Texans on the Brink

Texans on the Brink PDF Author: Brian R. Chapman
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623497329
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
What good is a rattlesnake? What purpose do animals serve? All species play a vital role in their biological communities, and the removal of just one can have a noticeable and catastrophic ripple effect. Yet social and political pressures frequently pit species conservation against economic progress and prosperity, and scientists fear that we may be in the midst of a mass extinction event. Brian R. Chapman and William I. Lutterschmidt make the case that the effort to preserve animals is the responsibility of every Texan and that biodiversity contributes enormous economic value to the citizens of Texas. Texans on the Brink brings together experts on eighty-eight endangered and threatened animal species of Texas and includes brief descriptions of the processes that state and federal agencies employ to list and protect designated species. Species accounts include a description of the species accompanied by a photograph, an easy-to-read account of the biology and ecology of the species, and a description of efforts underway to preserve the species and its required habitat. Sobering examples of species that were once part of the Texas fauna but are now extinct or extirpated are also given to further demonstrate just how vulnerable biodiversity can be. All species require healthy habitats, and every species—even a rattlesnake—provides important services for the biotic communities in which they live. It is imperative to learn as much as we can about these animals if we are to preserve biodiversity successfully in Texas.

Texans on the Brink

Texans on the Brink PDF Author: Brian R. Chapman
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623497329
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
What good is a rattlesnake? What purpose do animals serve? All species play a vital role in their biological communities, and the removal of just one can have a noticeable and catastrophic ripple effect. Yet social and political pressures frequently pit species conservation against economic progress and prosperity, and scientists fear that we may be in the midst of a mass extinction event. Brian R. Chapman and William I. Lutterschmidt make the case that the effort to preserve animals is the responsibility of every Texan and that biodiversity contributes enormous economic value to the citizens of Texas. Texans on the Brink brings together experts on eighty-eight endangered and threatened animal species of Texas and includes brief descriptions of the processes that state and federal agencies employ to list and protect designated species. Species accounts include a description of the species accompanied by a photograph, an easy-to-read account of the biology and ecology of the species, and a description of efforts underway to preserve the species and its required habitat. Sobering examples of species that were once part of the Texas fauna but are now extinct or extirpated are also given to further demonstrate just how vulnerable biodiversity can be. All species require healthy habitats, and every species—even a rattlesnake—provides important services for the biotic communities in which they live. It is imperative to learn as much as we can about these animals if we are to preserve biodiversity successfully in Texas.

The Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas, Revised Edition

The Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas, Revised Edition PDF Author: Kim Withers
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623499925
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 713

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Book Description
The Laguna Madre is the only hypersaline coastal lagoon on the North American continent and only one of five worldwide. The lagoon is renowned for its vast seagrass meadows, huge wintering redhead population, and bountiful fishing grounds. In 2000, the Nature Conservancy, whose mission is the conservation of biodiversity through protection of habitat, recognized the need to amass all known information about the Laguna Madre and implement a science-based conservation agenda. From those efforts came the first edition of this book. Now completely revised and updated, this second edition of The Laguna Madre of Texas and Tamaulipas is the culmination of two decades of additional research and continued conservation efforts in the region. Nearly 100 years of literature on the Laguna Madre and surrounding environments has been synthesized here. With 150 figures and illustrations, the book takes a broad and comprehensive look at both the Texan and Tamaulipan Laguna Madre. The value of this book for scientists, conservationists, resource managers, and policy makers involved in the future of the Texas and Mexico coasts is clear. Coastal residents, birders, anglers, and nature lovers who want to learn about and take care of the Laguna Madre will find this to be an indispensable guide.

Breakaway Americas

Breakaway Americas PDF Author: Thomas Richards, Jr.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421437139
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Through its wide focus on a diverse array of American political practices and ideologies, Breakaway Americas will appeal to anyone interested in the Jacksonian United States, US politics, American identity, and the unpredictable nature of history.

To the Brink

To the Brink PDF Author: Cindy Gerard
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429904593
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Working on highly sensitive diplomatic affairs, Darcy Prescott is a natural target for terrorist kidnappers. But when she's mysteriously plucked off a street in Manila one sultry night, Darcy's disappearance isn't what it seems... The moment Special Forces soldier Ethan Garrett laid eyes on Darcy, he knew she was the woman he would marry—and he did. But when their marriage fell apart, Ethan never really recovered. Now a highly paid bodyguard, Ethan quickly slips back into combat mode when he learns of Darcy's disappearance and calls in old favors to assemble a rogue rescue team.... Tracking Darcy all the way to the jungles of the Philippines, Ethan knows every move he makes could mean the difference between life and death. His love for Darcy burns stronger than ever. But when he learns the true reason for her abduction, it may be too late to save her—or himself...

