Books published by publisher Texas Christian University Press

Billy Bardin and the Witness Tree is the account of a boy’s quest to save an important piece of Arlington, Texas, history and in the process convince his recently widowed grandfather how important he really is.The novel is based on the real efforts to save the Witness Tree in 1991. Billy Bardin’s quest begins when K-Mart plans to develop a shopping center at the site of the five-hundred-year-old tree. As Billy studies the tree’s history for a school assignment, his grandfather tells him about his career laying out roads and racetracks as a surveyor. Grandpa shows Billy his beautiful old brass transit, the instrument he used to survey land, and explains how the Witness Tree was the point from which all property in Arlington was measured. Billy’s mother inadvertently gives the transit to a church rummage sale, and Billy sets off to recover it, save the tree, and restore Grandpa’s dignity.

Hailed by The Guardian and other publications as “a real-life Indiana Jones,” Slovenian archaeologist Ivan Šprajc has been mapping out previously unknown Mayan sites in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula since 1996. Most recently, he was credited with the discovery of the Chactún and Lagunita sites in 2013 and 2014, respectively, helping to fill in what was previously one of the largest voids in modern knowledge of the ancient Maya landscape: the 2,800-square-mile Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in central Yucatán.Previously published in Šprajc’s native Slovenian and in German, this thrilling account of machete-wielding jungle expeditions has garnered enthusiastic reviews for its depictions of the efforts, dangers, successes, and disappointments experienced as the explorer-scientist searches out and documents ancient ruins that have been lost to the jungle for centuries. A skilled communicator as well as an experienced scholar, Šprajc conveys in eminently accessible prose a wealth of information on various aspects of the Maya culture, which he has studied closely for decades.The result is a deeply personal presentation of archaeological research on one of the most enigmatic civilizations of the ancient world. Generously illustrated, this book follows the chronology of Šprajc’s discoveries, focusing on what he considers the most interesting episodes. Those who specialize in Mesoamerican prehistory and archaeology will certainly relish Šprajc’s reports concerning his many field surveys and the discoveries that resulted. General readers, too, will enjoy his accounts of previously undocumented sites, ancient urban centers overtaken by the jungle, massive sculpted monuments, and mysterious hieroglyphic inscriptions.

From its ancient headwaters on the semiarid plains of eastern New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico, the Brazos River carves a huge and paradoxical crescent through Texas geography and history. Its average flow is the largest of Texas rivers, but its floods, low flows, silt, and natural salt have often frustrated human desires. It is one of the most dammed of Texas rivers, but its lower four hundred miles constitute one of the longest undammed stretches of river in North America. In Exploring the Brazos River, Jim Kimmel follows this long, changeable river from its rocky “arms” in West Texas, through the stretch made famous by John Graves in his classic book, Goodbye to a River, to its lumbering presence as it flows, undammed and mostly untouched, down the Brazos Valley and into the Gulf of Mexico. Exploring the entire river system, Kimmel first sets the context of climate and geology that determines the characteristics of the Brazos. He then explains the ecological processes that define the Brazos watershed before focusing on four reaches of the river, from the headwaters to the mouth. Each chapter features the captivating photography of Jerry Touchstone Kimmel and includes maps, charts, and descriptions of the water, land, ecology, and people. To encourage readers to explore on their own, Kimmel closes the chapters with tips on where best to experience the river and the surrounding countryside. Amateur and professional naturalists and outdoor enthusiasts of all stripes will find Exploring the Brazos River a practical and inspiring guide for the introduction of—or re-acquaintance with—one of the most important, historic, and diverse natural resources in the Lone Star State. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

In the 1790s, in a tiny Spanish Colonial village in the Kingdom of New Mexico, pottery is as crucial to starving villagers as the rains that might save their scorched bean fields. But Native potters are sending their wares south to markets in Chihuahua. When his widowed mother’s only bean pot cracks, eleven-year-old Raymundo knows his family's last hope lies with Clay Woman, a Genízaro outcast and quite possibly a powerful witch.In addition to drought and famine, Raymundo faces the return of Comanche raiders and his mother’s failing health as he risks all to learn Clay Woman’s secrets. Even as he prays for a miracle, he knows he must summon the wherewithal to save his family—and his people.

