Fifty Years of the Texas Observer
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Book Overview
For the past five decades the Texas Observer has been an essential voice in Texas culture and politics, championing honest government, civil rights, labor, and the environment, while providing a platform for many of the state's most passionate and progressive voices. Included are ninety-one selections from Roy Bedichek, Lou Dubose, Ronnie Dugger, Dagoberto Gilb, Jim Hightower, Molly Ivins, Larry McMurtry, Maury Maverick Jr., Willie Morris, Debbie Nathan, and others. To mark the Observer's fiftieth anniversary, Char Miller has selected a cross section of the best work to appear in its pages. Not only does the collection pay homage to an important alternative voice in Texas journalism, it also serves as a progressive chronicle of a half-century of life in the Lone Star State--a state that has spawned three presidents in the last forty years. If Texas is, as some say, a crucible for national politics, then Fifty Years of the Texas Observercan be read as a casebook for issues that concern citizens in all fifty states. Molly Ivins's foreword gives historical background for the Observer and sets the stage for the book.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1595340017
ISBN13:9781595340016
Release Date:August 2004
Publisher:Maverick Books
Length:432 Pages
Weight:0.57 lbs.
Dimensions:1.1" x 6.5" x 9.1"
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
Texan and Progressive...not a contradiction in terms
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
The Texas Observer has a well-deserved reputation for asking the tough questions which our state government (still famous for a 'good-old boy' reputation) wishes would just be quiet instead. As an investigative journalist myself, I always have looked to the Observer for inspiration and comfort. Their own perserverance reminds me that our job is often thankless, but a passion for justice is one of a journalist's most effective tools. For all of my frustration with the current status of Texas/National politics, these pages remind me times were once much worse in Texas. When segregation was still considered matter of fact, the Observer pushed ahead with the 'radical' idea that all people deserved human rights. Finally, the Observer produced such now-nationally recognized figures as Jim Hightower and Molly Ivins. Ivins continues to cheer me up today with her right-on commentary that George W. Bush is a danger to the world, and not all Texans approve of him (or had even wanted him involved with any kind of government).
Yes Virginia, there is civilization in Texas.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
The best progressive writing and independent journalism in the Great Lone Star State. Like The Nation, the TO is beholden to none of the corporate interests that taint most of the corporate news. Remember what journalism used to, and should, be.
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