The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 339

Book Reviews

that way. Most practical of all perhaps is Mary Faulk Kooch's "Recipes from
Green Pastures," which does include directions for the preparation of some very
enticing dishes including one adamantly folk-style version of son of a gun stew
and several decidedly non-folk recipes such as sherry almond pudding. Kooch al-
so describes living and growing up on the edge of town in the building that
would later become one of the most long-lived and elegant restaurants in Austin,
Texas. Also in this volume we find L. Patrick Hughes' "Praising Potted Pork
Parts: Austin's One and Only Spamorama." The juxtaposition of these two
prominent Austin culinary institutions in one volume reveals some of the deli-
cious irony characteristic of this city, probably not intended by the editor, but
relished by this longtime Austinite.
There is impressive scholarship in this volume. In what may be the most last-
ing contribution in this volume, Sylvia Grider's "Epics of Defeat: Texas' Alamo
and Scotland's Culloden," comparisons of these influential events to each other
extend our understanding of each of them. Rhett Rushing's article "Homemade
Religion: Miraculous Images on Jesus and the Virgin Mary in South Texas,"
demonstrates and describes the close integration of religion with everyday life
among Mexican Americans of South Texas. Tony Clark's very careful sorting of
the truths, half-truths, errors, and bald-faced lies helps us understand who
Robert Newton (Bob) Ford was and his role (or lack thereof) in the demise of
the ever-popular Jesse James. Clark contends, "for every scrupulous historian of
the West, I would guess there have been at least a score of writers trying to pass
off their works as history while mainly telling colorful tales for a quick profit."
Music, mostly folk music, is an integral part of Texas Folklore Society meet-
ings particularly and always at the evening hootenannies and it often shows up
in the publications. In this volume we find Charles Gardner describing "The Ori-
gins of the Texas Style of Traditional Old-Time Fiddling," Richard Holland ex-
plaining "'It All Began the Day My Conscience Died': The Cheatin' Song from
Prototype to Post-Modern." And the kill-joy editor himself, Francis Edward (Ab)
Abernethy along with James Lutzweiler cast the harsh light of historical scholar-
ship on our cherished (mis)beliefs connecting the song "The Yellow Rose of
Texas" with Emily Morgan (or West), General Santa Anna, and the very salvation
of Texas as we know it.
The book has a useful index, short descriptions of each contributor, and many
of the articles are augmented with appropriate photographs.
If you cannot find something in this volume to at least enjoy if not outright
cherish, you must not be either literate or warm-blooded.
Austn Rollo Newsom
George Bush: The Life of a Lone Star Yankee. By Herbert S. Parmet. (New York:
Scribner, 1997. Pp. 500+. Notes, index, photographs. ISBN o-684-19452-X.
$32.50, cloth.)
Herbert S. Parmet is a veteran writer of two difficult types of books, the "big"
book and the "pro temp" book. The former is characterized by the scale and

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