Henry Martyn Lazelle (1832-1917) was the only cadet in the history of the U.S. Military Academy to be suspended and sent back a year (for poor grades and bad behavior) and eventually return as Commandant of the Corps of Cadets. After graduating from West Point in 1855, he scouted with Kit Carson, was wounded by Apaches, and spent nearly a year as a "paroled" prisoner-of-war at the outbreak of the Civil War. Exchanged for a Confederate officer, he took command of a Union cavalry regiment, chasing Mosby's Rangers throughout northern Virginia. Due in part to an ingrained disposition to question the status quo, Lazelle's service as a commander and senior staff officer was punctuated at times with contention and controversy. In charge of the official records of the Civil War in Washington, he was accused of falsifying records, exonerated, but dismissed short of tour. As Commandant of Cadets at West Point, he was a key figure during the infamous court martial of Johnson Whittaker, one of West Point's first African American cadets. Again, he was relieved of duty after a bureaucratic battle with the Academy's Superintendent.

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: Saslow, "Into the Lonely Quiet" (1st place); Moskowitz, "Marathon Carjacking" (2nd place); Johnson, "The Course of Their Lives" (3rd place), and runners up, Goffard, "The Manhunt"; McCrummen, "Wait—You Described It as a Cloudy Feeling?"; Phillips, "The Lobotomy Files"; Applegate, "Taken Under"; Kissinger, "A Mother, at Her Wits' End"; Kruse, "The Last Voyage of the Bounty"; McKinnon, "Alone on the Hill" ; Newall, "Almost Justice"; and Schweitzer, "Together, Despite All."

When Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan walked into the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Processing Center and opened fire on soldiers within, he perpetrated the worst mass shooting on a United States military base in our country’s history. Death on Base is an in-depth look at the events surrounding the tragic mass murder that took place on November 5, 2009, and an investigation into the causes and influences that factored into the attack. The story begins with Hasan's early life in Virginia, continues with his time at Fort Hood, Texas, covers the events of the shooting, and concludes with his trial. The authors analyze Hasan's connections to radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and demonstrate how radical Islam fueled Hasan’s hatred of both the American military and the soldiers he treated. Hasan's mass shooting is compared with others, such as George Hennard's shooting rampage at Luby's in Killeen in 1991, Charles Whitman at the University of Texas, and Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho. The authors explore the strange paradox that the shooting at Fort Hood was classified as workplace violence rather than a terrorist act. This classification has major implications for the victims of the …

Assigned as the senior medical advisor to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam in I Corps, an area close to the DMZ, James G. Van Straten traveled extensively and interacted with military officers and non-commissioned officers, peasant-class farmers, Buddhist bonzes, shopkeepers, scribes, physicians, nurses, the mentally ill, and even political operatives. He sent his wife daily letters from July 1966 through June 1967, describing in impressive detail his experiences, and those letters became the primary source for his memoir. The author is grateful that his wife retained all the letters he wrote to her and their children during the year they were apart. The author describes with great clarity and poignancy the anguish among the survivors when an American cargo plane in bad weather lands short of the Da Nang Air Base runway on Christmas Eve and crashes into a Vietnamese coastal village, killing more than 100 people and destroying their village; the heart-wrenching pleadings of a teenage girl that her shrapnel-ravaged leg not be amputated; and the anger of an American helicopter pilot who made repeated trips into a hot landing zone to evacuate the wounded, only to have the Vietnamese insist that the dead be given a …

A History of Fort Worth in Black & White fills a long-empty niche on the Fort Worth bookshelf: a scholarly history of the city's black community that starts at the beginning with Ripley Arnold and the early settlers, and comes down to today with our current battles over education, housing, and representation in city affairs. The book's sidebars on some noted and some not-so-noted African Americans make it appealing as a school text as well as a book for the general reader. Using a wealth of primary sources, Richard Selcer dispels several enduring myths, for instance the mistaken belief that Camp Bowie trained only white soldiers, and the spurious claim that Fort Worth managed to avoid the racial violence that plagued other American cities in the twentieth century. Selcer arrives at some surprisingly frank conclusions that will challenge current politically correct notions. "Selcer does a great job of exploring little-known history about the military, education, sports and even some social life and organizations."--Bob Ray Sanders, author of Calvin Littlejohn: Portrait of a Community in Black and White.

