Ordered West: The Civil War Exploits of Charles A. Curtis

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Accounts of Charles Curtis, who served in the 5th United States Infantry on the New Mexico and Arizona frontier. This is edited version version of serial installments (originally published in newspapers from 1877-1880) with the addition of biographical information and some historical context, as well as some reorganization to read chronologically and some normalization of language and spelling. Index starts on page 561.
Date: June 2017
Creator: Gaff, Alan D. & Gaff, Donald H.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Enemies Within: The Cold War and the AIDS Crisis in Literature, Film, and Culture (open access)

Enemies Within: The Cold War and the AIDS Crisis in Literature, Film, and Culture

Book discussing the literature and film of the Cold War and AIDS eras in an effort to link the two with the fear they created; "not only the political and biological illnesses...but also the fear and panic they engender." Index starts on page 235.
Date: 2017
Creator: Foertsch, Jacqueline, 1964-
System: The UNT Digital Library

Stilwell and Mountbatten in Burma: Allies at War, 1943-1944

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Stilwell and Mountbatten in Burma explores the relationship between American General Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell and British Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI) and the South East Asia Command (SEAC) between October 1943 and October 1944, within the wider context of Anglo-American relations during World War II. Using original material from both British and American archives, Jonathan Templin Ritter discusses the military, political, and diplomatic aspects of Anglo-American cooperation, the personalities involved, and where British and American policies both converged and diverged over Southeast Asia. Although much has been written about CBI, Stilwell and China, and Mountbatten, no published comparison study has focused on the relationship between the two men during the twelve-month period in which their careers overlapped. This book bridges the gap in the literature between Mountbatten’s earlier naval career and his later role as the last Viceroy of British India. It also presents original archival material that explains why Stilwell was so anti-British, including his 1935 memorandum titled “The British,” and his original margin notes to Mountbatten’s farewell letter to him in 1944. Finally, it presents other original archival material that refutes previous books that have accused Stilwell of needlessly sacrificing the lives of …
Date: April 2017
Creator: Ritter, Jonathan Templin
System: The UNT Digital Library

Yesterday There Was Glory: With the 4th Division, A.E.F., in World War I

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Memoir describing historical events and personal accounts of Gerald Andrew Howell based on his experiences during World War I, originally completed in 1946 : "His narrative was a study of a small group of American soldiers attempting to survive some of the most ferocious combat of the 'Great War.' He included information on the movements and activities of his 39th Infatry Regiment and the 4th Division, but Howell kept the focus of the story on his squad, a typical cross section of the A.E.F. {American Expeditionary Forces]" (p. 2) This edited version has some introductory and supplementary information and has made minor corrections to the original text. Index starts on page 338.
Date: September 2017
Creator: Howell, Gerald Andrew & Patrick, Jeffrey L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

We Were Going to Win, or Die There: with the Marines at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan

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Personal accounts of U.S. marine Roy Elrod based on transcripts of oral histories about his experiences in the service, with particular emphasis on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan. It includes editorial and historical notes and to provide context and clarification. Index starts on page 273.
Date: September 2017
Creator: Elrod, Roy H. & Allison, Fred H.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Sutherland Springs, Texas: Saratoga on the Cibolo

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In Sutherland Springs, Texas, Richard B. McCaslin explores the rise and fall of this rural community near San Antonio primarily through the lens of its aspirations to become a resort spa town, because of its mineral water springs, around the turn of the twentieth century. Texas real estate developers, initially more interested in oil, brought Sutherland Springs to its peak as a resort in the early twentieth century, but failed to transform the farming settlement into a resort town. The decline in water tables during the late twentieth century reduced the mineral water flows, and the town faded. Sutherland Springs’s history thus provides great insights into the importance of water in shaping settlement. Beyond the story of resort spa aspirations lies a history of the community and its people itself. McCaslin provides a complete history of Sutherland Springs from early settlement through Civil War and into the twentieth century, its agricultural and oil-drilling exploits alongside its mineral water appeal, as well as a complete community history of the various settlers and owners of the springs/hotel. The contents include: Setting a pattern -- Losing a generation -- Another start uphill -- Building new Sutherland Springs -- Century of decline -- Endnotes.
Date: February 2017
Creator: McCaslin, Richard B.
System: The UNT Digital Library

The Ranger Ideal

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Established in Waco in 1968, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum honors the iconic Texas Rangers, a service which has existed, in one form or another, since 1823. They have become legendary symbols of Texas and the American West. Thirty-one Rangers, with lives spanning more than two centuries, have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. In The Ranger Ideal Volume 1: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, 1823-1861, Darren L. Ivey presents capsule biographies of the seven inductees who served Texas before the Civil War. He begins with Stephen F. Austin, “the Father of Texas,” who laid the foundations of the Ranger service, and then covers John C. Hays, Ben McCulloch, Samuel H. Walker, William A. A. “Bigfoot” Wallace, John S. Ford, and Lawrence Sul Ross. Using primary records and reliable secondary sources, and rejecting apocryphal tales, The Ranger Ideal presents the true stories of these intrepid men who fought to tame a land with gallantry, grit, and guns. This Volume 1 is the first of a planned three-volume series covering all of the Texas Rangers inducted into the Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, Texas.
Date: October 2017
Creator: Ivey, Darren L.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Texas Rangers: Lives, Legend, and Legacy

