Randolph B. “Mike” Campbell has spent the better part of the last five decades helping Texans rediscover their history, producing a stream of definitive works on the social, political, and economic structures of the Texas past. Through meticulous research and terrific prose, Campbell’s collective work has fundamentally remade how historians understand Texan identity and the state’s southern heritage, as well as our understanding of such contentious issues as slavery, westward expansion, and Reconstruction. Campbell’s pioneering work in local and county records has defined the model for grassroots research and community studies in the field. More than any other scholar, Campbell has shaped our modern understanding of Texas. In this collection of seventeen original essays, Campbell’s colleagues, friends, and students offer a capacious examination of Texas’s history—ranging from the Spanish era through the 1960s War on Poverty—to honor Campbell’s deep influence on the field. Focusing on themes and methods that Campbell pioneered, the essays debate Texas identity, the creation of nineteenth-century Texas, the legacies of the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the remaking of the Lone Star State during the twentieth century. Featuring some of the most well-known names in the field—as well as rising stars—the volume offers the latest scholarship …

The isolated Canadian River in the Texas Panhandle stretched before John Erickson and Bill Ellzey as they began a journey through time and what the locals call “the valley.” They went on horseback, as they might have traveled it a century before. Everywhere they went they talked, worked, and swapped stories with the people of the valley, piecing together a picture of what life has been like there for a hundred years. Through Time and the Valley is their story of the river—its history, its lore, its colorful characters, the comedies and tragedies that valley people have spun yarns about for generations. Outlaws, frontier wives, Indian warriors, cowboys, craftsmen, dance-hall girls, moonshiners, inventors, ranchers—all are part of the Canadian River country heritage that gives this book its vitality. “Through Time and the Valley is the finest non-scholarly account of the history, culture, and people of this region. . . . What I did notice was humor, pathos, strong characterization, crisp dialogue, and such a sense of place as to bring a lump to my throat.” — Roundup Magazine

Interview with Lorra Golden, a Army Iraq War veteran from Gainesville, Texas. Golden discusses her family background, life before the military, joining the Army, training, struggles as an older enlistee and a lesbian in the service, deployment to Camp Taji, driving convoys, seeing combat, having PTSD, veterans, the chain of command, women in combat and female integration, and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. In appendix is a chronology of Golden's service, and two photos of newspaper clippings of the construction of walls around Sadr City, Baghdad.

Interview with Cecelia Hernandez, a Mexican-American resident of Fort Worth, Texas. Hernandez discusses her schooling, her family, thoughts on college and first generation students, becoming and being a parent, working at Fort Worth ISD, and encountering struggles as a Hispanic person and parent. In appendix is her family tree.

Interview with Josephine Bermejo, first generation of Bermejo women, for the Mexican American Women's Educational Experience Oral History Project. The interview includes Bermejo's recollections of schooling in Minnesota and Iowa, learning in English schools, leaving school for family obligations, and getting a GED in Fort Worth, Texas. Bermejo also talks about children's education and her thoughts on the future of Mexican American education. It includes an appendix with the Bermejo family tree.

Interview with U.S. Navy Seaman, Avionics Technician, and Persian Gulf War-era Veteran Shelley Schnittker for the Women Veterans Oral History Project. The interview includes her experiences with childhood in Arlington and the effects of her parent's divorce. She talks about her experience in drug rehab, reasons for joining the Navy, training in a job recently opened to women, her experience in an all-female company at boot camp, life at duty station in San Diego, California, and the reaction of her family when she told them of her enlistment. It also includes her experience as part of a detachment aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation, her thoughts on women in combat and the expanding role of women in the Navy in the early 1990s. She talks about her first marriage, as well as attending Baylor University and the reaction of other students in regards to her veteran status, the lack of support for women veterans at Baylor, the shellback ceremony, and her advice for future generations of women in the military. Schnittker also talks about unreported sexual assault during avionics school, and gives advice to victims of military sexual trauma. It includes an appendix with photographs and a list detailing Schnittker's …

Interview with William F. Collier, Marine veteran and Air America helicopter pilot, for the Air America Oral History Project. The interview includes Collier's personal experiences as a Marine helicopter pilot in Vietnam, living with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, living in Thailand, search and rescue missions, and the Marine Aviation Cadet program, as well as his early love of aviation, interaction with the local populations in Southeast Asia, rumors about Air America, thoughts on the Air America movie, leaving Air America, and his thoughts on U.S. involvement in Laos as well as his own involvement. The interview includes an appendix with a short story written by Collier.

Interview with former Denton City Council member Charlye Heggins as part of the UNT African American Remembrance Project. The interview includes Heggins' personal experiences about her childhood, raising a family, doing volunteer work in Denton, and being involved with Texas politics. She particularly talks about discrimination and race issues in Denton during the 1970s and '80s. It includes an appendix with photographs and an article about her death.