Lone Star Tarnished

Lone Star Tarnished PDF Author: Cal Jillson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317666941
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Texas pride, like everything else in the state, is larger than life. So, too, perhaps, are the state’s challenges. Lone Star Tarnished, 2nd edition approaches public policy in the nation’s most populous "red state" from historical, comparative, and critical perspectives. The historical perspective provides the scope for asking how various policy domains have developed in Texas history, regularly reaching back to the state’s founding and with substantial data for the period 1950 to the present. In each chapter, Cal Jillson compares Texas public policy choices and results with those of other states and the United States in general. Finally, the critical perspective allows us to question the balance of benefits and costs attendant to what is often referred to as "the Texas way" or "the Texas model." Jillson delves deeply into seven substantive policy chapters, covering the most important policy areas in which state governments are active. The second edition includes completely rewritten first and second chapters, as well as updates throughout the book and revised figures and tables. Through Jillson's lively and lucid prose, students are well equipped to analyze how Texas has done and is doing compared to selected states and the national average over time and today. Readers will also come away with the necessary tools to assess the many claims of Texas’s exceptionalism.

Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande

Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande PDF Author: Paul Cool
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603444440
Category : El Paso (Tex.)
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The El Paso Salt War of 1877 has gone down in history as the spontaneous action of a mindless rabble, but as author Paul Cool deftly demonstrates, the episode was actually an insurgency, the product of a deliberate, community-based decision squarely in the tradition of the American nation s original fight for self-government. The Pasenos (local Mexican Americans) had held common ownership of the immense salt lakes at the base of the Guadalupe Mountains since the time of Spanish rule. They believed their title was confirmed in the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. However, to the American businessmen who saw in the white expanse a cash crop that could make them rich in the years following the American Civil War, ownership appeared up for grabs. After years of struggle among Anglo politicians and speculators eager to seize the lakes, an Austin banker staked a legal claim in 1877, and his son-in-law, Charles Howard, started to enforce it. Cool chronicles the ensuing popular uprising that disrupted established governmental authority in El Paso for twelve weeks. Unique features of this pioneering book include the author s employment of previously untapped sources and the first thorough and systematic use of familiar ones, notably the government report El Paso Troubles in Texas, to create this detailed study of the war. First-person accounts from reports and newspaper items create a landmark day-by-day account of the San Elizario battle, including the location of the Texas Ranger positions. This fast-paced account not only corrects the record of this historical episode but will also resonate in the context of today s racial and ethnic tensions along the U.S.-Mexico border."

As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda

As Texas Goes...: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda PDF Author: Gail Collins
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0871404079
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Discusses the conservative political agenda that began in Texas and how it became a national movement with far-reaching social and economic consequences.

Lone Star Mind

Lone Star Mind PDF Author: Ty Cashion
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806162082
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
There is the story the Lone Star State likes to tell about itself—and then there is the reality, a Texas past that bears little resemblance to the manly Anglo myth of Texas exceptionalism that maintains a firm grip on the state’s historical imagination. Lone Star Mind takes aim at this traditional narrative, holding both academic and lay historians accountable for the ways in which they craft the state’s story. A clear-sighted, far-reaching work of intellectual history, this book marshals a wide array of pertinent scholarship, analysis, and original ideas to point the way toward a new “usable past” that twenty-first-century Texans will find relevant. Ty Cashion fixes T. R. Fehrenbach’s Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans in his crosshairs in particular, laying bare the conceptual deficiencies of the romantic and mythic narrative the book has served to codify since its first publication in 1968. At the same time, Cashion explores the reasons why the collective efforts of university-trained scholars have failed to diminish the appeal of the state’s iconic popular culture, despite the fuller and more accurate record these historians have produced. Framing the search for a collective Texan identity in the context of a post-Christian age and the end of Anglo-male hegemony, Lone Star Mind illuminates the many historiographical issues besetting the study of American history that will resonate with scholars in other fields as well. Cashion proposes that a cultural history approach focusing on the self-interests of all Texans is capable of telling a more complete story—a story that captures present-day realities.

The Real World of Texas Politics

The Real World of Texas Politics PDF Author: Robert Locander
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
You may think you know Texas, but which one? Texas is a land shrouded in myths, and so is its politics. The Real World of Texas Politics pulls back the veil on those myths and reveals the secrets the elites don’t want you to know. It lays bare the dual worlds of the Lone Star State: the one for the elites, and the one for the masses. Inspired by the works of political scientist James Lamare, the authors argue that the privileged few have used their superior resources to dominate all aspects of the Texas political system, from voting and elections to government institutions and policymaking. This dominance by the elites has resulted in a subsistence life and limited future for millions of people living in twenty-first century Texas. The authors are insiders — Locander a political scientist, Shaw a union leader, and Bailey a state representative — with a combined ten-decade involvement in Texas politics and government. But they’re also outsiders, holding views that don’t align with the people in power. Rather than placate, they seek to scrutinize with a skeptical eye the most pressing issues facing one of America’s most important and most populous states. They lay bare the crass influence of money and power and provide a roadmap for what Texas can do to get state government working for average Texans. The Real World of Texas Politics challenges the economic and political status quo. It peels back the myths to expose how the state’s leaders, both Democrats and Republicans, have forsaken the masses to cater to the rich and powerful. Reversing this trend takes knowledge, and this book offers a hefty dose by taking a hard look at how politics and power really work in the Lone Star State.

Lone Star Constructor

Lone Star Constructor PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Building
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description