The subtitle is "A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State."
This is his summary in chapter essays of the most controversial state in the Union.
Lawrence explores the culture, history, and politics of Texas. Texas is a red state which hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office in more than twenty years but its cities are blue and among the most diverse in the country. Oil is still king, but Texas now leads California in technology exports. The Texas model of low taxes and minimal regulation has produced extraordinary economic growth but greater income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America the Republican Party wants to create.
Texas has its own power grid to avoid federal regulations, but we all remember what happened when their system was not properly protected against cold weather. Infrastructure in Texas is not well-maintained. Drive along their interstates and you will see. Lack of necessary regulations has its issues particularly for the less advantaged part of the populace.
Lawrence is a prominent journalist. He authored the definitive book on 9-ll called The Looming Tower. He is a native of Texas, originally from Dallas, now living and well-known in Austin. He sometimes wonders why he is not living in DC or somewhere else in the East but Texas is his home. Everybody prominent in Austin knows him. He plays in a rock band. About my age I think. He does not come right out and say it but he is obviously a Democrat even though he talks plenty to Republicans.
His first essay is about he and his friend Steve touring the five missions in San Antonio. Seeing the missions including the famous Alamo is necessary in understanding San Antonio. He comments, "Unlike other bustling metropolises, San Antonio still has the look of a city that might be on a colorized postcard."
The Alamo is part of the Texas creation myth. It must be kept secret that the point was to keep Texas a slave state. Anglo Texas was founded by Stephen F. Austin who brought white families from Arkansas into Texas with their slaves. Mexico had abolished slavery. It was necessary to wrest the Texas territory from Mexico to maintain slavery.
The rock star Phil Collins has the world's biggest collection of Alamo relics including a rifle owned by Davy Crockett and a knife that belonged to Jim Bowie. Collins says seeing the Alamo for the first time was like meeting the Beatles for the first time.
Lawrence calls the Alamo gift shop "a kind of Lourdes kitsch."
In 1845 independent Texas faced a financial crisis. It had the choice of a bailout from Great Britain or joint the United States as a state. The Texas constitution made slavery legal. Mexico had abolished slavery. If Texas accepted the English bailout it would have to abolish slavery. To maintain slavery, Texas sought statehood.
When living in Atlanta in 1979 Lawrence first started thinking of moving back to Texas. He was in Texas researching an article about the twelve men who walked the moon He stopped to eat in the little German town of Guerne. Then he met a friend in New Braunfels while staying at the Prince Solms Inn named after the military officer who established the German colonies in Texas. He listened to a young country singer named George Strait. He started thinking about moving back.,
"Dallas is (now) a far more tolerant city than the one I grew up in. It is still neurotic, pious, and materialistic, but in part because of the assassination (of President Kennedy) and the humiliation it was made to endure, Dallas is now more open and diverse, more interesting and introspective in a way that it had never been in the past. Dallas learned to transform suffering into social change."
Lawrence loves Texas but is concerned about the direction in which it is headed. Texas may be the future of the whole country.
No comments:
Post a Comment