West Texas:
A History of the Giant Side of the State

Paul H. Carlson, Professor Emeritus of History at Texas Tech University, and Bruce A. Glasrud, Professor Emeritus of History at California State University, East Bay, have skillfully assembled this impressive study, absolutely essential to anyone wanting to learn more about West Texas and its fascinating heritage. They divide their volume into four segments: "The Place," "The People," "Political and Economic Life," and "Society and Culture."

The editors have recruited an admirable team of eighteen scholars, including Thomas A. Britten (University of Texas at Brownsville), Sean P. Cunningham (Texas Tech University), Arnoldo De Leon (Angelo State University), Tiffany Fink (Hardin-Simmons University), David J. Murrah (Southwest Museum Services), and M. Scott Sosebee (Stephen F. Austin State University), to contribute essays. Topics addressed in this collection include the West Texas environment, the Panhandle, the Plains, the Edwards Plateau and Permian Basin, the Trans-Pecos-Big Bend country, Indians, Tejanos, African Americans, women, cities, politics, the economy, agriculture, ranching, rural life, literature, music, public education, religion, and parks and recreation. What an offering!

Moreover, Carlson and Glasrud provide an insightful introduction to their anthology, "West Texas, an Overview." They write, "West Texas is a land of big sky, of little rain, of nearly ceaseless winds, and of ever-changing clouds. It is a semiarid, sometimes rough and broken country, but one that supports agricultural enterprises both rich in history and important to the state's contemporary economy…It is a land of contrasts, with rugged, desert mountains; deep, enormous canyons; and immense, high plateaus as flat as tabletops. It is a place diverse in its population and growing ever more so."

While this publication is certainly wide ranging, several important topics seem to have been neglected; lacking, for instance, is a discussion of West Texas high school football, which plays a significant role in the region's communities. Does anyone recall such names as Sammy Baugh (Sweetwater), Lindy Berry (Wichita Falls), John Kimbrough (Abilene), Byron Townsend (Odessa), or Coach Gordon Wood (Brownwood), all of whom have been elected to the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame? Also absent is any examination of cinema and West Texas. One thinks, for example, of Liz Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean in the iconic 1956 George Stevens cattle and oil epic, Giant, or director Peter Bogdanovich's heartbreaking 1971 black and white masterpiece, The Last Picture Show.

Still, this commendable compilation belongs on the shelf of every Texas studies enthusiast, particularly those interested in the "giant side" of the Lone Star State.

Closing note: This is not their first project together. With Tai Kreidler (Southwest Collection, Texas Tech University), Carlson and Glasrud edited Slavery to Integration: Black Americans in West Texas (State House Press), published in 2008.