Archie P. McDonald

Exactly as it states, a superficial history of the state. Compact in the extreme. But must there be so many errors? Misspellings, facts out of place, and the like. For instance, p. 173, the lyrics to "Waiting for a Train" are mis-arranged. The base map for most of the maps have lines denoting elevation that confuse the hell out of you, see, for instance, p. 139, where the escarpment lines look like railroad lines. And this, p. 224: "Gore had slightly more popular votes, Bush more electoral votes and the U.S. Supreme Court intervened to prevent a complete recount of votes in Florida..." Well, no. The Supreme Court "rules," it doesn't unilaterally "intervene." And the Court didn't "prevent a complete recount of votes in Florida," it stopped a recount in three select heavily Democratic counties cherry-picked by Gore that were counting crazily to get Gore more votes. Aside from this, this book might serve well as a text for middle-schoolers, or even fifth graders, and as a quick read for a non-Texan it is informative, but all in all, for me, it was a cursory disappointment. It could use images, better maps, an editor, a selected bibliography or bibliographic essay, and a proper index.… (mehr)