Download or read book The Knights of the Golden Circle in Texas written by Randolph W Farmer and published by Histria Books. This book was released on 2022-09-13 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States today is a divided nation and some say the country may be heading toward breakup, or possibly civil war. That has happened before and the result was disastrous. As many as 750,000 Americans perished during the Civil War. A study of the causes of our last Civil War may help to prevent another.The Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) played a major role in starting the Civil War in the United States. Although intended to remain a secret organization of conspirators, it is perhaps the most well-documented conspiracy in United States history. The goal of the KGC was the creation of a new society separate from the United States dedicated to the preservation and expansion of slavery into Latin America.The KGC existed in almost every state in the Union, but nowhere was it as powerful and successful as it was in Texas. Several governors, many senators and military leaders were members, having taken an oath to support the organization and their fellow members. Most of the documents generated by the KGC were destroyed after the war ended as its members feared execution for treason. Not everything was destroyed, though. This book relies on documents created by the organization and its members that have not previously been used by researchers. Many members of this organization remained in positions of authority in state affairs after the abolition of slavery. This book goes far beyond previous published work in establishing the identities of the members of this organization who promoted and encouraged the most disastrous war in American history.Randolph W. Farmer is a native Texan from a family whose ancestors first came to Texas as early as 1817 when it was still a Spanish possession. He is the author of two previously published books on Texas history.
Download or read book Secret War for Texas written by Stuart Reid and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could the British have stopped Manifest Destiny in its tracks in 1836? A Scottish doctor named James Grant was the agent who tried to make it happen, and Texas was the stage on which the secret battle was fought. On the eve of the Texas uprising, only two things stood in the way of American ambitions to reach the Pacific Ocean: the British claim to the Oregon country and the vast but sparsely populated Mexican province of Texas. Britain was therefore almost as concerned with the outcome of the Texians' war as Mexico was. At a crucial point when Texians had to decide whether to seek rights within the Federal Republic of Mexico or to secede and ally with the United States, James Grant led a band of followers toward Mexico, with the intent of forming a state within that nation. His efforts met enduring accusations that he fatally weakened the Alamo by stripping it of men, ammunition, and medical supplies. When Grant was killed on the ill-fated Matamoros expedition, British hopes of blocking the upstart Americans died, too. Yet, despite his important role, Grant remains a shadowy and often sinister figure routinely condemned by historians and frequently dismissed out of hand as merely an unscrupulous land speculator. Drawing heavily on British sources, Reid tells the forgotten story of Dr. James Grant and the twelve-year-long secret war for Texas, from his involvement in the "silly quixotic" Fredonian Rebellion to the bloody battles along the Atascosita Road. The international scope of the story makes this far more than just another tale of the Texas Revolution.
Download or read book Knights of the Golden Circle written by David C. Keehn and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1860, during their first attempt to create the Golden Circle, several thousand Knights assembled in southern Texas to "colonize" the northern Mexico. Due to insufficient resources and organizational shortfalls, however, that filibuster failed. Later, the Knights shifted their focus and began pushing for disunion, spearheading prosecession rallies, and intimidating Unionists in the South. They appointed regional military commanders from the ranks of the South's major political and military figures, including men such as Elkanah Greer of Texas, Paul J. Semmes of Georgia, Robert C. Tyler of Maryland, and Virginius D. Groner of Virginia. Followers also established allies with the South's rabidly prosecession "fire-eaters," which included individuals such as Barnwell Rhett, Louis Wigfall, Henry Wise, and William Yancy.
Download or read book The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution written by Charles Houston Harris and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors document the secret role of the Mexican president in the insurgency against Anglos during the Mexican Revolution and the Texas Rangers' role in ending the uprising.