Containing pieces by distinguished scholars including Darlene Harbour Unrue and Robert Brinkmeyer, this book is the first full investigation of the links between Porter’s only novel and European intellectual history. Beginning with Sebastian Brant, author of the late medieval Narrenschiff, whom she acknowledges in her Preface to Ship of Fools, Porter's image of Europe emerges as more complex, more knowledgeable, and more politically nuanced than previous critics have acknowledged. Ship of Fools is in conversation with Europe's humanistic tradition as well as with the political moments of 1931 and 1962, the years that elapsed from the novel's conception to its completion. The contents include: New contexts for Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of fools / Thomas Austenfeld -- Fools and folly in Erasmus and Porter / Jewel Spears Brooker -- "After all, what is this life itself?": humanist contexts of death and immortality in Katherine Anne Porter's Ship of fools / Dimiter Daphinoff -- Paratexts and the rhetorical factor in literature: Sebastian Brant and Katherine Anne Porter / Joachim Knape --.

Funny, heartbreaking, and real--these twelve stories showcase a dynamic range of voices belonging to characters who can't stop confessing. They are obsessive storytellers, disturbed professors, depressed auctioneers, gambling clergy. A fourteen-year-old boy gets baptized and speaks in tongues to win the love of a girl who ushers him into adulthood; a troubled insomniac searches the woods behind his mother's house for the "awful pretty" singing that begins each midnight; a school-system employee plans a year-end party at the site of a child's drowning; a burned-out health-care administrator retires from New England to coastal Georgia and stumbles upon a life-changing moment inside Walmart. These big-hearted people--tethered to the places that shape them--survive their daily sorrows and absurdities with well-timed laughter; they slouch toward forgiveness, and they point their ears toward the Holy Ghost's last words. "In its precise prose and spooky intelligence and sharp-eyed examination of the condemned kind we are, Last Words of the Holy Ghost is an original. Listen: if you can find a collection of stories more cohesive, more ambitious in reach, more generous in its passion, and fancier in its footwork, I will buy it for you and deliver it in person. In the meantime, put some …

In Making JFK Matter, Paul Santa Cruz examines how popular memory of John F. Kennedy has been used politically by various interest groups, primarily the city of Dallas, Lyndon Johnson, and Robert Kennedy, as well as how the memory of Kennedy has been portrayed in various museums. Santa Cruz argues that we have memorialized JFK not simply out of love for him or admiration for the ideals he embodied, but because invoking his name carries legitimacy and power. Memory can be employed to accomplish particular ends: for example, the passage of long overdue civil rights legislation, or even successfully running for political office. Santa Cruz demonstrates the presence and use of popular memory in an extensive analysis of what was being said, and by whom, about the late president through White House memoranda and speech material, museum exhibits (such as the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas and the JFK Presidential Library and Museum in Boston), public correspondence, newspapers and periodicals of the time, memoirs, and archival research. He also explores how JFK has been memorialized in films such as Bobby, JFK, and Thirteen Days. Written in an accessible manner to appeal to both historians and the general public, Making JFK …

Luke Short perfected his skills as a gambler in locations that included Leadville, Tombstone, Dodge City, and Fort Worth. In 1883, in what became known as the "Dodge City War," he banded together with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and others to protect his ownership interests in the Long Branch Saloon—an event commemorated by the famous "Dodge City Peace Commission" photograph. During his lifetime, Luke Short became one of the best known sporting men in the United States, and one of the wealthiest. The irony is that Luke Short is best remembered for being the winning gunfighter in two of the most celebrated showdowns in Old West history: the shootout with Charlie Storms in Tombstone, Arizona, and the showdown against Jim Courtright in Fort Worth, Texas. He would have hated that. The contents include: -The cowboy by birth -- Tall tales and short facts -- The gambler by choice -- Get out of Dodge! -- A plain statement & shots from Short -- The Dodge City peace commission -- The White Elephant in Panther City -- Sporting men of Fort Worth -- Dead man in a shooting gallery -- Mrs. Luke Short -- The war on the gambling fraternity -- State …

Transcript of an interview with Abbie McMillan, homesteader and simple life advocate, concerning her childhood; early experiences with gardening and self-sufficiency; discovering the Nearings and the Simple Life; decision to homestead in Maine; memories of the Nearings and the Good Life Center.

