Holiday Reads From the Longhorn Universe

By Alcalde Staff in 40 Acres, Good Reads, Nov | Dec 2022 on November 1, 2022 at 7:00 am | No Comments

History, Humor, and True Texas Recipes

BY JEAN E. SCHULER, BFA ’82

After years of archival research and volunteer work at the LBJ Presidential Library, Schuler produces the first LBJ cookbook—an expansive collection of original recipes from the Johnson Administration, complete with menus, events, and a healthy side of history and colorful illustrations. Barbecue was a big deal at the Johnson White House, and Lady Bird proudly shared and saved all LBJ’s favorite ranch recipes. “You do not serve barbecued spareribs at a banquet with the ladies in white gloves,” remarked The Washington Post. Undeterred, the White House was transformed with the distinctly Texan arrival of President Johnson and his family’s longtime personal chef, Zephyr Wright.

THE LAST CAMPAIGN

Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America

BY H.W. BRANDS, PHD ’85

The final fight for control of the American West was a clash between General William Tecumseh Sherman and the Apache leader Geronimo. The Last Campaign is a dual biography that offers new insights into their lives and confrontation in the Indian Wars. The retelling is familiar territory for Pulitzer Prize-finalist Brands, who holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at UT Austin and has produced more than a dozen biographies and histories.

INDELIBLE AUSTIN

Selected Histories: Volume 4

BY MICHAEL BARNES, PHD ’18, LIFE MEMBER

Through four books of his Indelible Austin series, Barnes has explored nearly every corner of the city’s evolving people, politics, and pop culture. Coming from Waterloo Press, the publishing house of the Austin History Center Association, each volume collects dozens of his columns from the Austin American-Statesman. In the latest edition, he remembers the iconic art scene—Aqua Fest, the Austin Art League, the Paramount and Zach Theatres—as well as somber aspects of health, crime, and civil rights in the city.

TEXAS DIVES

Enduring Neighborhood Bars of the Lone Star State

BY ANTHONY HEAD, PHOTOGRAPHS BY KIRK WEDDLE

Texas Dives commemorates 12 off-the-radar dive bars, including The Goat in Dallas, La Perla in Austin, and Texas T Pub in San Antonio. Photographer Weddle is a Los Angeles native who shot the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind in a Pasadena swimming pool. Together with veteran writer Head, the duo covered alcohol in Texas for a column in The Tasting Panel magazine. Ultimately, they gravitated to local watering holes, returning to relax, have a beer, and finally document the owners, staff, and regulars at some of their unheralded favorites.