Texas

Spanning four and a half centuries, James A. Michener’s monumental saga chronicles the epic history of Texas, from its Spanish roots in the age of the conquistadors to its current reputation as one of America’s most affluent, diverse, and provocative states: Texas. A land of sprawling diversity and unparalleled richness; a dazzling chapter in the history of our nation, a place like no other on earth. Through the remarkable lives of four families, this epic saga spans four centuries and two continents and charts the dramatic formation of several great dynasties from the age of the conquistadors to the present day. A richly compelling novel of a proud people eager to meet the challenge of the land, TEXAS is James Michener's most magnificent achievement.

Michener's latest combination of mammoth research, history and fiction exudes all the color, courage, villainy, violence, and independent spirit expected from the Lone Star State. The book's organizing principle is a governor's task force created to study the state. It is composed of stereotypical Texans: oil man, rancher, genteel descendant of Southern aristocracy, Chicano, etc. Their ancestors are Texas -- everyone an adventurer, from a Spanish missionary to Scots-Irish and Germans hungry for land and freedom, to a minister sent to civilize Comanches, to Mexican bandits and Texas Rangers. Interspersed among these sagas are task force meetings in various Texas cities to study local geography and natural history far more accessible approach than previous Michener tomes that lump them in heavy opening chapters. Purists may object to the overabundance of dramatic incidents, but they make exciting reading. Highly recommended. [Cynthia Johnson Whealler, Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, Massachussetts -- USA].

[Editorial Reviews] "Fascinating.” —Time

"A book about oil and water, rangers and outlaws, Anglos and Hispanics, frontier and settlement, money and power...James Michener is something rare and valuable: an honorable craftsman doing honorable work....He manages to make history vivid and palatable to the reader." -- The Boston Globe.

“A sweeping panorama . . . [Michener] grapples earnestly with the Texas character in a way that Texas’s own writers often don’t.” —The Washington Post Book World

“Vast, sprawling, and eclectic in population and geography, the state has just the sort of larger-than-life history that lends itself to Mr. Michener’s taste for multigenerational epics.” —The New York Times.

Texas. A land of sprawling diversity and unparalleled richness; a dazzling chapter in the history of our nation, a place like no other on earth. Through the remarkable lives of four families, this epic saga spans four centuries and two continents and charts the dramatic formation of several great dynasties from the age of the conquistadors to the present day. A richly compelling novel of a proud people eager to meet the challenge of the land, TEXAS is James Michener's most magnificent achievement.

“A sweeping panorama of regional history done in the form of a novel.”— The Washington Post Book World.

[About the Author] James A. Michener was one of the world’s most popular writers, the author of more than forty books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tales of the South Pacific, the bestselling novels The Source, Hawaii, Alaska, Chesapeake, Centennial, Texas, Caribbean, and Caravans, and the memoir The World Is My Home. Michener served on the advisory council to NASA and the International Broadcast Board, which oversees the Voice of America. Among dozens of awards and honors, he received America’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1977, and an award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in 1983 for his commitment to art in America. Michener died in 1997 at the age of ninety.

Aventura / Comunicação / Crônicas / Drama / Ficção / História / Literatura Estrangeira / Romance / Sociologia / Suspense e Mistério