NoonGabby, Dovey, Gussie, and I were frosting lemon cookies when we felt the rumble. It was like an earthquake. We rushed outside. Without my bonnet to shield the sun’s glare, I couldn’t see at first. I had to squint. To the southwest, I saw a thick cloud of dust rolling our way. The low rumble we had heard in the kitchen had, by then, become deafening thunder. Thousands of hooves pounded the earth. It was the herd running toward us. It looked like a great brown river.. . . The roundup was done. The men were home with the cattle.It’s spring of 1878 on the Rockin’ W in South Texas, and Hallie Lou Wells is as cross as any fourteen-year-old redhead has a right to be. Her teacher says she has to memorize page 112 of Webster’s School Dictionary; her most exciting decision is whether to wear her peach organdy or blue silk to the dance; and only boys can go on trail drives.But in country where anything can happen, something does. When Hallie’s mother discovers she’s having another baby, Hallie’s father decides not to join the trail drive to Dodge City, and Hallie convinces him to let her represent the family’s interests at the point of sale. So begins an adventure well worth chronicling.The first of the Lone Star Journals by Lisa Waller Rogers, Hallie’s Chisholm Trail diary is filled with adventures that will engage any middle reader, girl or boy, and is so rich in its depiction of ranch and trail life in the late 1870s that it should make any reading list, Texas or national.Following Hallie’s diary is a historic summary of life along the Chisholm Trail in 1878, complete with photographs and map, useful to young readers and teachers alike.

Fourteen-year-old Cat Jennings lives—and works—on a hardscrabble farm outside Bastrop, Texas, with her parents, an older brother Charlie, and three younger children—Holly, Benjie, and Susanna. But her father has gone to fight at the Alamo, and Charlie has left to join him. When Cat learns that the Alamo has fallen with no survivors, she takes off on horseback to ride across South Texas and urge volunteers to join Sam Houston’s army. She soon runs into Johnny Jenkins, who is both her nemesis and her first love. Johnny is on his way to join Houston, even though Cat tells him he’s too young. As she rides from cabin to cabin, Cat meets fascinating characters, like the gentle widow Polly who won’t believe that her son died at the Alamo. And she has near misses with a Mexican brigade and roughnecks who try to kidnap her. Disguised as a boy, she runs into the Texian army—only to find that they are retreating! She also finds Charlie and Johnny with Houston, but when she wants to leave for home, General Houston won’t allow it. So Cat joins the Runaway Scrape and follows Houston and his army to San Jacinto, arguing all the way with Johnny and Charlie, who think Houston is a coward for retreating and cruel for burning the towns he marches through. Cat argues that he is the hero who will save Texas. According to her great-granddaughter, the real Catherine Jennings did make such a ride after her father, Gordon Jennings, was killed at the Alamo. The rest of this story is fiction based on historical research.

This compelling ethnography explores the issue of cultural continuity and change as it has unfolded in the representative Guatemala Mayan town Santiago Atitlán. Drawing on multiple sources, Robert S. Carlsen argues that local Mayan culture survived the Spanish Conquest remarkably intact and continued to play a defining role for much of the following five centuries. He also shows how the twentieth-century consolidation of the Guatemalan state steadily eroded the capacity of the local Mayas to adapt to change and ultimately caused some factions to reject—even demonize—their own history and culture. At the same time, he explains how, after a decade of military occupation known as la violencia, Santiago Atitlán stood up in unity to the Guatemalan Army in 1990 and forced it to leave town.This new edition looks at how Santiago Atitlán has fared since the expulsion of the army. Carlsen explains that, initially, there was hope that the renewed unity that had served the town so well would continue. He argues that such hopes have been undermined by multiple sources, often with bizarre outcomes. Among the factors he examines are the impact of transnational crime, particularly gangs with ties to Los Angeles; the rise of vigilantism and its relation to renewed religious factionalism; the related brutal murders of followers of the traditional Mayan religion; and the apocalyptic fervor underlying these events.

