Fifty Years of the Texas Observer

(Paperback)

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For the past five decades the Texas Observer has been an essential voice in Texas culture and politics, championing honest government, civil rights, labor, and the environment, while providing a platform for many of the states most passionate and progressive voices. Included are ninety-one selections from Roy Bedichek, Lou Dubose, Ronnie Dugger, Dagoberto Gilb, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Larry McMurtry, Maury Maverick Jr., Willie Morris, Debbie Nathan, and others.

To mark the Observers fiftieth anniversary, Char Miller has selected a cross section of the best work to appear in its pages. Not only does the collection pay homage to an important alternative voice in Texas journalism, it also serves as a progressive chronicle of a half-century of life in the Lone Star Statea state that has spawned three presidents in the last forty years. If Texas is, as some say, a crucible for national politics, then Fifty Years of the Texas Observercan be read as a casebook for issues that concern citizens in all fifty states. Molly Ivins's foreword gives historical background for the Observer and sets the stage for the book.

Reviews

"The Texas Observer tells it like it is--and tells it the way most newspapers can't, or won't. Fifty Years of the Texas Observer delivers stories that will make you laugh and cry, and finally shake your head in sheer disbelief. Be grateful for the Texas Observer--for the past fifty years and the future."-- Ann Richards, former governor of Texas

"The conventional wisdom might be that yesterday's news belongs in the recycle bin, but for those who love and yearn for a better Texas, this book proves otherwise."-- Austin Chronicle

Author Bio

Char Miller is Professor of History at Trinity University. He is the author of Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism and the editor of several volumes, including An Atlas of U.S. and Canadian Environmental History, American Forests, and a compilation from the Colorado-based publication High Country News entitled Water in the West. Char Miller has been a frequent contributor to the Texas Observer. Molly Ivins is a former editor of and frequent contributor to the Texas Observer. Her books include Who Let the Dogs In: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known (forthcoming), Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America, and Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (all coauthored with Lou Dubose), and Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She