Download or read book The Union League and Biracial Politics in Reconstruction Texas written by Carl H. Moneyhon and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Republican Union League of America played a major role in the Southern Reconstruction that followed the American Civil War. A secret organization introduced into Texas in 1867 to mobilize newly enfranchised black voters, it was the first political body that attempted to secure power by forming a biracial coalition. Originally intended by white Unionists simply to marshal black voters to their support, it evolved into an organization that allowed blacks to pursue their own political goals. It was abandoned by the state’s Republican Party following the 1871 state elections. From the beginning the use of the league by the Republican party proved controversial. While its opponents charged that its white leadership simply manipulated ignorant blacks to achieve power for themselves, ultimately encouraging racial conflict, the League not only educated blacks in their new political rights but also protected them in the exercise of those rights. It gave blacks a voice in supporting the legislative program of Gov. Edmund J. Davis, helping him to push through laws aimed at the maintenance of law and order, securing basic civil rights for blacks, and the creation of public schools. Ultimately, its success and its secrecy provoked hostile attacks from political opponents, leading the party to stop using it. Nonetheless, the Union League created a legacy of black activism that lasted throughout the nineteenth century and pushed Texas toward a remarkably different world from the segregated and racist one that developed after the league disappeared.
Download or read book Almonte s Texas written by Jack Jackson and published by Texas State Historical Assn. This book was released on 2005-08 with total page 503 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In late 1833 Mexico, fearing its north-eastern territory in Texas would be lost to North American colonists, sent Col. Juan N. Almonte to Texas on an inspection. Upon his return to the Mexican capital in November 1834, Almonte wrote a secret report of the measures necessary to avoid the loss of Texas---a report that has been unknown to scholars or the general public. Here it is presented in English for the first time, along with more than fifty letters that Almonte wrote during his inspection. When Santa Anna marched an army north to crush the Texas rebellion, Almonte was by his side as a special adviser. Almonte's journal appears here with full annotation, and from the examination of his role in the 1836 campaign we gain an overdue appreciation of this man who played an important part in the history of Texas and Mexico. "A highly classified document is leaking its contents like a lawn sprinkler." Kent Biffle, Dallas Morning News "This is a fascinating and highly satisfying book for anyone interested in the real meat of the story of the Texas Revolution---in all its political, military, and diplomatic dimensions. The editors have put Almonte in the center of this story of Texas in the 1830s and 40s, and that's exactly where he belongs. Bravo!" James Crisp, North Carolina State University "Following the reading of this excellent book, no one can doubt the crucial role that Almonte played in the affairs of Mexico and Texas." F. Todd Smith, East Texas Historical Journal "The editors have provided a welcomed, long overdue, and wholly original contribution to the knowledge of a vital period in Texas history. Almonte's Texas deserves an honored place on the bookshelves of every serious student of the Lone Star State." Stephen L. Hardin, Southwestern Historical Quarterly 2003 Kate Broocks Bates Award for Historical Research---Texas State Historical Association 2003 Summerfield G. Roberts Prize--- Sons of the Republic of Texas 2003 Friends of the Dallas Public Library Award for the Book Making the Most Significant Contribution to Knowledge---Texas Institute of Letters Citation, 2004---San Antomo Conservation Society.
Download or read book The Texas Republic and the Mormon Kingdom of God written by Michael Van Wagenen and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History has until now hidden how close the ambitions of these two men came to carving out a Mormon Kingdom of God in the Republic of Texas.".
