Nature and Place in Texas – A History by Miller, Char; Archer, Kenna Lang; Pierce, Jason;

Long description:

Texas history is often recounted through tales of revolution, oil booms, and cattle drives. But what if we considered a different lens—one shaped by wind and wildfire, rivers and drought, grasslands and pine forests?

Nature and Place in Texas reimagines the Lone Star story by centering its ecosystems. This collection of essays by leading environmental historians reveals how the state's natural features—its plains, deserts, rivers, forests, and coastlines—have shaped and been shaped by human endeavor. From the long shadow of plantation agriculture along Texas rivers to the contested engineering of the Rio Grande, and from the lost pines of East Texas to the windblown plains of the Panhandle, these essays chart a dynamic, place-based history.

Organized by ecological regions and themes—such as water, labor, urban development, and recreation—this volume offers a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the environmental dimensions of Texas history. Contributors draw from interdisciplinary methods and speak to ongoing concerns like climate change, land use, and environmental justice.

Ideal for classroom use, the book foregrounds how Texas's environment is not merely a backdrop to history but a central force in its making. With its regional breadth and scholarly depth, Nature and Place in Texas invites students to see the Lone Star State in a new light—as a place where history and ecology are inseparable.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

• Jason Pierce, Conceiving Texas

Reading the Land

• Alex Hunt, Buffalo Stories and Eco-Cultural Impacts: Texan and Kiowan Accounts of the Southern Plains Bison
• Samuel Brunk, Botany in the Texas Borderlands: Conquest, Cacti, and the Chihuahuan Desert, 1819-1852
• CJ Alvarez, Living and Dying Near the Limit: The Transformation of the Desert Section of the Rio Grande Border
• Claire Williams Bridgwater, The Lost Pines of Texas: A History of the Forest Life Cycle

Plains Ecologies

• Julie Courtwright, Wind and Flame
• Tim Bowman, From Fascists to Farmworkers: The Racialization of Agricultural Labor in Hereford, Texas, 1940-1990

Watersheds

• Scot McFarlane, The Legacy of Plantation Slavery on Texas Rivers
• Kenna Archer, The Hardest Matter Possible: Hydrological Development, Public Discourse, and the Water Policy in Texas
• Andrew C. Baker, Metropolitan Houston and its River
• Alana de Hinojosa, Changes in the River: The Natural Consequences Controlling El Río Grande at the Pass of the North

Urbanscapes

• Todd Kerstetter, Pipe Dreams and Fake Lakes: Engineering Water in Progressive-Era Fort Worth
• Brian Frehner, Finding Oil, Searching for Authority

Playgrounds

• Neel Baumgardner, Parks of Every Kind: State and National Parks in Texas from the 1920s to 1940s
• Char Miller and Arthur R. Gómez, The Limits of Cooperation: The Texas State Parks Board and the Management of Mission San José National Historic Site, 1941-1983

Afterword

• Char Miller, Pathways