Interview with Atzhiri Acosta, a Mexican-American immigrant from Wichita Falls, Texas. Acosta discusses moving to Wichita Falls, Texas, his upbringing there and adjusting to American life, his first jobs, being an "illegal immigrant" and immigration rhetoric, his family, the DREAM Act, Donald Trump, his work, deportation, and Christmas traditions.

Transcript of an interview with Cathy Nelson Hartman, retired Associate Dean of Libraries at the University of North Texas. Hartman discusses her childhood in east Texas; education and work history; move to librarianship; changes at UNT over the years; work at UNT Libraries; move to digital libraries; creation of UNT’s digital repository and the Portal to Texas History; logistics of creating a digital library; international growth of digital libraries.

Transcript of an interview with Chip Wadsworth, homesteader and simple life advocate, concerning her childhood; early experiences with the outdoors; discovering the Nearings and the Simple Life; decision to homestead in Maine; memories of the Nearings and the Good Life Center.

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.

Transcript of an interview with Erik Burgos, DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Team activist. Burgos shares concerning his immigration to Colorado at two years old; life as undocumented immigrants; family's decision to leave Mexico; involvement in the North Texas DREAM Team; activism; DACA.

Transcript of an interview with Erio Enzo Pedini, an immigrant from the Republic of San Marino. Pedini recounts memories growing up in the Republic of San Marino and going to school in Italy; Coming to America in 1958 and the differences in cultures and lifestyles; Living and working in Detroit, Michigan; becoming a U.S. citizen; moving to Dallas, Texas; and working in the building industry.

Transcript of an interview with Evilu Pridgeon, educator and longtime Dallas LGBT activist, for the Dallas LGBT Oral History Project. Pridgeon discusses her childhood in Austin, Texas; education; work history; coming out; Dallas LGBT history; AIDS crisis in Dallas; LGBT activism; The Dallas Way; diversity in the gay community.

Transcript of an interview with Gerry Bryan, homesteader and simple life advocate, concerning his childhood; early experiences with farming; discovering the Nearings and the Simple Life; decision to homestead in Maine; memories of the Nearings.

Interview with Gretchen Legler from Salt Lake City, Utah, and her partner Ruth Hill, from Woburn, Massachusetts, both homesteaders. Legler and Hill discuss their respective families, upbringing, their interest in animals and the environment, the influence of their families, traveling to Anatarctica, Alaska, and other places, meeting one another and developing a relationship, returning to New England and developing a farm, neighbors and the local community, and slaughtering and the ethics of meat.

Transcript of an interview with Janine Winn, homesteader and simple life advocate, concerning her childhood; early experiences gardening and outdoors; decision to homestead in Maine.

Transcript of an interview with Keith Heavrin Jr., homesteader and simple life advocate. Heavrin shares concerning his childhood; military experiences in Vietnam; love of the sea; discovering the Nearings and the Simple Life; decision to homestead in Maine; memories of the Nearings and the Good Life Center.

Interview with Kenneth Pressley, a rancher from Mansfield, Texas. Pressley discusses his family background, education and career, events on the day of desegregation at Mansfield High School in 1956, and race relations.

Transcript of an interview with Lee Cart, homesteader and simple life advocate, concerning her childhood; discovering homesteading and self-sufficiency; decision to homestead in Maine.

Interview with Lissette Moreno, a Mexican-American immigrant and activist from Monterrey, Mexico. Moreno discusses her childhood, moving to Dallas, family struggles with poverty, education, testifying in favor of the Texas Dream Act, college, reflections on immigration, the DREAM Act, being present for Pope Francis' 2015 address to the US Congress, and her faith.