Synopses & Reviews
Cowboy politics is in. When George W. Bush announced a new American policy of pre-emptive attack against potential enemies in 2002, he ushered in the triumph of Texas values over the American agenda. This book traces in lucid and engaging style the fascinating influence of the Texas warrior culture from the Alamo to the present day. This is not a history of Texas, but much Texas history is entwined with American national politics. This book locates such diverse phenomena as Cold War politics, the Kennedy assassination, U.S.-Mexican immigration policies, Texas death penalty practices, and recent U.S. Middle East policy in the context of this Alamo attitude.
While the Texas influence has always been strong, and has ebbed and flowed, never has it been stronger, especially as a guiding force in American foreign policy. Today, people around the world perceive this Manifest Destiny swaggering style in our foreign policy. Because of its sheer size, its border wars with Mexico, its ten-year history as an independent republic, and its having been settled by a warrior culture originating in the English-Scottish borderlands and arriving in Texas via the southern Appalachians, Texas is unique in American politics. The author does not assert that Texas causes, or is the sole cause of, our various policies or of so many violent events. Rather, he demonstrates convincingly that the Texas warrior culture provides a fascinating context for national politics in a way that no other state's political culture can claim.
Review
This book is well researched and documented. Its conclusion is controversial in many circles....The book is aimed at a general audience but would be a good read in political science or history courses.Perspectives on Political Science
Review
The value of Deep in the Heart is that it helps us to see that what may seem like current aberrations are, unfortunately, not aberrations at all.Great Plains Research
Synopsis
Cowboy politics is in. When George W. Bush announced a new American policy of pre-emptive attack against potential enemies in 2002, he ushered in the triumph of Texas values over the American agenda. This book traces in lucid and engaging style the fascinating influence of the Texas warrior culture from the Alamo to the present day. This is not a history of Texas, but much Texas history is entwined with American national politics. This book locates such diverse phenomena as Cold War politics, the Kennedy assassination, U.S.-Mexican immigration policies, Texas death penalty practices, and recent U.S. Middle East policy in the context of this Alamo attitude.
Synopsis
Traces the extraordinary influence of Texas warrior culture on American national politics, from the creation myth of the Alamo to the George W. Bush administration's pre-emptive attack policy in the Middle East.
About the Author
JAMES MCENTEER is an independent scholar, a journalist, and the author of Fighting Words: Independent Journalists in Texas. He is a former Fellow of the Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Visions and Revisions of the Alamo
Bordering on Chaos
Circling the Wagons
Lone Star Rising
Pop Goes the Alamo
Lone Star Noir
Davy Crockett in Vietnam
Apocalypse Now and Then
Other Lines, Other Sands
Son of a Gun
Alamo America