What a book. The colorful new atlas, which aims to supplant a popular one published in 1990 by the same author, A. Ray Stephens, seems to have it all. It’s even prettier.
Step back a few decades, and you see the strengths in its graphical presentations, the data usually sorted by counties. The dwindling of farms, from their peak in 1900 to the present’s paucity. The dramatic rise in urban populations and extension of the railroads–including a photo of a train crossing the dramatic Pecos High Bridge, built in 1882. Major aquifers, native-plant regions, and location of the worst tornadoes. Go back farther and, well, how about the distribution of slaves in 1850 and again in 1861? A lot fewer than you might think.
There are weaknesses. The modern distribution of cattle, of all things, notably does not include (the fact is noted but the reason left unstated), the numbers of cows in the miles-long industrial feedlots of the Panhandle.
As Mrs. C. says: “Coffee-table books are supposed to be pretty and not controversial.” By that measure it’s not surprising that it’s less informative the closer it gets to its publication date. For one, illegal immigration from Mexico (the politically-correct phrase “undocumented workers” is used) is dismissed as merely “producing much rhetoric.” A few hundred thousand people a year swamping schools, emergency rooms and charities and increasing the danger on highways is more than rhetoric.
No, most of the strengths are in the past, with special maps and diagrams for Mexican Texas, the early explorers from 1519, the grants of the empresarios and major early roads, the Texas Revolution. The modern section is eclectic: mapping nuclear and coal-fired power plants, the lumber industry, distribution of major crops, colleges and universities, and ethnic and racial groups by county.
All-in-all, and despite the faults, an invaluable reference work of which I was pleased to receive a review copy. One only wonders why it’s published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 