The Texas Book Two
The Texas Book Two
More Profiles, History, and Reminiscences of the University
In every corner of the sprawling enterprise that is the University of Texas at Austin, you will find teaching, research, artistic creation, and sports achievement that are among the best in the world. Mandated by the Texas constitution to be “a university of the first class,” UT Austin strives for excellence across the curriculum, from the most traditional of liberal arts disciplines to the cutting edge of science and technology. For Texans interested in progress, whether students of the university or members of the public, there are few pleasures greater than uncovering the intellectual treasures that can be found by exploring the university’s “Forty Acres” and all that they contain.
The Texas Book, edited by Richard A. Holland and published in 2006, offered the first in-depth exploration of UT’s history and traditions through a collection of profiles, histories, and reminiscences. Now The Texas Book Two continues the story, with a variety of contributors recalling particular events and personalities that have helped shape the university and the people whose lives it has touched. Twenty-one essays present personalities such as John A. Lomax, Anna Hiss, J. R. Parten, Harvey Penick, John W. Hargis, and Jorge Luis Borges; accounts of legislative battles and debates over campus architecture; histories of crown jewels such as the McDonald Observatory and Austin City Limits; and the reminiscences of Barbara Smith Conrad, Sam Hurt, and Cat Osterman, among others.
David Dettmer has assembled a fascinating anthology of profiles, historical pieces, and reminiscences. . . . Savor these chapters, essay by essay, and all together. They will draw you toward the core of [this] great institution, and, most likely, will connect you to your own past and future as they do.
David Dettmer is an educator and writer who has been associated with The University of Texas at Austin as a student and staffer for nearly two decades. He worked at the university’s Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, which houses the institutional archives of UT, for more than nine years. Today, he is a staff member in the Office of the President at UT Austin, as well as an adjunct Professor of English at Austin Community College.
- Foreword by Larry R. Faulkner
- Introduction by David Dettmer
- Profiles
- Rising from the Frontier: John A. Lomax and the University of Texas, by Nolan Porterfield
- Benedicere Benedictus: A Profile of H. Y. Benedict, by David Dettmer
- A Feminist, before Her Time: The Journey of Anna Hiss, by Brad Buchholz
- Communism, Fruit Flies, and Academic Freedom: J. R. Parten's "Second Education," by Don E. Carleton
- Harvey Was My Friend, by Ben Crenshaw
- Steadfast in His Intent: John W. Hargis and the Integration of the University of Texas at Austin, by Richard B. McCaslin
- A Desk for Borges, by Peter LaSalle
- History
- "Farmer Jim" and "The Chief"—Governor Jim Ferguson and His Battle with Eugene C. Barker and the University of Texas, by Patrick Cox
- "Harry's Place": A Brief History of the Academic Center and Undergraduate Library/Peter T. Flawn Academic Center, by Richard W. Oram
- Campus Architecture: Identity Crises, by Richard Cleary and Lawrence Speck
- The Most Important Building on Campus, by Richard A. Holland
- McDonald Observatory: Bigger and Brighter, by Frank N. Bash
- Austin City Limits and the University of Texas, by Michael Toland
- Reminiscences
- I Had No Reason to Believe Otherwise, by Barbara Smith Conrad
- The Arcadia That Was Austin, by Vance Muse
- Barn Dance: The Early Years of Shakespeare at Winedale, by Alice Gordon
- Hank the Hallucination's Campaign Trail Remembered: Confessions of a Traitorous, Politically Agnostic Opportunist, by Sam Hurt
- A Perfect Game, by Cat Osterman
- Before the Bulldozers: Life in Married Student Housing, by Wayne Butler
- Acknowledgments
