As Texas goes--: how the Lone Star State hijacked the American agenda
(Book)
Author:
Published:
New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.
Format:
Book
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Desc:
267 pages ; 24 cm.
Status:
Description
In one of the most timely political books in years, Gail Collins declares that “what happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas anymore.”
Gail Collins’s fascination with Texas began rather abruptly in that distant spring of 2009 when she heard Governor Rick Perry—back to the wall, boots to the ground—address a Tea Party rally full of passionate Texans who seemed to be interested in seceding from the Union. “How long had this been going on?” she wondered, on behalf of the rest of the nation. “Was it something that we said?”
The more she looked at Texas, the more she realized it was at the heart of the American political story. The Tea Party had Texas roots, with its passion for states’ rights and sense of persecution by an overreaching Washington. But Texas also seemed to be running the federal government it despised. Through its vigorous support of banking deregulation, which began with the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and ended calamitously with the Wall Street crash of 2008, Texas’s boot prints were deep.
In education, Texas had managed both to be the model for the wildly influential No Child Left Behind law and to provide some of the loudest political voices calling for the law to be trashed. In energy, Texas was the heart of the drill-baby-drill movement and the war against the whole concept of global warming.
Collins brilliantly frames this national movement through the outsized behavior and inimitable swagger of some of Texas’s most colorful and influential political figures, from former House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who got into politics when the EPA banned his favorite fire ant repellent, to Perry himself, who when confronted with the fact that his state had the country’s third-highest teen pregnancy rate, defended its abstinence-only sex education policy by doggedly asserting, “I’m just going to tell you from my own personal life. Abstinence works.”
Digging beneath the veneer of cowboy hats, oil derricks, and Alamo cries, Collins has produced a profoundly original work demonstrating that much of what ails America was first birthed in Texas.
Like it or not, as Texas goes, so goes the nation.
Gail Collins’s fascination with Texas began rather abruptly in that distant spring of 2009 when she heard Governor Rick Perry—back to the wall, boots to the ground—address a Tea Party rally full of passionate Texans who seemed to be interested in seceding from the Union. “How long had this been going on?” she wondered, on behalf of the rest of the nation. “Was it something that we said?”
The more she looked at Texas, the more she realized it was at the heart of the American political story. The Tea Party had Texas roots, with its passion for states’ rights and sense of persecution by an overreaching Washington. But Texas also seemed to be running the federal government it despised. Through its vigorous support of banking deregulation, which began with the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and ended calamitously with the Wall Street crash of 2008, Texas’s boot prints were deep.
In education, Texas had managed both to be the model for the wildly influential No Child Left Behind law and to provide some of the loudest political voices calling for the law to be trashed. In energy, Texas was the heart of the drill-baby-drill movement and the war against the whole concept of global warming.
Collins brilliantly frames this national movement through the outsized behavior and inimitable swagger of some of Texas’s most colorful and influential political figures, from former House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who got into politics when the EPA banned his favorite fire ant repellent, to Perry himself, who when confronted with the fact that his state had the country’s third-highest teen pregnancy rate, defended its abstinence-only sex education policy by doggedly asserting, “I’m just going to tell you from my own personal life. Abstinence works.”
Digging beneath the veneer of cowboy hats, oil derricks, and Alamo cries, Collins has produced a profoundly original work demonstrating that much of what ails America was first birthed in Texas.
Like it or not, as Texas goes, so goes the nation.
Copies
Location
Call Number
Status
Durham Adult Non-Fiction
320.6097
On Shelf
Hamden/Miller Adult Nonfiction 3rd Floor
320.609/COL
On Shelf
Ledyard/Bill Nonfiction
320.6097 Col
On Shelf
Norwich/Otis Adult Nonfiction
320.60973 COL
On Shelf
Old Saybrook/Acton Adult Non-Fiction
320.6097 3 COLLINS
On Shelf
More Details
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780871404077 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Notes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)
Collins, G. (2012). As Texas goes--: how the Lone Star State hijacked the American agenda. New York, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Collins, Gail. 2012. As Texas Goes--: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. New York, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Collins, Gail, As Texas Goes--: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. New York, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.
MLA Citation (style guide)Collins, Gail. As Texas Goes--: How the Lone Star State Hijacked the American Agenda. New York, Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.
Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
93362fc9-5a72-2bc6-61fe-1e030ad5b503
Record Information
Last Sierra Extract Time | May 10, 2024 06:18:03 PM |
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Last File Modification Time | May 10, 2024 06:18:40 PM |
Last Grouped Work Modification Time | May 17, 2024 10:17:41 PM |
MARC Record
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250 | |a 1st ed. | ||
260 | |a New York :|b Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company,|c 2012. | ||
300 | |a 267 p. ;|c 24 cm. | ||
504 | |a Includes bibliographical references and index. | ||
505 | 0 | |a Remember the Alamo -- Empty places -- It's my party -- Financial deregulation; the Texas angle -- No child left behind -- The business of schools -- The textbook wars -- Seedy the sperm and friends -- Cooling to global warming -- The Texas miracle -- The other side of the coin -- We've seen the future, and it's Texas. | |
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651 | 0 | |a Texas|x Social policy. | |
651 | 0 | |a Texas|x Economic policy. | |
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