PositiveThe New York Review of BooksLike the state of which he writes, Stephen Harrigan’s book on Texas is big ... Harrigan reinforces the idea that most people do not think of Texas in relationship to slavery ... There were exceptions, but the book leaves no doubt about the origins of the state’s troubled racial history. The great strength of Harrigan’s work is that he tells the stories of all the types of people who have lived in Texas, from its earliest days into modern times, with a sense that all of their lives mattered in fashioning the state’s identity ... Texas is a large place with no one defining character, save for many residents’ confident belief that to be a Texan is to be special.
