn of the 21st Century as an economic jugernaut, this has always been a city of entrepenuers and alpha males...and alpha females for that matter, and that spirit enfuses the city to this day. I mean who would have thought a city founded on the edge of a mosquito infested big ditch, miles inland from the Gulf, would become one of the great world ports and the energy capitol of the world? Read this book and you get your answer.

Houston: The Unknown City shows us a sepia picture of a city with a hidden presence in the Texas-Gulf Coast corridor, the nation and Latin America. Johnston gives a lot of information. Sadly, the writing tends towards geneologies in the style of the Book of Genesis and giddy recounts of old parties.

What's interesting to me about Houston is not here: power, honor, corruption, cocaine, oil, medicine mixed with social graces, noblesse oblige and lucha libre. And cars.

I think this book is most interesting to see how the Houston upper class sees themselves. Paraphrasing Wilde, the Houston dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass, etc.

The book's good for Houston socialites, people who are interested in Texas and Kitty Kelley. So, I suppose a kind of a compliment.

Honestly, this book is not what I expected. I was looking for a history of my native city; instead I received a social history of Houston (this is clearly stated on the dust jacket but, not in the description). I believe this book and the buying public would be better served if it were categorized as such. In terms of history, it appears to be only concerned with and from the perspective of one socioeconomic group and as such would comprise a chapter of and not a complete history of Houston. If one is able to read past the first few chapters of this work, one would never know there were people in Houston other than well-to-do, white Episcopalians from "proper" backgrounds! In short, this is a rather silly and pretentious work that exhibits the typically overly complimentary writing style for people of the author's generation who were themselves seen as "climbers" by the elite. Perhaps this is really a call for all those interested in the history of the Bayou City to work toward a more comprehensive history of our city.

In an academic style, Margurite Johnson leads us through a description of Houston as a small Gulf Coast community to a thriving Port City backed by the oil investment. She does a great deal to enrich the readers knowledge of Texas metropolitan outlook on it's relationship to it's environment. It serves as a good primer for further research.

This was one of the worst histories I have ever read. I finally had to put it down after finishing about 250 of its 400 pages, because I thought I might go insane if I continued.

The book consists largely of recitation of facts, repetition of thousands of names of old Houston families, and constant musings about how wonderful Houston was in those old, carefree days. (The author even writes that in those simpler, happy times no one complained about Houston summers.)

She has researched her subject thoroughly, talking with hundreds of people who can recall the city in the early 20th century; but there's hardly any context or analysis for this blob of material. It's just thrown out there in this haze of "the wonderful old days."

Yes, one can parse through all the verbiage about how much fun it was to go the park, sail in the bay, etc. etc., and pick up some useful morsels about the facts behind Houston's growth and development.

But they are few and far between.

I found this book to be full of rich history. It helped me to understand not only the evolution of an oil town, but to relate to American history in a more detailed way.

I found this book to be full of rich history. It helped me to understand not only the evolution of an oil town, but to relate to American history in a more detailed way.

I found this book to be full of rich history. It helped me to understand not only the evolution of an oil town, but to relate to American history in a more detailed way.