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Authors Bob Alexander and Donaly E. Brice grappled with several issues when deciding how to relate a general history of the Texas Rangers. Should emphasis be placed on their frontier defense against Indians, or focus more on their role as guardians of the peace and statewide law enforcers? What about the tumultuous Mexican Revolution period, 1910-1920? And how to deal with myths and legends such as One Riot, One Ranger? Texas Rangers: Lives, Legend, and Legacy is the authors’ answer to these questions, a one-volume history of the Texas Rangers. The authors begin with the earliest Rangers in the pre-Republic years in 1823 and take the story up through the Republic, Mexican War, and Civil War. Then, with the advent of the Frontier Battalion, the authors focus in detail on each company A through F, relating what was happening within each company concurrently. Thereafter, Alexander and Brice tell the famous episodes of the Rangers that forged their legend, and bring the story up through the twentieth century to the present day in the final chapters.
Date: July 2017
Creator: Alexander, Bob & Brice, Donaly E.
System: The UNT Digital Library

Single Star of the West: The Republic of Texas, 1836-1845

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Does Texas’s experience as a republic make it unique among the other states? In many ways, Texas was an “accidental republic” for nearly ten years, until Texans voted overwhelmingly in favor of annexation to the United States after winning independence from Mexico. Single Star of the West begins with the Texas Revolution and examines the emergence of a Texas identity. Next, several contributors discuss how the Republic was defended by its army, navy, and the Texas Rangers. Individual chapters focus on the early founders of Texas—Sam Houston, Mirabeau B. Lamar, and Anson Jones. Texas’s efforts at diplomacy, and persistence and transformation in its economy, also receive careful analysis. Finally, social and cultural aspects of the Texas Republic receive coverage, with discussions of women, American Indians, African Americans, Tejanos, and religion.
Date: March 2017
Creator: Howell, Kenneth Wayne & Swanlund, Charles
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Criminal Law System of Medieval and Renaissance Florence (open access)

The Criminal Law System of Medieval and Renaissance Florence

Book analyzing the law system of Florence, Italy during the Italian Renaissance; specifically it outlines the structure of the government, offices, and philosophies of governing. Index starts on page 281.
Date: 2017
Creator: Stern, Laura Ikins
System: The UNT Digital Library

Your healing is killing me

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"Your Healing is Killing Me is a performance manifesto based on lessons learned in San Antonio free health clinics and New York acupuncture schools; from the treatments and consejos of curanderas, abortion doctors, Marxist artists, community health workers, and bourgie dermatologists. One artist's reflections on living with post-traumatic stress disorder, ansia, and eczema in the new age of trigger warnings, the master cleanse, and crowd-funded self-care."--Back cover.
Date: 2017
Creator: Grise, Virginia
System: The UNT Digital Library
Melville's Major Fiction: Politics, Theology, and Imagination (open access)

Melville's Major Fiction: Politics, Theology, and Imagination

Book analyzing the popular works of Herman Melville and his motives for writing such stories such as: "Pierre," "The Confidence-Man," and "Billy Budd." Index starts on page 258.
Date: 2017
Creator: Duban, James
System: The UNT Digital Library
Catalog of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Spring 2017 (open access)

Catalog of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute: Spring 2017

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNT's course catalog for Spring 2017.
Date: 2017~
Creator: University of North Texas. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Web as History (open access)

The Web as History

The World Wide Web has now been in use for more than 20 years. From early browsers to today’s principal source of information, entertainment and much else, the Web is an integral part of our daily lives, to the extent that some people believe ‘if it’s not online, it doesn’t exist.’ While this statement is not entirely true, it is becoming increasingly accurate, and reflects the Web’s role as an indispensable treasure trove. It is curious, therefore, that historians and social scientists have thus far made little use of the Web to investigate historical patterns of culture and society, despite making good use of letters, novels, newspapers, radio and television programs, and other pre-digital artifacts. This volume argues that now is the time to question what we have learnt from the Web so far. The 12 chapters explore this topic from a number of interdisciplinary angles – through histories of national web spaces and case studies of different government and media domains – as well as an introduction that provides an overview of this exciting new area of research.
Date: March 2017
Creator: Brügger, Niels & Schroeder, Ralph
System: The UNT Digital Library

All Over the Map: True Heroes of Texas Music

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Historical account of musicians in Texas, grouped by region, describing "underappreciated" artists as well as some famous artists. Each chapter provides anecdotes and biographical information about an artist or musical group. Index starts on page 299.
Date: May 2017
Creator: Corcoran, Michael
System: The UNT Digital Library

