God Save Texas
A Journey into the Future of America
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4,0 • 1 Bewertung
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- 9,49 €
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- 9,49 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
A New York Times Notable Book of 2018
'This is a funny, pointed love letter to Texas, at once elegiac and clear-eyed' Ben Macintyre, The Times
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Looming Tower, God Save Texas is a journey through the most controversial state in America.
Texas is a Republican state in the heart of Trumpland that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than twenty years; but it is also a state in which minorities already form a majority (including the largest number of Muslim adherents in the United States). The cities are Democrat and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king but Texas now leads California in technology exports and has an economy only somewhat smaller than Australia's.
Lawrence Wright has written an enchanting book about what is often seen as an unenchanting place. Having spent most of his life there, while remaining deeply aware of its oddities, Wright is as charmed by Texan foibles and landscapes as he is appalled by its politics and brutality. With its economic model of low taxes and minimal regulation producing both extraordinary growth and striking income disparities, Texas, Wright shows, looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create.
This profound portrait of the state, completed just as Texas battled to rebuild after the devastating storms of summer 2017, not only reflects the United States back as it is, but as it was and as it might be. As much the home of Roy Orbison and Willie Nelson as of J.R., Ross Perot and the Bush family, as filled with magical scenery as with desolate oil-fields and strip-malls, Texas is a bellwether, super-sized mass of contradictions: a life-long study.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wright (The Terror Years), a Pulitzer winner and New Yorker staff writer, takes an unflinching look at Texas the state where he has spent most of his life in all its grandeur and contradictions. A clear-sighted and often witty reporter, Wright highlights the state's past and present political figures (among them Lyndon Johnson, both Bush presidents, Ann Richards, and Ted Cruz); entrenched belief in low taxes and minimal regulation; booming economy of oil and technology exports; and track record of subpar social services and legislative accomplishments (redistricting, open carry and concealed carry gun laws). Wright also showcases three of the state's fastest-growing cities: Houston, the only major U.S. metropolis without zoning laws; Dallas, with its history of reinvention after John F. Kennedy's assassination and currently hot market for commercial construction; and Austin, with its high rate of start-up companies and its citizenry devoted to "quirky passions." Interspersed throughout are the author's personal reflections on growing up in Texas and on why he continues to live there. The demographics of this vast and diverse state suggest it's far more progressive than its representatives, and its population is increasing at an astonishing rate. Wright's large-scale portrait, which reveals how Texas is only growing in influence,is comprehensive, insightful, and compulsively entertaining.
