James A. Michener · 1985 · overland

James Michener's 1985 novel, four and a half centuries of Texas in a single volume. Spanish entradas, mission friars, Anglo settlers on Mexican land grants, the Alamo and Goliad, the republic, the cattle drives, oil and the modern state - told through several families and framed as a task force preparing a school curriculum.

1. 1
   El Paso

   The Spanish come north up the river from Mexico with soldiers and friars, and the missions along the Rio Grande are the first European foothold - a frontier of the Spanish empire two thousand miles from its capital.

2. 2
   San Antonio

   At the Alamo in 1836 fewer than two hundred men hold a mission compound for thirteen days against Santa Anna and are killed to the last - a defeat that turns out to be worth more to the rebellion than a victory.

3. 3
   Goliad

   Three weeks later at Goliad, three hundred and forty prisoners who had surrendered on terms are marched out and shot - and the two names together give the revolution the cry it will win with.

4. 4
   San Jacinto

   At San Jacinto, Houston attacks during the Mexican siesta and the battle lasts eighteen minutes - and Santa Anna, caught the next day in a private's uniform, signs away a territory the size of France.

5. 5
   Houston

   The republic, annexation, secession, the trail drives north and then oil at Spindletop - and the book ends in a modern Texas arguing with itself about which version of all this the schools should teach.