Books published by State House Press

Explores the Tonkawa tribe in the history of the Lone Star State and the greater Southwest. This chronological account allows readers to understand its triumphs and struggles over the course of a century or more, and places the story in a larger historical narrative of shifting alliances, cultural encounters and economic opportunity.

This remarkable work of vintage historical fiction focuses on the life of one young man, Kuno Sartorius, who grows up and comes of age in a community of educated German immigrants during the waning months of the Civil War.

In Texas, the US Civil War deeply divided the Tejanos- Texans of Mexican heritage. An estimated 2,500 fought in the ranks of the Confederacy while 950, including some Mexican nationals, fought for the Stars and Stripes. Vaqueros in Blue & Gray, originally published in 1976, is the story of these Tejanos who participated in the Civil War.

Tells the tale of unique military units, untried but determined commanders, colourful volunteers, and professional soldiers. The first major campaign of the Civil War to take place west of the Mississippi River guaranteed that Missourians would be engaged in a long, cruel civil war within the larger, national struggle.

The West Texas frontier has been a crossroads of humanity for thousands of years. This book tells the epic story of the region and its many transitions throughout the centuries. It traces the struggles and triumphs of many groups as they tried to tame the region for their own purposes.

Presents a concise and colourful portrait of Texas during World War II, illustrating how the arrival of thousands of strangers in military uniforms forever changed the faces of eight towns and cities across the Lone Star State. The book is based on extensive on-site research, and offers rich anecdotal material, and personal interviews.

History does not simply happen, most often it is the result of years of graduate training, assiduous research, and careful writing. Yet, far too often we focus on the final product and ignore the men and women who have dedicated their lives to producing the books. So how do historians work? The answer, as revealed in the pages of this exciting new anthology, is as varied as the historians themselves. The editors have interviewed some of the nation's most highly respected practitioners to determine their approach to teaching, research, and writing. While no two of them work the same way , they all share the conviction that the study of history is vital to mankind's sense of self. They value rigorous training and conscientious professionalism. Both aspiring and professional historians will delight in learning how historians do their work, define their craft, and work their magic.

Iowa Wesleyan College was looking to snap a 100-year tradition of gridiron mediocrity when it hired Texas high school football coach Hal Mumme to breathe some life into its program in January of 1989. Mumme arrived at the tiny NAJA school with an innovative approach to the game that promptly delivered a winning football team with help from assistant coach Mike Leach, wide receiver Dana Holgorsen, and other unforgettable characters that woke up a quiet farming community to an offensive revolution in its infancy. In the process, the team's coaches and players overcame formidable opponents on and off the field en route to the NAJA playoffs. The success of Iowa Wesleyan's football team during Mumme tenure in Mount Pleasant paved the way for his continual climb up the coaching ladder and the gradual acceptance of his offensive scheme to the college football schematic mainstream.

In 1940, Abilene, Texas a major army training camp housing 60,000 troops was built, and over the next seventy years, it grew to be home to nearly 120,000 citizens. Population growth carried with it the need for geographic expansion, infrastructure upgrade, and economic diversification, but also unimaginable cultural change.

The lonely chimneys of Fort Phantom Hill in Jones County have given many visitors silent testimony to the travails of settlers when the area was on the very western frontier of Texas. In Fort Phantom Hill: The Mysterious Ruins on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, Bill Wright traces the history of the fort''s founding in the mid-nineteenth century. Along the way, Wright introduces the instrumental people who had vital roles in the fort''s founding, abandonment, and throughout its various incarnations from the 1850s onward..

The Texas Pacific Railroad gave birth to Abilene in 1881. Among several dozen sister communities established along the T&P, the company designated the one at Milepost 407 to be 'the future great city of West Texas'. This book presents a tale of industrious, ambitious people trying to prosper in a place with challenging climate and terrain.

Georgia O'Keeffe, a superbly gifted American artist usually associated with New Mexico, spent nearly four years in Texas, most of them in the Panhandle. She taught art in the public schools of Amarillo for two years, 1912-1914, and headed the art department at West Texas Normal College (now West Texas A & M University) in Canyon from the fall of 1916 to early 1918. She then went for a few months to Waring, Texas, northwest of San Antonio. There are scores of books on Georgia O'Keeffe. The books are of various lengths, covering her life, art, and influence on other artists; her time spent in New Mexico; and her relationship with and marriage to Alfred Stieglitz. By comparison, however, there is little on O'Keeffe's years in Texas. Georgia O'Keeffe in Texas: A Guide is different from previous O'Keeffe studies, as it provides a short biography of O'Keeffe on the people and events that influenced her Texas years. The authors are neither artists nor professional art critics, but are historians of the American West who have an interest in Georgia O'Keeffe. They believe her years in Texas, especially the Texas Panhandle, were significant for her subsequent development as a thoroughly modern American artist. This book is designed to work as a guide to O'Keeffe's life and work in Texas, and reveals an even more fascinating figure in the process.