Description:
The Texas Left. Some would say the phrase is an oxymoron.
For most of the twentieth century, the popular perception of Texas politics has been that of dominant conservatism, punctuated by images of cowboys, oil barons, and party bosses intent on preserving a decidedly capitalist status quo.
Though largely ignored by historians of previous decades who focused instead on telling the stories of the Alamo, the Civil War, the cattle drives, and the oilfield wildcatters, this parallel narrative of those who sought to resist repression reveals themes important to the unfolding history of Texas and the Southwest. Volume editors David O'Donald Cullen and Kyle G. Wilkison have assembled a collection of pioneering studies that provide the broad outlines for future research on liberal and radical social and political causes in the state and region. Among the topics explored in this book are early efforts of women, blacks, Tejanos, labor organizers, and political activists to claim rights of citizenship, livelihood, and recognition, from the Reconstruction era until recent times.
Review Quotes: "The Texas Left addresses an often overlooked but critical component of the state's history, namely the strategies adopted by marginalized Texans in their pursuit of a more just, equal, and humane society. Minority groups that challenged established capitalists, industrialists or racists on pragmatic grounds frequently triumphed. But left-leaning Texans did not always win, and these essays indicate the prices that they, and Texans generally, paid for inadequate economic, social, and political reform."-Debra Reid, author, Seeking Inalienable Rights: Texans and Their Quests for Justice
--Debra Reid