The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981 Page: 367
502 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
the contrasting interpretations held by E. J. Davis and Richard Coke
of the role of the federal government vis-i-vis the states; Jim Fergu-
son's assertion of the prerogatives of his office; and Allan Shivers's ex-
tended warning in 1951 about the dangers of communism.
One might question the choice of governors whose speeches are used
in this collection in light of the stated criterion of service during
"pivotal moments in the state's history" (p. 3). The introductions to
the speeches of Price Daniel and John Connally do not suggest how
their administrations were pivotal. Two disappointing omissions are
Elisha M. Pease and W. Lee O'Daniel. Pease's administration saw the
settlement of the revolutionary debt and the enactment of significant
education and railroad legislation. O'Daniel, whose inaugural cere-
mony was staged at Memorial Stadium in Austin, ushered in an era-
more or less continuing to the present-of almost unqualified guber-
natorial support for the interests of corporate business in the state.
The background information provided about each of the governors
whose speech is included is of uneven quality and deserved more care-
ful editing. Also, the introductions for the three most recent gover-
nors are disappointingly uncritical (as contrasted to the others).
Perhaps Professor McDonald will go on to collect and edit a vol-
ume containing all gubernatorial inaugural and legislative messages.
Scholars would welcome such a reference work.
Austin Community College ROGER A. GRIFFIN
There Ain't No Such Animal and Other East Texas Tales. By Bill
Brett. (College Station: Texas A8cM University Press, 1979. Pp.
111. Illustrations. $8.50.)
Bill Brett has the remarkable talent for trapping in print the dis-
tinctive cadences and subtle nuances of the dialect and folksay of East
Texas. There Ain't No Such Animal anthologizes fourteen of Brett's
well-told tales and anecdotes, some of which are only four or five pages
long. And truly, these are tales and anecdotes instead of short stories,
in the strict literary sense of the term. Oral tradition is the well from
which these redactions are drawn.
The subject matter of the selections ranges from mules and alli-
gators to local characters who get religion, see ghosts, and fight because
they've got nothing better to do. And throughout the stories run the
whimsical observations of a narrator who sees the humor and pathos367
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 84, July 1980 - April, 1981, periodical, 1980/1981; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101225/m1/415/?rotate=0: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.