The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, July 1994 - April, 1995 Page: 164
682 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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164 Southwestern Historical Quarterly July
north from Longview, Texas, while the Little Inch snaked its way out of Beau-
mont. Federal disposal of these pipelines as war surplus provided the impetus
for the organization of Texas Eastern, which in 1945 converted them to carry
natural gas. One of the major producers in the nation, Texas Eastern grew and
flourished until 1989, when it fell victim to a corporate takeover. Castaneda and
Pratt tell the fascinating story of its creation, expansion, and demise. Their focus
is on managerial choices in the turbulent life of the company. These were signif-
icant right from the start, when a galaxy of Texas entrepreneurs including E.
Holley Poe, Reginald H. Hargrove, George R. Brown, Herman Brown, Charles I.
Francis, and the legendary Everette De Golyer organized the enterprise. Their
decisions in steering the company through a fiercely competitive business envi-
ronment constitute a major portion of the book. By the 1960os they expanded
operations into new North Sea oil fields and diversified to acquire extensive
holdings in Houston real estate. The petroleum shortages of the i97os, engi-
neered by OPEC, prompted the company's managers to engage in further diver-
sification to lessen its reliance on oil and gas. With the collapse of the Houston
real estate boom in the 1980s, the managers began a return to the core business,
but too slowly to avoid a takeover in 1989.
Texas Eastern commissioned Castaneda and Pratt to write this volume. While
allowing them full access to records and subsidizing their time, the company
scrupulously refrained from interfering with the nature of the book or its con-
clusions. The authors undertook an exhaustive examination not only of corpo-
rate records but also of government documents, newspapers, periodicals, and
secondary works. The result is a well-written and judicious work. It will be of in-
terest to all who are concerned with the business and economic history of Texas;
to economists, lawyers, and readers who wish to understand the dynamic, indus-
trial, urban, and technologically oriented society that characterized much of
Texas in the second half of the twentieth century. This is corporate history at its
best.
University of New Mexico GERALD D. NASH
Ill-Advzsed: Presidential Health and Public Trust. By Robert H. Ferrell. (Columbia,
Mo.: University of Missouri Press, 1992. Pp. xii+205. Preface, acknowledg-
ments, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN o-82620o-864-9. $19.95.)
Ill-Advised is a significant addition to the work of Bert E. Park, Edwin A. Wein-
stein, Jerrold M. Post, and others on the impact of illness on world leaders. Al-
though most of this story is already familiar to historians of the modern
American presidency, Ferrell convincingly demonstrates that presidential physi-
cians and advisers prevented full disclosure. When Grover Cleveland was incor-
rectly diagnosed in May 1893 with a malignant cancer of the mouth, his
physicians covered up a secret (and successful) operation which removed eight
pieces of the president's upper jaw. Ferrell accepts the findings of Weinstein and
others about Woodrow Wilson's neurological pathology; according to Ferrell,
Wilson suffered minor strokes in 1896 and 1904 and a more serious stroke in
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 98, July 1994 - April, 1995, periodical, 1995; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101216/m1/192/?rotate=180: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.