Graham Barnett: A Dangerous Man

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Graham Barnett was killed in Rankin, Texas, on December 6, 1931. His death brought an end to a storied career, but not an end to the legends that claimed he was a gunman, a hired pistolero on both sides of the border, a Texas Ranger known for questionable shootings in Company B under Captain Fox, a deputy sheriff, a bootlegger, and a possible “fixer” for both law enforcement and outlaw organizations. In real life he was a good cowboy, who provided for his family the best way he could, and who did so by slipping seamlessly between the law enforcement community and the world of illegal liquor traffickers. Stories say he killed unnumbered men on the border, but he stood trial only twice and was acquitted both times. Barnett lived in the twentieth century but carried with him many of the attitudes of old frontier Texas. Among those beliefs was that if there were problems, a man dealt with them directly and forcefully—with a gun. His penchant to settle a score with gunplay brought him into confrontation with Sheriff W. C. Fowler, a former friend, who shot Barnett with the latter’s own submachine gun on loan. One contemporary summed it …
Date: May 2017
Creator: Coffey, James L.; Drake, Russell M. & Barnett, John T.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas Legislative Manual: 85th Legislature (open access)

Texas Legislative Manual: 85th Legislature

Manual compiled by the Texas Legislative Council as "a special information publication primarily designed as a reference tool for legislators and legislative staff" (Preface). It includes texts of the U.S. and Texas constitutions, annotated rules for the House and Senate, and directory information for members of the Texas Legislature.
Date: ~2017
Creator: Texas. Legislature. Legislative Council.
System: The Portal to Texas History

The Best American Newspaper Narratives, Volume 4

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Anthology of writing by the ten winners of the 2016 Best American Newspaper Narrative Writing Contest at the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. The pieces are published in order of places awarded: McCrummen, “An American Void” (1st place); Goffard, “Fleeing Syria: The Choice” (2nd place); Schweitzer, “The Life and Times of Strider Wolf” (3rd place), and runners up, Hubert, “Genny’s World”; Phillips, “Inside an FBI Hostage Crisis”; Johnson, “Patient, Surgeon Work Together”; Reich, “Norman Malone’s Quest”; Cox, “Telling JJ”; Cramer, “The Boy Who Burned Inside”; and Barton, “Unsolved: A Murdered Teen, a 40-year Mystery."
Date: June 2017
Creator: Reaves, Gayle
System: The UNT Digital Library

Eavesdropping on Texas History

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Mary L. Scheer has assembled fifteen contributors to explore special moments in Texas history. The contributors assembled for this anthology represent many of the “all stars” among Texas historians: two State Historians of Texas, two past presidents of TSHA, four current or past presidents of ETHA, two past presidents of WTHA, nine fellows of historical associations, two Fulbright Scholars, and seven award-winning authors. Each is an expert in his or her field and provided in some fashion an answer to the question: At what moment in Texas history would you have liked to have been a “fly on the wall” and why? The choice of a moment and the answers were both personal and individual, ranging from familiar topics to less well-known subjects. One wanted to be at the Alamo. Another chose to explore when Sam Houston refused to take a loyalty oath to the Confederacy. One chapter follows the first twenty-four hours of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s presidency after Kennedy’s assassination. Others write about the Dust Bowl coming to Texas, or when Texas Southern University was created.
Date: February 2017
Creator: Scheer, Mary L.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen (open access)

Cormac McCarthy and Performance: Page, Stage, Screen

Book about the life and work of author Cormac McCarthy, particularly focusing on McCarthy's writing for theater and film as well as adaptations of his work by other screenwriters.
Date: 2017
Creator: Peebles, Stacey L. (Stacey Lyn), 1976-
System: The Portal to Texas History
College of Music Program Book 2016-2017: Ensemble & Other Performances, Volume 1 (open access)

College of Music Program Book 2016-2017: Ensemble & Other Performances, Volume 1

Ensemble performances program book from the 2016-2017 school year at the University of North Texas College of Music.
Date: 2017
Creator: University of North Texas. College of Music.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Catalog of Texas A & M University San Antonio, 2017-2018, Graduate and Undergraduate (open access)

Catalog of Texas A & M University San Antonio, 2017-2018, Graduate and Undergraduate

Catalog of undergraduate and graduate courses offered by Texas A & M University San Antonio for the year 2017-2018, as well as general information about the university, programs, and policies.
Date: 2017
Creator: Texas A & M University San Antonio
System: The Portal to Texas History

Accidental Activists: Mark Phariss, Vic Holmes, and Their Fight for Marriage Equality in Texas

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In early 2013 same-sex marriage was legal in only ten states and the District of Columbia. That year the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor appeared to open the door to marriage equality. In Texas, Mark Phariss and Vic Holmes, together for sixteen years and deeply in love, wondered why no one had stepped across the threshold to challenge their state’s 2005 constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. They agreed to join a lawsuit being put together by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLD. Two years later—after tense battles in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas and in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, after sitting through oral arguments at the Supreme Court of the United States in Obergefell v. Hodges—they won the right to marry deep in the heart of Texas. But the road they traveled was never easy. Accidental Activists is the deeply moving story of two men who struggled to achieve the dignity of which Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke in a series of Supreme Court decisions that recognized the “personhood,” the essential humanity of gays and lesbians. Author David Collins tells Mark and Vic’s story in the context of legal and …
Date: August 2017
Creator: Collins, David
System: The UNT Digital Library