Book Review: The Texas Left: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism
The Texas Left: The Radical Roots of Lone Star Liberalism is a collection of essays, published by Texas A&M University Press, documenting two hundred years of Texans’ fight for a liberal voice in an overtly conservative state. The essays are organized and edited by David Cullen and Kyle Wilkison, history professors at Collin College. The eleven essays pull together fourteen authors to discuss various topics that concern the Texas Left, including race, unions, politics, and gender. The editors' introductory essay discusses changes in Texas historiography that serve to give context as to why they are perusing a reexamination of Texas's history. The book seeks to “provide preliminary answers” to the question, “What are the particularities of the Texas Left and did it influence the state to any significant extent?” (pg. 4) The authors also hope to “stimulate further research and continued scholarly discourse on the Texas Left on the whole and in its particular elements”. (pg. 4)…show more content… “First, it is a political movement with the avowed ends of a more equal and humane society through reform, restructure, or a revolution of the economic or social system. Second, [the authors] chose to emphasize in this collection movements with sufficient following to have influenced contemporary or future social change.” (pg. 6) This means that the book focuses on issues or events on the Texas Left “whose influence eventually effected actual social change”. (pg. 6) The Texas Left The writers' recurring themes are equality, disenfranchisement, poverty, and economic opportunity, stirred by populist and socialist movements and labor
