Two outstanding Texas trial lawyers—one now an equally respected district judge—have written On the Jury Trial, a “must have” reference for any trial lawyer aspiring to excellence or seeking to maintain it. Chapter topics include voir dire, opening statement, preparing witnesses, cross examination, using exhibits, closing argument, jury research, and more, with excellent examples and “do’s and don’ts” provided throughout. Think of this book as the senior law partner’s memo to associates on how to really try a case. Looking for fly-on-the-wall insight into world-class trial preparation and strategy? Here it is. A behind-the-scenes tour of the inner workings of the judicial process? This book has you covered. Its combination of advice, illustration, and commentary is every bit as valuable as it is unique. Every litigator should have this book on the shelf, no matter the state in which they practice.

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.

In 2009 Fort Worth unveiled an elaborate, million-dollar memorial to its fallen police and firefighters going all the way back to the city’s beginnings in 1873. Fifty-eight of the ninety-five names on the memorial were policemen. Written in Blood is a more inclusive version of that idea because it covers more than just members of the Fort Worth Police Department; it includes men from all branches of local law enforcement who died defending law and order in the early years: policemen, sheriffs, constables, “special officers,” and even a police commissioner. Richard F. Selcer and Kevin S. Foster tell the stories of thirteen of those early lawmen—an unlucky number to be sure. They range from Tarrant County Sheriff John B. York through Fort Worth Police Officer William “Ad” Campbell covering the years from 1861 to 1909. York was the first local lawman to die—in a street fight. Campbell was last in this era—shot-gunned in the back while walking his beat in Hell’s Half-Acre. Co-authors Selcer and Foster bring academic credentials and “street cred” to the story, explaining how policemen got (and kept) their jobs, what special officers were, and the working relationship between the city marshal’s boys and the sheriff’s boys.

John Gregory Bourke kept a monumental set of diaries as aide-de-camp to Brigadier General George Crook. This fifth volume opens at Fort Wingate as Bourke prepares to visit the Navajos. Next, at the Pine River Agency, he is witness to the Sun Dance, where despite his discomfort at what he saw, he noted that during the Sun Dance piles of food and clothing were contributed by the Indians themselves, to relieve the poor among their people. Bourke continued his travels among the Zunis, the Rio Grande pueblos, and finally, with the Hopis to attend the Hopi Snake dance. The volume concludes at Fort Apache, Arizona, which is stirring with excitement over the activities of the Apache medicine man, Nakai’-dokli’ni, which Bourke spelled Na Kay do Klinni. This would erupt into bloodshed less than a week later. Volume Five is particularly important because it deals almost exclusively with Bourke’s ethnological research. Bourke’s account of the Sun Dance is particularly significant because it was the last one held by the Oglalas. The volume is extensively annotated and contains a biographical appendix on Indians, civilians, and military personnel named.

Start your engines and follow the backroads, the historical paths, and the scenic landscape that were fashioned by geologic Ice Ages and traveled by Big Thicket explorers as well as contemporary park advocates—all as diverse as the Big Thicket itself. From Spanish missionaries to Jayhawkers, and from timber barons to public officials, you will meet some unusual characters who inhabited an exceptional region. The Big Thicket and its National Preserve contain plants and animals from deserts and swamps and ecosystems in between, all together in one amazing Biological Crossroad. The fifteen tours included with maps will take you through them all. Visitors curious about a legendary area will find this book an essential companion in their cars. Libraries will use the book as a reference to locate information on ghost towns, historic events, and National Preserve features. “A result of a prodigious amount of local research as well as a great deal of driving and tramping around, this book might end up as a classic.”—Thad Sitton, author of Backwoodsmen: Stockmen and Hunters along a Big Thicket River Valley

Organized as a series of monthly journal entries, Morning Comes to Elk Mountain is Lantz’s response to ten years of exploring the rough and unexpected beauty of the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge. A combination of memoir, natural history, Native American history, and geology, this book is enriched by 20 color photos and a map to appeal to the seasoned visitor as well as the newcomer to the refuge. The national wildlife refuge that’s the focus of the book was among the first established by President Theodore Roosevelt. He helped save the Wichitas from miners and land speculators, and instead the harsh yet scenic area became the nation’s first bison refuge, established to keep this American icon from slipping into extinction. Today the refuge hosts more than a million visitors a year, most of them coming to hike the trails, climb the rocks, photograph bison and prairie dogs, or simply commune with a beautiful, wild area that remains a spiritual landscape for the Kiowa and Comanche Indians who call it home.

In 2010 Written in Blood: The History of Fort Worth’s Fallen Lawmen, Volume 1, told the stories of thirteen Fort Worth law officers who died in the line of duty between 1861 and 1909. Now Richard F. Selcer and Kevin S. Foster are back with Volume 2 covering another baker’s dozen line-of-duty deaths that occurred between 1910 and 1928. Not counting the two officers who died of natural causes, these are more tales of murder, mayhem, and dirty work from all branches of local law enforcement: police, sheriff’s deputies, constables, and special officers, just like in Volume 1. This era was, if anything, bloodier than the preceding era of the first volume. Fort Worth experienced a race riot, two lynchings, and martial law imposed by the U.S. Army while Camp Bowie was operating. Bushwhacking (such as happened to Peter Howard in 1915) and assassinations (such as happened to Jeff Couch in 1920) replaced blood feuds and old-fashioned shootouts as leading causes of death among lawmen. Violence was not confined to the streets either; a Police Commissioner was gunned down in his city hall office in 1917. Even the new category of “vehicular homicide” claimed a lawman’s life.

