Customer Reviews

Leavin' a Testimony: Portraits from Rural Texas (Focus on American History)

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From the photo on the cover I originally thought this was going to be a collection of interviews from only one segment of Colorado County's population- but I was mistaken. The book contains interviews from all segments of the population of Colorado County- and the experiences are as widely varied as one can imagine. In reading this book we get to learn about everything from "The Orphan Train" to a lynching, to farming and ranching experiences in Colorado County. It's a great book for people without a lot of time to read, you can read a few interviews, and later when you find another quiet moment, you can read a few more. I love all the photos too! Patsy Craven put together a jewel of Texas History, one any collector of Texas History books should have.

Colorado County (just west of Houston) & its small towns of Weimar, Columbus, etc. are the subject of this work displaying the author's excellent B&W portrait photography alongside transcriptions of life-story interviews with each subject, some quite brief and others fairly extensive, including many "testimonies" of personal religious experiences--hence the title, which is actually a direct quote from one of the interviewees. About 2/3 of the subjects are African-American with the remaining 1/3 largely reflecting the 19th-century Czech influx to the area; the majority are living somewhere near the poverty line. Many of the interviewees speak quite frankly and in much detail of their own personal histories, offering insight into small-town Texas race relationships and interactions, including an account of a 1950s lynching. Family-group housing and living patterns are discernable across the spectrum of interviewees, as well as education, courtship, employment, and various other patterns of interest to sociologists and/or anthropologists. To both the professional and the general reader, these interviewees spring from the pages as highly individual, vibrant, interesting persons.

LEARNED A LOT ABOUT LIFE AS IT WAS IN OUR AREA AS SEEN FROM A PERSONAL VIEW. SHE REALLY KNEW HOW TO TELL ABOUT IT.