Customer Reviews

Texas: The Lone Star State (10th Edition)

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HIST2301.01 critique of book
Texas: The Lone Star State by
Richardson/Anderson/Wintz/Wallace
ISBN 0-13-028414-9


Noticed the following terms were not indexed:
sitios*
varas*
league*
forestry dept
highway commission is listed incorrectly
petticoat lobby
Black Mutiny, p409

*I'd like to suggest a glossary for future editions of the book
for words such as these. There were many more terms, especially
the Spanish terms, for which I'd have appreciated a glossary.
Add to the list above empresario, labor (of land) for the
glossary.

General comments

I would like the next edition to use some form of chapter
numbering in either the header or footer of each page so that
when I am looking for Chapter X, I don't have to know the name of
all chapters to know if I'm in front of or behind that chapter.

The map on Page 50 is bad in that it appears to show the Neches
River emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, whereas it should be
shown disappearing into the Neutral Ground territory on the west
of Orange County. It would be good to show the outline of the
Sabine Lake in this map.

Page 124 implies that the women "manufactured cartridges..."
during 1836. I do not think that even paper cartridges were
introduced up north until the late 1840s. They may have well
been involved in casting balls, packing powder, etc. but I think
cartridge case bullets are still in the future from this war.

Page 138 - the spelling of Lamar's middle name as "Buonaparte" I
question from documents I saw years ago in the special records
collection of the Gray Library, but I am not certain of this.

Page 173 - it is not clear at first reading to me whether 27% of
the population was slaves (text) or 27% of the population were
slave owners (graph) or both.

Page 274 Chart - No indication of the beach railroad between
Galveston/Bolivar and Sabine Pass. I also found no mention of
Arthur Stillwell in the index and think that story is worthy of
at least a sentence or two. When did the Southern Pacific RR
cross the Sabine River into Orange? It appears here that it did
not as late as 1890, but I think it was prior to that.

Also on this same chart, the line types are not differentiated
enough to be certain what railroad is what in some places.

I think a good county reference map that is indexed would be a
welcome addition. Too often in the text, the county name is
mentioned, but the frontpiece map is not indexed and is too busy
to enable a student to find a county easily.

Also, a good boundary map with all the meridians marked would
help. The map on Page 163 misses three of them or it would
suffice.

Page 292 Chart - again, the trail line types are not easily
differentiated, especially where they cross or run together.

Page 293 - Santa Gertrudis is not explained as the name of the
Creek on which King built his ranch HQ, nor after which the breed
of cattle (only breed developed in the US) was named.

I was also disappointed to not find Richard King's role in the
transport of cotton out of Mexico mentioned. The chart on page
217 implies a skirmish at Corpus Christi, but I seem to remember
from Ben Lea's _History of the King Ranch_ that the yankees came
ashore and went to King's ranch headquarters, and King narrowly
escaped the skirmish, when the Yankees took up residence in his
house for a spell. Maybe that doesn't qualify as a military
engagement, but I think it was.

Pages 350... I found it difficult to follow which governor
followed which with the subject matter jumping around so.

?When did Texas pass the election of US Senators to the popular
vote instead of electing them in the state house? I could not
find this.

I think a good opportunity was missed on Page 399 to inform young
students of the wordplay that was used to permit the San Jacinto
monument to be built taller than the Washington Monument.

Page 407 - Texas and Texans In The War :
The second sentence in this paragraph appears to be scrambled, or
is a poor construct, or is missing a comma behind "San Antonio"
and "war."

Page 435-6; The story of the Killer Bees/Dirty 30 and the tactics
used would be noteworthy, I think.

This is a textbook, and a relatively small one at that. Readers will be surprised at how little physical material they receive for the price, but that's just a first impression.

This book is the best history of Spanish and Mexican Texas I've yet seen. It covers that period very well. The chapters are short, and each chapter is divided into subtopics of one or two paragraphs. It's very neatly arranged, and works well as a reference. The book is not a narrative history, and it doesn't read that way. This is a get-to-the-point text of dates, places, small maps and demographic data intended more for USE than enjoyment.

It's an excellent, well-refined little book, as one can imagine for a volume now in its 10th edition.

Received the wrong and very old edition but seller gave me a refund and let me also keep the book. Would buy from again.

History was my college major. I graduated from Abilene(Texas)Christian University in 1964 and taught American and Texas History for six years prior to taking a position as principal of our elementary school. Dr. Ralph A Smith was my professor. He and Dr. Richardson collaborated on various projects. ACU is in the same city as Hardin-Simmons University where Dr. Richardson taught for many years.
This was the textbook used in my Texas History class. Although it was a textbook, I found it easy to read and interesting as well. If you want to study the history of Texas, this is an excellent book for you to use. I strongly recommend it.

This book was required for my Texas History class in addition to another one concerning the life of Sam Houston. This is a great academic book with a tremendous amount of information.

I received this product pretty fast. The book was in good condition. I would buy from this user again.