Texas! The very word brings to mind images that span many 
centuries and cultures: from the Tejas Indians . . . to 
the Tejanos of South Texas . . . to the Texians of the 
fledgling republic . . . to the Texans of today. The 
layered historical panorama of past and present Texas is 
the subject of The  Portable Handbook of Texas.
 
 
The Portable Handbook is a condensation of the 
award-winning New Handbook of Texas, which the 
Texas State Historical Association published in six 
volumes in 1996. This one-volume compendium features a 
comprehensive overview of Texas history from prehistory 
to the present.


The Portable Handbook of Texas brings together 
more historical information about Texas than can be found 
in any other single volume. It is the most useful and 
reliable one-volume reference work ever published on Texas—
ideal for the home and office, the student, teacher, and 
traveler.


Features of the Portable Handbook include:

• Hundreds of illustrations selected from the state's best 
  archives—many that were not published in The New Handbook.

• A complete index.

• Biographies of 560 men and women who helped shape the Lone 
  Star State.

• More than 25 articles on the peoples of Texas, from African 
  Americans to Wends, from Indians to Mexican Americans to 
  Vietnamese.

• Broad-ranging overview essays on more than 30 topics of 
  vital contemporary interest including agriculture, education, 
  health care, religion, urbanization, and women's history.

• Histories of 91 major cities, principal towns, and small 
  communities of particular historical significance.

• Dozens of geographical entries describing a land as wild 
  and varied as the Rio Grande, the Big Thicket, and the Llano 
  Estacado, with wildlife topics ranging from armadillos to 
  whooping cranes, and weather that turns from tornados to 
  hurricanes to blue northers.

• And accounts of hundreds of other topics and events, 
  including those unforgettable occurrences, such as the crash 
  at Crush and the Santa Claus bank robbery, that have achieved 
  legendary status among true Texas tales.


_________________________________________________________

R. BARKLEY and MARK F. ODINTZ are senior editors of the 
Handbook of Texas project at the Texas State 
Historical Association.