Download or read book Serbia s Secret War written by Philip J. Cohen and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To understand Serbian nationalism requires profound attention to history and careful analysis. Cohen accomplishes both through years of studying primary sources never before translated, focusing on World War II and uncovering the foundations of ethnic cleansing. He argues that the Serbs collaborated with the Nazis in contrast to later Serbian rhetoric that claimed the Serbs were victims, "the thirteenth tribe of Israel." This official duplicity veiled the true objectives of the government to create an ethnically pure homeland. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Download or read book Cult of Glory written by Doug J. Swanson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-06-08 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Swanson has done a crucial public service by exposing the barbarous side of the Rangers.” —The New York Times Book Review A twenty-first century reckoning with the legendary Texas Rangers that does justice to their heroic moments while also documenting atrocities, brutality, oppression, and corruption The Texas Rangers came to life in 1823, when Texas was still part of Mexico. Nearly 200 years later, the Rangers are still going--one of the most famous of all law enforcement agencies. In Cult of Glory, Doug J. Swanson has written a sweeping account of the Rangers that chronicles their epic, daring escapades while showing how the white and propertied power structures of Texas used them as enforcers, protectors and officially sanctioned killers. Cult of Glory begins with the Rangers' emergence as conquerors of the wild and violent Texas frontier. They fought the fierce Comanches, chased outlaws, and served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. As Texas developed, the Rangers were called upon to catch rustlers, tame oil boomtowns, and patrol the perilous Texas-Mexico border. In the 1930s they began their transformation into a professionally trained police force. Countless movies, television shows, and pulp novels have celebrated the Rangers as Wild West supermen. In many cases, they deserve their plaudits. But often the truth has been obliterated. Swanson demonstrates how the Rangers and their supporters have operated a propaganda machine that turned agency disasters and misdeeds into fables of triumph, transformed murderous rampages--including the killing of scores of Mexican civilians--into valorous feats, and elevated scoundrels to sainthood. Cult of Glory sets the record straight. Beginning with the Texas Indian wars, Cult of Glory embraces the great, majestic arc of Lone Star history. It tells of border battles, range disputes, gunslingers, massacres, slavery, political intrigue, race riots, labor strife, and the dangerous lure of celebrity. And it reveals how legends of the American West--the real and the false--are truly made.
Download or read book Forget the Alamo written by Bryan Burrough and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller! “Lively and absorbing. . ." — The New York Times Book Review "Engrossing." —Wall Street Journal “Entertaining and well-researched . . . ” —Houston Chronicle Three noted Texan writers combine forces to tell the real story of the Alamo, dispelling the myths, exploring why they had their day for so long, and explaining why the ugly fight about its meaning is now coming to a head. Every nation needs its creation myth, and since Texas was a nation before it was a state, it's no surprise that its myths bite deep. There's no piece of history more important to Texans than the Battle of the Alamo, when Davy Crockett and a band of rebels went down in a blaze of glory fighting for independence from Mexico, losing the battle but setting Texas up to win the war. However, that version of events, as Forget the Alamo definitively shows, owes more to fantasy than reality. Just as the site of the Alamo was left in ruins for decades, its story was forgotten and twisted over time, with the contributions of Tejanos--Texans of Mexican origin, who fought alongside the Anglo rebels--scrubbed from the record, and the origin of the conflict over Mexico's push to abolish slavery papered over. Forget the Alamo provocatively explains the true story of the battle against the backdrop of Texas's struggle for independence, then shows how the sausage of myth got made in the Jim Crow South of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. As uncomfortable as it may be to hear for some, celebrating the Alamo has long had an echo of celebrating whiteness. In the past forty-some years, waves of revisionists have come at this topic, and at times have made real progress toward a more nuanced and inclusive story that doesn't alienate anyone. But we are not living in one of those times; the fight over the Alamo's meaning has become more pitched than ever in the past few years, even violent, as Texas's future begins to look more and more different from its past. It's the perfect time for a wise and generous-spirited book that shines the bright light of the truth into a place that's gotten awfully dark.
Download or read book Texas Tough written by Robert Perkinson and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2010-03-11 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vivid history of America's biggest, baddest prison system and how it came to lead the nation's punitive revolution In the prison business, all roads lead to Texas. The most locked-down state in the nation has led the way in criminal justice severity, from assembly-line executions to isolation supermaxes, from prison privatization to sentencing juveniles as adults. Texas Tough, a sweeping history of American imprisonment from the days of slavery to the present, shows how a plantation-based penal system once dismissed as barbaric became the national template. Drawing on convict accounts, official records, and interviews with prisoners, guards, and lawmakers, historian Robert Perkinson reveals the Southern roots of our present-day prison colossus. While conventional histories emphasize the North's rehabilitative approach, he shows how the retributive and profit-driven regime of the South ultimately triumphed. Most provocatively, he argues that just as convict leasing and segregation emerged in response to Reconstruction, so today's mass incarceration, with its vast racial disparities, must be seen as a backlash against civil rights. Illuminating for the first time the origins of America's prison juggernaut, Texas Tough points toward a more just and humane future.
