![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
God Save Texas takes us on a journey through the most controversial state in America.
Texas is a Republican state in the heart of Trumpland; but it is also a state in which minorities 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.
Lawrence Wright is a writer, journalist and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at New York University. A mix of travelogue, anecdotes of his life in Texas and overview of Texas’s history, politics and economy, I enjoyed Wright’s conversational writing style but didn’t feel like I understood the contradictions within the state, partly because he skewers towards the view of the privileged rather than those with a lower income.
This book has a weird travelogue vibe to it as Wright and his friend Steve Harrigan cycle to various locations like The Alamo and visit the African American monument in Austin, which Wright then uses as a jumping off point to discuss some aspect of Texan history or politics. At the same time, Wright weaves in elements of his family history (his father moved to Dallas to become president of a small bank) and his own relationship with the state (he describes himself as having been a “self-hating Texan”).
You learn a lot about the politics and history of the state - from its founding fathers to the rise and dominance of the oil industry, the development of the space program’s relationship with the state and the swing of the state’s politics from Democrat to Republican dominance. Inevitably the Bush family are discussed, although this is with a remarkably light touch and I did wonder if this was because of Wright’s connections with the family and with their adviser, Karl Rove (who features towards the end with a description of his impact on Texan and national politics and gives his views on how it’s operating).
There’s quite a lot about the internal political dynamics within Texas, which I have to say didn’t interest me as much as they should. I enjoyed the anecdotes about individual politicians (like the female Democrat governor, Ann Richards) but the discussions about issues like immigration and the moves against gay rights are dryer than they should be, in part because there’s no real bite to them - they’re shown as part of the rough and tumble, give and take of politics, which is kind of sickening when they impact on people’s lives. There’s a big focus on how ultimately Texas falls to a bi-partisan middle ground to shave the extremist edges off political initiatives, but while this may have been true when the book was published in 2018, in a 2023 world where abortion is severely restricted, transgender rights curtailed and book bans all too frequent, there’s a weird complacency to it.
Part of the problem here is that Wright moves in higher circles in Texas. He’s been honoured for his writing, he lives on a wealthy street (and even saw Matthew McConaughey as a neighbour for a time). When he talks about the horrific flooding that hit Houston after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, it’s through the lens of how a theatre putting on a play he wrote was shut down as a result. You don’t hear from the lowest paid in the state or front-line workers here or even much from immigrant workers (including those working illegally) and I think that’s a big omission in terms of understanding the state. Also not discussed in great depth is the role that gerrymandering and astro-turfing has to play in politics in the US or even the role played by partisan billionaires with money to burn.
Ultimately it’s the complacency that stops this from being a being a truly informative overview of Texas, while at the same time events have superseded it so that points that made Texas seem unique (e.g. the low tax base, the way it runs its own energy grid) now seem like weaknesses that show how it lacks resilience. That said, Wright is a good writer and I kept turning the pages even if it wasn’t as effective as I hoped.
The Verdict:
Lawrence Wright is a writer, journalist and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at New York University. A mix of travelogue, anecdotes of his life in Texas and overview of Texas’s history, politics and economy, I enjoyed Wright’s conversational writing style but didn’t feel like I understood the contradictions within the state, partly because he skewers towards the view of the privileged rather than those with a lower income.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
Texas is a Republican state in the heart of Trumpland; but it is also a state in which minorities 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.
Lawrence Wright is a writer, journalist and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at New York University. A mix of travelogue, anecdotes of his life in Texas and overview of Texas’s history, politics and economy, I enjoyed Wright’s conversational writing style but didn’t feel like I understood the contradictions within the state, partly because he skewers towards the view of the privileged rather than those with a lower income.
This book has a weird travelogue vibe to it as Wright and his friend Steve Harrigan cycle to various locations like The Alamo and visit the African American monument in Austin, which Wright then uses as a jumping off point to discuss some aspect of Texan history or politics. At the same time, Wright weaves in elements of his family history (his father moved to Dallas to become president of a small bank) and his own relationship with the state (he describes himself as having been a “self-hating Texan”).
You learn a lot about the politics and history of the state - from its founding fathers to the rise and dominance of the oil industry, the development of the space program’s relationship with the state and the swing of the state’s politics from Democrat to Republican dominance. Inevitably the Bush family are discussed, although this is with a remarkably light touch and I did wonder if this was because of Wright’s connections with the family and with their adviser, Karl Rove (who features towards the end with a description of his impact on Texan and national politics and gives his views on how it’s operating).
There’s quite a lot about the internal political dynamics within Texas, which I have to say didn’t interest me as much as they should. I enjoyed the anecdotes about individual politicians (like the female Democrat governor, Ann Richards) but the discussions about issues like immigration and the moves against gay rights are dryer than they should be, in part because there’s no real bite to them - they’re shown as part of the rough and tumble, give and take of politics, which is kind of sickening when they impact on people’s lives. There’s a big focus on how ultimately Texas falls to a bi-partisan middle ground to shave the extremist edges off political initiatives, but while this may have been true when the book was published in 2018, in a 2023 world where abortion is severely restricted, transgender rights curtailed and book bans all too frequent, there’s a weird complacency to it.
Part of the problem here is that Wright moves in higher circles in Texas. He’s been honoured for his writing, he lives on a wealthy street (and even saw Matthew McConaughey as a neighbour for a time). When he talks about the horrific flooding that hit Houston after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, it’s through the lens of how a theatre putting on a play he wrote was shut down as a result. You don’t hear from the lowest paid in the state or front-line workers here or even much from immigrant workers (including those working illegally) and I think that’s a big omission in terms of understanding the state. Also not discussed in great depth is the role that gerrymandering and astro-turfing has to play in politics in the US or even the role played by partisan billionaires with money to burn.
Ultimately it’s the complacency that stops this from being a being a truly informative overview of Texas, while at the same time events have superseded it so that points that made Texas seem unique (e.g. the low tax base, the way it runs its own energy grid) now seem like weaknesses that show how it lacks resilience. That said, Wright is a good writer and I kept turning the pages even if it wasn’t as effective as I hoped.
The Verdict:
Lawrence Wright is a writer, journalist and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at New York University. A mix of travelogue, anecdotes of his life in Texas and overview of Texas’s history, politics and economy, I enjoyed Wright’s conversational writing style but didn’t feel like I understood the contradictions within the state, partly because he skewers towards the view of the privileged rather than those with a lower income.
Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