Pacific Blitzkrieg closely examines the planning, preparation, and execution of ground operations for five major invasions in the Central Pacific (Guadalcanal, Tarawa, the Marshalls, Saipan, and Okinawa). The commanders on the ground had to integrate the U.S. Army and Marine Corps into a single striking force, something that would have been difficult in peacetime, but in the midst of a great global war, it was a monumental task. Yet, ultimate success in the Pacific rested on this crucial, if somewhat strained, partnership and its accomplishments. Despite the thousands of works covering almost every aspect of World War II in the Pacific, until now no one has examined the detailed mechanics behind this transformation at the corps and division level. Sharon Tosi Lacey makes extensive use of previously untapped primary research material to re-examine the development of joint ground operations, the rapid transformation of tactics and equipment, and the evolution of command relationships between army and marine leadership. This joint venture was the result of difficult and patient work by commanders and evolving staffs who acted upon the lessons of each engagement with remarkable speed. For every brilliant strategic and operational decision of the war, there were thousands of minute actions …

In 1944 and 1945, Tom Faulkner was a B-24 pilot flying out of San Giovanni airfield in Italy as a member of the 15th Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Forces. Only 19 years old when he completed his 28th and last mission, Tom was one of the youngest bomber pilots to serve in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II. Between September 1944 and the end of February 1945, he flew against targets in Hungary, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Yugoslavia. On Tom’s last mission against the marshalling yards at Augsburg, Germany, his plane was severely damaged, and he had to fly to Switzerland where he and his crew were interned. The 15th Air Force generally has been overshadowed by works on the 8th Air Force based in England. Faulkner’s memoir helps fill an important void by providing a first-hand account of a pilot and his crew during the waning months of the war, as well as a description of his experiences before his military service. David L. Snead has edited the memoir and provided annotations and corroboration for the various missions.

Established in Waco in 1968, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum honors the iconic Texas Rangers, a service that has existed, in one form or another, since 1823. They have become legendary symbols of Texas and the American West. In The Ranger Ideal Volume 2: Texas Rangers in the Hall of Fame, 1874-1930, Darren L. Ivey presents the twelve inductees who served Texas in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Ivey begins with John B. Jones, who directed his Rangers from state troops to professional lawmen; then covers Leander H. McNelly, John B. Armstrong, James B. Gillett, Jesse Lee Hall, George W. Baylor, Bryan Marsh, and Ira Aten—the men who were responsible for some of the Rangers’ most legendary feats. Ivey concludes with James A. Brooks, William J. McDonald, John R. Hughes, and John H. Rogers, the “Four Great Captains” who guided the Texas Rangers into the twentieth century. The Ranger Ideal presents the true stories of these intrepid men who fought to tame a land with gallantry, grit, and guns.

Book describing military philosophy before and after WWII, with full chapters analyzing how the U.S. Army and Marine Corps engaged in urban warfare during four specific battles: Aachen (October 1944), Manila (February 1945), Seoul (September 1959), and Hue (February 1968). Index starts on page 363.

By early 1941, Great Britain stood alone against the aerial might of Nazi Germany and was in need of pilots. The Lend-Lease Act allowed for the training of British pilots in the United States and the formation of British Flying Training Schools. These unique schools were owned by American operators, staffed with American civilian instructors, supervised by British Royal Air Force officers, utilized aircraft supplied by the U.S. Army Air Corps, and used the RAF training syllabus. Within these pages, Tom Killebrew provides the first comprehensive history of all seven British Flying Training Schools located in Terrell, Texas; Lancaster, California; Miami, Oklahoma; Mesa, Arizona; Clewiston, Florida; Ponca City, Oklahoma; and Sweetwater, Texas. The British students attended classes and slowly mastered the elements of flight day and night. Some students flushed out, while others were killed during training mishaps and are buried in local cemeteries. Those who finished the course became Royal Air Force pilots. These young British students would also forge a strong and long-lasting bond of friendship with the Americans they came to know.