Download or read book Top Secret America written by Dana Priest and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2011-09-06 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The top-secret world that the government created in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks has become so enormous, so unwieldy, and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs or exactly how many agencies duplicate work being done elsewhere. The result is that the system put in place to keep the United States safe may be putting us in greater danger. In Top Secret America, award-winning reporters Dana Priest and William Arkin uncover the enormous size, shape, mission, and consequences of this invisible universe of over 1,300 government facilities in every state in America; nearly 2,000 outside companies used as contractors; and more than 850,000 people granted "Top Secret" security clearance. A landmark exposé of a new, secret "Fourth Branch" of American government, Top Secret America is a tour de force of investigative reporting-and a book sure to spark national and international alarm.
Download or read book Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers written by Brian Kilmeade and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-05-12 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestseller now in paperback with a new epilogue. In March 1836, the Mexican army led by General Santa Anna massacred more than two hundred Texians who had been trapped in the Alamo. After thirteen days of fighting, American legends Jim Bowie and Davey Crockett died there, along with other Americans who had moved to Texas looking for a fresh start. It was a crushing blow to Texas’s fight for freedom. But the story doesn’t end there. The defeat galvanized the Texian settlers, and under General Sam Houston’s leadership they rallied. Six weeks after the Alamo, Houston and his band of settlers defeated Santa Anna’s army in a shocking victory, winning the independence for which so many had died. Sam Houston and the Alamo Avengers recaptures this pivotal war that changed America forever, and sheds light on the tightrope all war heroes walk between courage and calculation. Thanks to Kilmeade’s storytelling, a new generation of readers will remember the Alamo—and recognize the lesser known heroes who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Download or read book America s Secret War written by George Friedman and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2005-10-11 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George Friedman delivers the geopolitical story that the mainstream media has been unable to uncover — the startling truth behind America’s foreign policy and war effort in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond. Friedman, founder of Stratfor, one of the world’s most respected private global intelligence firms, and Geopolitical Futures, has an unmatched ability to provide clear perspective on the current geopolitical map. In America's Secret War, George Friedman identifies the United States’ most dangerous enemies, delves into presidential strategies of the last quarter century, and reveals the real reasons behind the attack of 9/11—and the Bush administration’s motivation for the war in Iraq. It describes in eye-opening detail America’s covert and overt efforts in the global war against terrorism: Not only are U.S. armies in combat on every continent, but since 9/11 the intelligence services of dozens of nations have been operating in close partnership with the CIA. Drawing on his vast information-gathering network, Friedman presents an insightful picture of today’s world that goes far beyond what is reported on television and in other news media. Al Qaeda’s war plans and how they led to 9/11 The threat of a suitcase nuclear bomb in New York and how that changed the course of the war. The deal the U.S. made with Russia and Iran which made the invasion of Afghanistan possible – and how those deals affect the United States today. How fear and suspicion of the Saudis after 9-11 tore apart the Bush-Saudi relationship and why Saudi Arabia’s closest friends in the administration became the Saudi’s worst enemies. The real reasons behind George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq and how WMD became the cover for a much deeper game. How the CIA miscalculated about Saddam Hussein’s and Iran’s real plans, leaving the U.S. bogged down in the war. How the war in Iraq began with a ruse, pretending that a “target of opportunity” attack on Saddam Hussein had presented itself. The real story about why the U.S. raises and lowers its alert status and why the United States can’t find and destroy al Qaeda. The strategic successes that are slowly leading the United States to victory America's Secret War is an unprecedented look at the new world war being waged behind-the-scenes today. It is sure to stir debate and capture headlines around the world.
