
Texas Reporter, Texas Radical
The Writings of Journalist Dick J. Reavis
Dick Reavis(Author)
Michael Demson(Editor)
Texas Review Press
Published on 30. October 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
350 pages
978-1-68003-226-0 (ISBN)
Description
Writing about Texas, Mexico, and Texan-Mexican relations for over four decades, Dick J. Reavis is one of the most poignant political voices of Texas-not as a politician, though his writings are infused with politics, but as a candid, unsentimental, probing, journalist. Author of ten books and hundreds of articles, Reavis has worked as a reporter, features author, and staff writer (San Antonio Express-News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer, San Antonio Light), as an Associated Editor of Texas Monthly, and as a professor of journalism (North Carolina State University). Throughout his award-winning career, he has returned consistently to investigate the lives of everyday Texans, insistently challenging prevailing political assumptions. It was precisely this commitment that prompted him to investigate the federal government's siege of the Branch Davidians in 1993 outside of Waco, TX, which led to perhaps his most notorious publication, The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation (1995). That project, however, needs to be contextualized in relation to the greater body of his writings, which includes investigations of Mexican guerillas and Texas biker-gangs, the struggles of urban day-laborers and of undocumented immigrants in rural areas, the politics of Texas Radicals during the Civil Rights movement, and the activities of the Klan across the state, to identify but a few. This collection of Reavis's writings brings into focus the voice and political commitments of this critical, contemporary, Texas writer.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Huntsville
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
16 b&w photos
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 148 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
540 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68003-226-0 (9781680032260)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
DICK J. REAVIS has authored six books, including The Ashes of Waco: An Investigation (1995) on the FBI/ATF siege of the Branch Davidians outside of Waco, Texas. Reavis has written hundreds of articles for Texas and national newspapers and magazines, including The Texas Observer, San Antonio Express-News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer, San Antonio Light, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Soldier of Fortune, Salon.com, and the Wall Street Journal, and he is a former staff writer and senior editor at Texas Monthly. Over his decades-long career, he has explored such diverse topics as motorcycle gangs, the Southern Civil Rights Movement, guerrillas, convicts, undocumented immigrants, and Mexican coal miners. MICHAEL DEMSON is an Associate Professor of English at Sam Houston State University whose research explores the intersections of literature and radical political cultures. His recent publications include two collections of essays on Romantic literature, Romantic Automata: Exhibitions, Figures, Organisms, Commemorating (2020), and Peterloo: Violence, Resilience, and Claim-making in the Romantic Era (2019). He is also interested in popular radical graphic narratives, recently collaborating on an English translation of Me, Mikko, and Annikki (2019), a Finnish graphic novel by Tiitu Takalo. His own graphic novel, Masks of Anarchy: From Percy Shelley to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, illustrated by Summer McClinton, was published in 2013. He has published widely in academic journals.
Content
List of illustrations
Introduction: Texas Reporter, Texas Radical
Acknowledgements and permissions
Autobiographical Writings
"Have Beetle, Will Travel"
Selections from If White Kids Die
Selections from "An Autobiographical Sketch, 2020"
"One Big Union: The I.W.W.: A Stirring Among the Dead: The Relevance of Anarchism"
The Late 1970s
"The Kickapoo: A Hut is Not a Home"
"At War in the Mexican Jungle"
"The Smoldering Fire"
"A Season in Hell"
Sections from Without Documents
"Never Love a Bandido"?
The 1980s
"Indebted"
"Klan on the Ropes"
"Town Without Pity"
"Passing On"
"Unionbusters"
"Chapter 8: Poor George"
"Chapter 14: The Government's Flying Machines"
"Crazy like a Fox: Robert Fox is Not Nuts. He Just Wants the Government to Pay Him $1 Million. In Gold. Every Day."
"Standoff in Montana"?
The 2000s
"Los Padillas"
"What's It Take to Get an Anti-War Movement Going?"
"The Real Winners in Mexico"?
The 2010s
"Fort Worth's Red Scare"
"They Fought the Law"
"Chapter 4: The Square Peg"
"No Place for Old Men"
Index
Introduction: Texas Reporter, Texas Radical
Acknowledgements and permissions
Autobiographical Writings
"Have Beetle, Will Travel"
Selections from If White Kids Die
Selections from "An Autobiographical Sketch, 2020"
"One Big Union: The I.W.W.: A Stirring Among the Dead: The Relevance of Anarchism"
The Late 1970s
"The Kickapoo: A Hut is Not a Home"
"At War in the Mexican Jungle"
"The Smoldering Fire"
"A Season in Hell"
Sections from Without Documents
"Never Love a Bandido"?
The 1980s
"Indebted"
"Klan on the Ropes"
"Town Without Pity"
"Passing On"
"Unionbusters"
"Chapter 8: Poor George"
"Chapter 14: The Government's Flying Machines"
"Crazy like a Fox: Robert Fox is Not Nuts. He Just Wants the Government to Pay Him $1 Million. In Gold. Every Day."
"Standoff in Montana"?
The 2000s
"Los Padillas"
"What's It Take to Get an Anti-War Movement Going?"
"The Real Winners in Mexico"?
The 2010s
"Fort Worth's Red Scare"
"They Fought the Law"
"Chapter 4: The Square Peg"
"No Place for Old Men"
Index