Big Wonderful Thing, A History of Texas

Stephen Harrigan, University of Texas Press, 2019

I had good hopes for this one, having read some of Harrigan's other books and articles. Texas Monthly Magazine published several excerpts that seemed good, but overall, it was a disappointment.

THE GOOD
Harrigan's writing style make it very readable. The best parts were the sections on early history. The explorers, the empresarios, the Revolution and such. Even as a Texas Native, much there of which I was not aware. Up thru statehood and the Civil War and the wars against the Comanche, it's pretty good. No holds barred on the depredations by the Rangers in the Lower Rio Grand Valley, of which there were many, and persecution of the great Tejano heroes of the Revolution by folks who arrived afterwards, which was truly despicable.

THE BAD
The "modern" era gets all ate up with revisionism and political correctness. Slashes at LBJ a bit, as he should, but the feeling seemed to be, he was one of us so he and that whole bunch of "best and brightest" scum, while disappointing, might ought to be given a pass. Stuff like that. Also skates right up to the edge of advocacy for gun control, without stepping across that line, but you could tell where he'd go if he thought he could get away with it.

Also, the physical aspects of the book suck and make it hard to read. It's a thick one, over 2 & 1/2 inches, but the pages are small and the binding and page layout are such that it won't lay flat, and the words run close to the binding edge of the page, so it's a struggle. I was damn tired of wrassling this thing around well before half-way thru it.

THE UGLY
Numerous problems with accuracy. I don't know who fact-checked this one, but they deserve a spanking. For example: Harrigan writes that Oliver Loving was beset by Indians whilst scouting alone on the plains. That's just flat-out wrong. Also, a picture of a wildcatter holding a long gun described him as being on a bird hunt, while the weapon is clearly a Remington Model 8 or 81 rifle. I gave up trying to keep track of things like these.

SUMMARY
Harrigan does a decent job of providing a narrative flow of Texas history with a good enough dose of detail to make it interesting, but veined with PC viewpoint and inaccuracies. I have a good selection of Texas history and fiction on the shelves; this one seems to be to be a bit of a mix of each, It will, however, be joining the permanent library at my house, but only because my wife presented it to me for Christmas. For the rest of you not thusly encumbered, I recommend a hard pass.