TSHA Community

Great publications from our members and award recipients.

These books were authored by members of TSHA or received one of TSHA’s book awards. They are provided here for reference and support of the historical content they contain.

List of Publications (119 total) Page 4 of 10

Allie Victoria Tennant and the Visual Arts in Dallas

At Fair Park in Dallas, a sculpture of a Native American figure, bronze with gilded gold leaf, strains a bow before sending an arrow into flight. Tejas Warrior has welcomed thousands of visitors since the Texas Centennial Exposition opened in the 1930s. The iconic piece is instantly recognizable, yet few people know about its creator: Allie Victoria Tennant, one of a notable group of Texas artists who actively advanced regionalist art in the decades before World War II.

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By Stephanie Cole

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Working Women into the Borderlands

In Working Women into the Borderlands, author Sonia Hernández sheds light on how women’s labor was shaped by US capital in the northeast region of Mexico and how women’s labor activism simultaneously shaped the nature of foreign investment and relations between Mexicans and Americans. As capital investments fueled the growth of heavy industries in cities and ports such as Monterrey and Tampico, women’s work complemented and strengthened their male counterparts’ labor in industries which were historically male-dominated.

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By Sonia Hernández

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement

Throughout the South, black women were crucial to the Civil Rights Movement, serving as grassroots and organizational leaders. They protested, participated, sat in, mobilized, created, energized, led particular efforts, and served as bridge builders to the rest of the community. Ignored at the time by white politicians and the media alike, with few exceptions they worked behind the scenes to effect the changes all in the movement sought. Until relatively recently, historians, too, have largely ignored their efforts.

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By Bruce A. Glasrud and Merline Pitre

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards

When Ann Richards delivered the keynote of the 1988 Democratic National Convention and mocked President George H. W. Bush—"Poor George, he can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth"—she instantly became a media celebrity and triggered a rivalry that would alter the course of American history. In 1990, Richards won the governorship of Texas, upsetting the GOP's colorful rancher and oilman Clayton Williams. The first ardent feminist elected to high office in America, she opened up public service to women, blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, gays, and the disabled. Her progressive achievements and the force of her personality created a lasting legacy that far transcends her rise and fall as governor of Texas.

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By Jan Reid

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women. Recipient of the Coral Horton Tullis Memorial Prize for Best Book on Texas History.

Women and the Texas Revolution

Historically, wars and revolutions have offered politically and socially disadvantaged people the opportunity to contribute to the nation (or cause) in exchange for future expanded rights. Although shorter than most conflicts, the Texas Revolution nonetheless profoundly affected not only the leaders and armies, but the survivors, especially women, who endured those tumultuous events and whose lives were altered by the accompanying political, social, and economic changes.

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By Dr. Mary L. Scheer

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Texas Through Women's Eyes: The Twentieth Century Experience

Texas women broke barriers throughout the twentieth century, winning the right to vote, expanding their access to higher education, entering new professions, participating fully in civic and political life, and planning their families. Yet these major achievements have hardly been recognized in histories of twentieth-century Texas. By contrast, Texas Through Women's Eyes offers a fascinating overview of women's experiences and achievements in the twentieth century, with an inclusive focus on rural women, working-class women, and women of color.

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By Harold L. Smith and Judith N. McArthur

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Emily Austin of Texas 1795-1851

The Austin family left an indelible mark on Texas and the expanding American nation. In this insightful biography, Light Townsend Cummins turns the historical spotlight on Emily Austin, the daughter who followed the trails of the western frontier to Texas, where she saw the burgeoning young colony erupt in revolution, establish a proud republic, and usher in the period of antebellum statehood. Emily's journey was one of remarkable personal change as the rigors of frontier life shaped her into a uniquely self-reliant southern woman, one who fulfilled the role of the plantation mistress while taking a distinct hand in ambitious public ventures. Despite her ties to influential family members, including her brother Stephen F. Austin, Emily's determined spirit allowed her to live on her own terms. In all of her notable activities, Emily principally remained a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and mother who proudly clung to her Austin roots. Utilizing her family's written correspondence, Cummins provides insight into Emily's multifaceted personality and the relationships that sustained her through times of tribulation and triumph. "Emily was very much her own woman, with strong, well-articulated personal feelings centered on a steely personality. Her rock-solid resolve for action enabled her to survive almost six decades of frontier hardship . . . Above all else, Emily Austin was the touchstone at the center of an extended family that provided a common point of reference for four generations . . . " Light Cummins, from Emily Austin

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By Light Townsend Cummins

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Black Women in Texas History

Though often consigned to the footnotes of history, African American women are a significant part of the rich, multiethnic heritage of Texas and the United States. Until now, though, their story has frequently been fragmented and underappreciated. Black Women in Texas History draws together a multi-author narrative of the experiences and impact of black American women from the time of slavery until the recent past. Each chapter, written by an expert on the era, provides a readable survey and overview of the lives and roles of black Texas women during that period. Each provides careful documentation, which, along with the thorough bibliography compiled by the volume editors, will provide a starting point for others wanting to build on this important topic. The authors address significant questions about population demographics, employment patterns, family and social dimensions, legal and political rights, and individual accomplishments. They look not only at how African American women have been shaped by the larger culture but also at how these women have, in turn, affected the culture and history of Texas. This work situates African American women within the context of their times and offers a due appreciation and analysis of their lives and accomplishments. Black Women in Texas History is an important addition to history and sociology curriculums as well as black studies and women’s studies programs. It will provide for interested students, scholars, and general readers a comprehensive survey of the crucial role these women played in shaping the history of the Lone Star State.

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By Bruce A. Glasrud and Merline Pitre

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands

Revising the standard narrative of European-Indian relations in America, Juliana Barr reconstructs a world in which Indians were the dominant power and Europeans were the ones forced to accommodate, resist, and persevere. She demonstrates that between the 1690s and 1780s, Indian peoples including Caddos, Apaches, Payayas, Karankawas, Wichitas, and Comanches formed relationships with Spaniards in Texas that refuted European claims of imperial control.

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By Juliana Barr

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Texas Women on the Cattle Trails

Texas Women on the Cattle Trails tells the stories of sixteen women who drove cattle up the trail from Texas during the last half of the nineteenth century. Some were young; some were old (over thirty). Some took to the trails by choice; others, out of necessity. Some went along to look at the stars; others, to work the cattle. Some made money and built ranching empires, but others went broke and lived hard, even desperate lives.

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By Sara R. Massey

Available for purchase at Legacy of Texas .

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Katherine Anne Porter: The Life of an Artist

From the moment Katherine Anne Porter arrived on the American literary scene in 1922, the public was intrigued with her life. Yet she herself revealed only scant facts of her background and often gave conflicting accounts. She maintained, though, that a germ of her own experience lay at the core of everything she wrote.

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By Darlene H. Unrue

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.

Indomitable Sarah: The Life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes

Judge Sarah T. Hughes is perhaps best remembered as the woman who swore in Lyndon Johnson as president aboard Air Force One on November 22, 1963, after President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. But long before then, she had been making headlines as the foremost woman Democrat in Texas. In 1935, over the protests of a local senator who said she should be home washing dishes, Sarah T. Hughes was appointed the first woman district judge in Texas. She was nominated for vice president of the United States at the 1952 Democratic National Convention, and in 1961 she was nominated by President John F. Kennedy as a federal district judge. A feminist who devoted her life to liberal causes, she presided over the three-judge panel and wrote the opinion that overturned Texas’s abortion laws in 1970 in Roe v. Wade, a decision upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a decision that has rocked American society and politics to this day.

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By Darwin Payne

Recipient of the Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women.