Download or read book The Handbook of Texas written by Walter Prescott Webb and published by . This book was released on 1952 with total page 1176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vol. 3: A supplement, edited by Eldon Stephen Branda. Includes bibliographical references.
Download or read book Quiet Spy Secret War written by M. H. Burton and published by . This book was released on 2019-08-26 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was the CIA's most effective agent in Southeast Asia, yet few knew his name or what he did. One high ranking diplomat wrote a scholarly account of the Secret War in Laos but didn't mention him. Didn't mention the guy who was literally running the Secret War during the years that this Embassy-bound "authority" was stationed in Vientiane. He was the number one expert on the political and military situation in both Thailand and Laos. Spoke the languages fluently. Understood the people and empathized with them. Knew all the all the movers and shakers and, just as importantly, knew the people at the bottom of those rigidly hierarchical societies. Knew the peasants and the press-ganged draftees who did the dirty work of war and suffered its losses. Knew everyone from top to bottom. Even knew HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand. Spent 18 years in Thailand and Laos, married the sister of one of Thailand's most prominent statesmen. Held the rank of Colonel in the Royal Thai Police.Yet he was a quiet self-effacing man. Never out front. Working behind the scenes. No taste for either fame or fortune. Staying in the background until action was needed then striking decisively fast and effectively. Not what you would expect in a spy. Not handsome or dashing. Speaking slowly and carefully. Always to the point without so much as a single un-needed word. So reticent that many dismissed him as a low-level "field man". He didn't mind that. Such arrogance amused him. He knew what he was, and he knew he was in charge. He saved his brilliance for when it was needed and usually delivered it in writing rather than verbally.So, what exactly did James William "Bill" Lair do? He trained spies, guerilla warriors, and anti-guerilla warriors; directed a paramilitary army of 30,000 in battle; busted drug lords; ran an intelligence gathering net that spanned Thailand, Laos and parts of China; fed and rescued war refugees. That's just for starters. The poor fatherless boy who grew up in the rough vicious oil boomtowns of the Texas Panhandle during 1920s-30s, went off to the bloody beaches of Normandy, got a GI Bill degree from a Cow College, and carried his Texas backcountry twang to Southeast Asia may have sounded like a hick to his polished associates, but they often found that there was more to plain old countrified Bill than met their eye. Some came to call him "The Lawrence of Laos". Not that bad a description except that he was much more successful at what he did than T. E. Lawrence... and he never wrote any books about his exploits...So I have.
Download or read book The Secret War for China written by Panagiotis Dimitrakis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-22 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek - the head of China's military academy and leader of the Kuomintang (KMT) - began the `northern expeditions' to bring China's northern territories back under the control of the state. It was during this period that the KMT purged communist activities, fractured the army and sparked the Chinese Civil War - which would rage for over twenty years. The communists, led by General Mao Tse-Tsung, were for much of the period forced underground and concentrated in the Chinese countryside. As the author argues, this resulted in China's war featuring unusually high levels of espionage and sabotage, and increased the military importance of information gathering. Based on newly declassified material, Panagiotis Dimitrakis charts the double-crossings, secret meetings and bloody assassinations which would come to define China's future. Uniquely, The Secret War for China gives equal weighting to the role of foreign actors: the role of British intelligence in unmasking Communist International (Comintern) agents in China, for example, and the allies' attempts to turn nationalist China against the Japanese. The Secret War for China also documents the clandestine confrontation between Mao and Chiang and the secret negotiations between Chiang and the Axis Powers, whose forces he employed against the CCP once the Second World War was over. In his turn, Mao employed nationalist forces who had defected - during the last three years of the civil war about 105 out of 869 KMT generals defected to the CCP. This book is an urgent and necessary guide to the intricacies of the Chinese Civil War, a war which decisively shaped the modern Asian world.
