I enjoyed this book for several reasons. It is short; yet it is detailed enough to effectively describe the battles in this campaign. It also includes brief profiles of the commanders of the particular conflicts-both Federal and Confederate. And an interesting fact from this Texas Overland Expedition was the presence of six governors of Texas in the two armies.

This story about Texas and a Civil War Campaign all started with a plan conceived in the minds of a group of New England businessmen some two decades before the Civil War and that didn't even take place in Texas. However, when these northerners realized that war was inevitable and that Texas was siding with the Confederate States, rather than give up their lucrative idea, they considered the war to be in their favor. If they could enlist the help of the president and War Department, they could move into Texas under the Union Flag and consequently have the Federal troops to protect their northern settlers. From this nucleus, the story evolved to its climax of the battle. It is good reading.

As a relative newcomer to the Texas Plains-Panhandle region, I found The Texas Panhandle Frontier quite helpful in advancing my understanding of the forces that crafted its culture. Rathjen artfully begins with a geographic review of the llano flat lands and the canyons that splay out from them. He moves chronologically from the Paleo Indian cultures through the Spanish explorers, the Anglo-American scientist-explorers, the historic Indian cultures, the buffalo hunters, and finally, the U.S. military conquest. The Panhandle region was discovered by Europeans twice-first by Coronado and his followers from Spanish New Mexico and later by the Anglo scientists, such as James Abert and Randolph Marcy. Yet, the wearying sameness of the region, its extreme weather, and paucity of water intimidated settlers, leaving it open through the middle 19th century for the free run of semi-nomadic Comanches and other native groups.

Coming to this region from El Paso, I wondered why the Spanish influence was nearly absent from the Plains-Panhandle. Rathjen shows how the area today might have been oriented toward New Mexico if the Spanish explorers of the 16th and 17th centuries had seen the region as a place of settlement rather than as an expanse to be crossed in the search for gold. Ultimately in the 19th century, as more choice lands were claimed, the region attracted Texas cattlemen and ranchers who saw financial opportunity in the emptiness. Hence, the region today is oriented east to the heart of Texas and even north toward Dodge City, Kansas.

Rathjen suggests that the tough barren landscape drew settlers who were equally as tough. His book helps a reader to understand how an intense and often uncompromising Christian Bible-based culture took hold in an uncompromising region. The book also leads the outsider begrudgingly to admire this land and its relatively new residents, yet also to lament that its Native American peoples were not permitted to flourish and add a plurality to the region.

Rathjen deals sensitively with the various groups who crossed the land, crediting both the Indians and their Anglo adversaries with the intelligence and nobility of worthy opponents. In different ways each found a niche in a difficult land. He acknowledges the sometimes severe military tactics on both sides and also presents a dispassionate but sympathetic look at the buffalo slaughter of the late 1800s. Rathjen's prose is never overbearing, melodramatic, or intrusively opinionated. He allows readers to draw their own conclusions about the complex relationships between humans of different cultures, animals, and the environment that all must share.

The book is well written and engaged in its subject. Rathjen is to be commended for the way in which he periodically summarizes the chapters and draws meaningful conclusions. Passages like the following are especially insightful:

"Significantly the scientific exploration of the Texas Panhandle was exclusively financed and directed by the federal government and executed by its agents, and was in no way a function of state or private enterprise. Having occurred in a state that owned its public lands, this fact, in turn, suggests that the federal government was far more a factor in the development of the American West than has generally been supposed" (113).

The Texas Panhandle Frontier is a classic study of this region. It is an excellent companion to Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains, Dan Flores's Caprock Canyonlands, and Donald Worster's Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s. Rathjen provides a highly readable history of a part of the West that is indelibly woven into our American heritage.

If you like jalapenos and spicy foods, you'll love this book! My copy came at the perfect time - just when the jalapenos in my garden were starting to ripen.

This book is well illustrated and can serve as an excellent resource for those wanting to know about range plants. This book would be useful to ranchers, students, laymen, and technicians. If one wanted to carry just one book to the field to identify and learn basic things about a variety of plants, this would be the one.

The well told story of dedicated law enforcement officer who was both feared and respected by the criminal element of Texas from the late 1930's to his death in 1958. Doug Mead did a good job of researching and recording the short life of one of the best Texas Rangers of modern times. This book probably meant more to me than the average reader since I knew Johnny Klevenhagen as well as many of the people mentioned in the book, however most readers will find it interesting if you like learning about good people who make a difference.

First I am from Texas. That would normally bias me to any historical figure from Texas. However, without a doubt this man did more in a lifetime to fill any biography. As a Texas Ranger captain fighting Indians, fighting Mexican bandits, scouting for the US Army in the Mexican-American war, to California sheriff and land developer...everything is done in a big way in his life. James Greer writes a biography that is historically-fact based...he doesn't have to make Jack Hays larger than life...he lived larger than life.

As an avid reader of biographies from the wild west...this is no history book review of a man...this is the best lawman book I have ever read. This guy is now my number one wild west hero!

I highly recommend the book...you won't believe the bravery!

I have used this book for years, and have recommended it to my employer. Jacobus does an excellent job of introducing the layman to the essentials of Texas land law, which has a colorful and complex history.

This is a great book about real estate practices in Texas. I have been sellng real estate for several years and recently picked up a copy of this book. It is very informative and easy to read. I strongly recommend it for all new Realtors or anybody interested in this field. I am going to make it available to all of my employees as a reference guide. Very well done.

This book does what none other has been able to accomplish: provide a concise and thorough reference manual for all issues relating to Texas Property law. It manages to accurately inform the researcher about the current state of the law on virtually every aspect regarding realty. From adverse possession to riparian rights, this book quickly synopsizes the law and then points you in the right direction for further, more comprehensive research. I give Professor Lytton an A+ on this one!

"Texas Reflections" combines the nature photographs of Richard Reynolds with quotes from a number of different authors. As a whole, the book is a stirring celebration of the outdoors.

The book contains an interesting preface in which Reynolds discusses his approach to photography. The authors whose quotes accompany his photos include Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Marcus Aurelius, William Blake, Walt Whitman, Kahlil Gibran, and others.

In his photography, Reynolds has captured some great natural treasures: Capitol Peak in Palo Duro Canyon State Park, the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Daingerfield State Park, and more. His photos are truly beautiful, and generally feature stunning interplay of light and color. Some of the most memorable images in the book include the surreal glow of light in cottonwood trees along Limpia Creek, a bronze-and-gold hued sunrise at South Padre Island, waters rushing over the rocks at McKinney Falls State Park, and much more. An excellent gift for those who revere the beauty of the natural world.