Texas Politics
Texas politics is very complex. Texas is the second largest state by land area and population, and is one of the largest sources for America’s natural resources. The Lone Star State is also a very ethnically diverse state with a turbulent history, beginning with the Spanish and Mexican colonial days, a brief period of independence, and a major part of America’s tortured history of civil war and racial segregation. Through this troubled history, politicians have guided Texas into prosperity and stability, and Texas has produced three U.S. Presidents.
Lone Star Memoirs
Texas politicians are not without controversy, so Lone Star leaders have used political memoirs to justify their beliefs and actions. President Lyndon Johnson wrote a personal memoir entitled Vantage Point. In this book, Johnson talks about his struggles with the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, and his Great Society. President George W. Bush also penned a memoir, A Charge To Keep: My Journey to the White House, where he recollected his wild youth and eventual rehabilitation, and then outlined his beliefs in faith-based initiatives and compassionate conservatism.
To get a real insider’s look in the rough and tumble world of Texas politics, the political memoir is indispensable. Former Lt. Gov. of Texas Ben Barnes’s Barn Burning Barn Building is an excellent look into Texas politics from the New Deal to the current era of Republican domination is. In History’s Shadow by Governor John Connally is also an engrossing portrait of Texas in the 1960s. Senator John G. Tower gets his chance to speak his mind in the emotionally charged Consequences: A Personal and Political Memoir. Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s controversial What Happened raised hackles in this tell-all memoir of the Bush Administration.