Women in Civil War Texas is the first book dedicated to the unique experiences of Texas women during this time. It connects Texas women’s lives to southern women’s history and shares the diversity of experiences of women in Texas during the Civil War. Contributors explore Texas women and their vocal support for secession, coping with their husbands’ wartime absences, the importance of letter-writing, and how pro-Union sentiment caused serious difficulties for women. They also analyze the effects of ethnicity, focusing on African American, German, and Tejana women’s experiences. Finally, two essays examine the problem of refugee women in east Texas and the dangers facing western frontier women. The contents include: "Everyone has the war fever" / Vicki Betts -- Caroline Sedberry, politician's wife / Dorothy Ewing -- He said, she said / Beverly Rowe -- Finding joy through hard times / Brittany Bounds -- Black Texas women and the freedom war / Bruce A. Glasrud -- Black women and Supreme Court decisions during the Civil War era / Linda S. Hudson -- Mexican-Texan women in the Civil War / Jerry Thompson and Elizabeth Mata -- Courage on a Texas frontier / Judith Dykes-Hoffman -- "In favor of our fathers' country …

Interview with Diego Echevarria, an Mexican-American immigrant from Mexico City. Echevarria discusses his childhood, life in Mexico City, living in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, moving to Texas City, experiences in school, moving to Irving, Texas, ESL, reflections on Mexico City, the visa process, the DREAM Act, employment, and immigration rhetoric in America.

Interview with Mary Franklin, an activist in the Dallas LGBT community from Riverhead, New York. Franklin discusses her family background, the neighborhood she grew up in in, dyslexia and struggles in school, her sexuality and coming out, the LGBT scene on Long Island, "gay" as a term, her first girlfriend, Anita Bryant, applying for a marriage license on National Coming Out Day, feminism and activism, moving to Dallas, the decriminalization of homosexuality in Texas, the HIV-AIDS epidemic, threats, involvement with the Unitarian Church, working at the Food Pantry, and changes in societal attitudes towards LGBT.

Interview with Army veteran Robert Cook. The interview includes Cook's personal experiences in the European Theater as well as experiences as a prisoner-of-war of the Germans in Stalag 17 and post-war life. The interview also includes an appendix with a photograph.

Interview with Miguel Soria, Mexican-born immigrant to Plano, Texas. The interview includes Soria's personal experiences about childhood in Mexico, his first visit to the U.S., illegally crossing the border to live in Dallas, Texas, and experiences with a human smuggler, along with his experiences as an undocumented person and with discrimination. It also includes his thoughts on the DREAM act and the immigration process, and advice for future immigrants.

Interview with Giancarlo Quijano, West German-born Colombian immigrant to Denton, Texas, for the DFW Metroplex Immigration Oral History Project. The interview includes Quijano's personal experiences from his childhood in West Germany, life in Colombia during the 1990s violence, his family's immigration to Texas, his expectations of the U.S., and the subsequent culture shock. Quijano talks about the transition to American life, attending college as an international student, his experiences with the citizenship process, and his thoughts on the immigration debate.

Transcript of an interview with Dr. Valerie Martínez-Ebers, professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas and former UNT student. Dr. Martínez-Ebers discusses her childhood as an Army brat; education; family background; discrimination against Mexican Americans; attending UNT with a Mexican American ancestry; growing awareness of ethnicity and ethnic identity; student activism; differences in treatment and attitudes towards Latinos/Latinas in various parts of the United States; teaching politics of race and ethnicity at UNT; continued activism; UNT organizations for Latinos/Latinas.

Adolphe Gouhenant tells the story of artist, revolutionary, and early North Texas resident Francois Ignace (Adolphe) Gouhenant (1804-1871). Gouhenant was selected by well-known Icarian communist Etienne Cabet to lead an advance guard from France to settle a utopian colony in North Texas. The community, beset by hardships, ultimately scapegoated Gouhenant, accused him of being a French agent, and expelled him. He then journeyed first to Fort Worth to teach the federal soldiers French and art, and next to Dallas, where he founded the town’s first arts establishment in the 1850s. Gouhenant set up shop as a daguerreotypist and photographed the town’s early residents. His Arts Saloon was the scene of many exhibitions and dances but ultimately became the high stake in a nasty battle among Dallas’s leading citizens, setting legal precedent for Texas homestead law.

Interview with Tanya Kiboko, an immigrant to Texas from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kiboko discusses her education, her family, Congolese society, languages, learning English, culture shock, food, markets, attending Wiley College, her husband, differences in structure between Western and Congolese families, and reflections on life.

Transcript of an interview with Charlie Joe Cole Jr., conducted in Denton, Texas, for the Geezle Fraternity Oral History Project that expands on a previous interview in 1985. Cole discusses his background as an athlete at North Texas State College (UNT) playing football, his distinguished Air Force service, his membership in the Geezle Fraternity, and his career in education followed by his career as Denton County's Probation Officer.

Interview with Eliot Coleman, an organic farmer and homesteader from Rumson, New Jersey. Coleman discusses his childhood, college experience, work at Franconcia College, befriending Scott and Helen Nearing and purchasing a stead from them, thoughts on government, counterculture, good methods for organic farming, local ecology and maintaining ecosystems, his marriages, different farms worked, stories about the Nearings, and thoughts on his way of life.

Interview with Antonio Chavez, a former UNT student from Sonora, Texas. Chavez discusses the desegregation of schools in Sonora, experiences in grade school and the disparity in quality between segregated schools, his father's grocery business, discrimination, majoring in elementary education, working in geophysics, attending North Texas State College, life in Denton and on campus, and raising his family.