"How is it that there are so many lloronas?" A haunting figure of Mexican oral and literary traditions, La Llorona permeates the consciousness of her folk community. From a ghost who haunts the riverbank to a murderous mother condemned to wander the earth after killing her own children in an act of revenge or grief, the Weeping Woman has evolved within Chican@ imaginations across centuries, yet no truly comprehensive examination of her impact existed until now. Tracing La Llorona from ancient oral tradition to her appearance in contemporary material culture, There Was a Woman delves into the intriguing transformations of this provocative icon.From La Llorona's roots in legend to the revisions of her story and her exaltation as a symbol of resistance, Domino Renee Perez illuminates her many permutations as seductress, hag, demon, or pitiful woman. Perez draws on more than two hundred artifacts to provide vivid representations of the ways in which these perceived identities are woven from abstract notions—such as morality or nationalism—and from concrete, often misunderstood concepts from advertising to television and literature. The result is a rich and intricate survey of a powerful figure who continues to be reconfigured.

Widely acclaimed as the greatest Western ever made, Lonesome Dove has become a true American epic. Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel was a New York Times best seller, with more than 2.5 million copies currently in print. The Lonesome Dove miniseries has drawn millions of viewers and won numerous awards, including seven Emmys.A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove takes you on a fascinating behind-the-scenes journey into the creation of the book, the miniseries, and the world of Lonesome Dove. Writer John Spong talks to forty of the key people involved, including author Larry McMurtry; actors Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, Danny Glover, Ricky Schroder, D. B. Sweeney, Frederic Forrest, and Chris Cooper; executive producer and screenwriter Bill Wittliff; executive producer Suzanne de Passe; and director Simon Wincer. They and a host of others tell lively stories about McMurtry's writing of the epic novel and the process of turning it into the miniseries Lonesome Dove. Accompanying their recollections are photographs of iconic props, costumes, set designs, and shooting scripts. Rounding out the book are continuity Polaroids used during filming and photographs taken on the set by Bill Wittliff, which place you behind the scenes in the middle of the action.Designed as a companion for A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove, Wittliff's magnificent fine art volume, A Book on the Making of Lonesome Dove is a must-have for every fan of this American epic.

Designed to enhance high school students’ appreciation of the rich variety of Texas poetry, A Students’ Treasury of Texas Poetry contains poems from the earliest beginnings of Texas, including work by Sam Houston and Mirabeau B. Lamar, to contemporary poets like Naomi Shihab Nye, Larry McMurtry, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Jas. Mardis, and Carmen Tafolla.Hill groups the poems in categories, setting out the history of Texas from pre-history in poems like Larry D. Thomas’ “Caddoan Indian Mound” or Alan Birkelbach’s “Coronado Points,” to a chronicle of Texas counties in such poems as “Haiku: Hands shading my eyes,” by Michael Moore, or “The Poet Gets Drowsy on the Road,” by Frederick Turner. Texas poets examine the variety of family life in poems such as Red Steagall’s “The Memories in Grandmother’s Trunk,” or “Mi Tía Sofía” by Carmen Tafolla, or “Growing Up near Escondido Canyon,” by Walt McDonald.Even the weather and Texas’ varied creatures are fodder for the poet’s speculation, and Hill includes “Good-bye Summer” by Jas. Mardis, and “Summer Begins Outside Dalhart, Texas,” by Mary Vanek, as well as “Mr. Bloomer’s Birds” by William D. Barney and “A Mockingbird,” by Boyce House.The final chapter features attempts by poets to define the mysterious state that is Texas and includes “litany: blood in the soil/texas (an excerpt)” by Sharon Bridforth, “Our Texas Economy” by Chuck Taylor, among others.

"In the remoteness of their mountain retreat, the herders of Chillihuani, Peru, recognize that respect for others is the central and most significant element of all thought and action," observes Inge Bolin. "Without respect, no society, no civilization, can flourish for long. Without respect, humanity is doomed and so is the earth, sustainer of all life."In this beautifully written ethnography, Bolin describes the rituals of respect that maintain harmonious relations among people, the natural world, and the realm of the gods in an isolated Andean community of llama and alpaca herders that reaches up to 16,500 feet. Bolin was the first foreigner to visit Chillihuani, and she was permitted to participate in private family rituals, as well as public ceremonies. In turn, she allows the villagers to explain the meaning of their rituals in their own words.From these first-hand experiences, Bolin offers an intimate portrait of an annual ritual cycle that dates back to Inca and pre-Inca times, including the ancient Pukllay; weddings; the Fiesta de Santiago, with its horse races on the top of the world; and Peru's Independence Day, when the Rituals of Respect for elders and young people alike are carried out within male and female hierarchies reminiscent of Inca times.