Texas: A Historical Atlas [Hardcover]

The heart of the book is its wealth of historical information. Sections devoted to indigenous peoples of Texas and its exploration and settlement offer more than 45 entries with visual depictions of everything from the routes of Spanish explorers to empresario grants to cattle trails. In another 31 articles, coverage of modern and contemporary Texas takes in hurricanes and highways, power plants and population trends.

Practically everything about this atlas is new. All of the essays have been updated to reflect recent scholarship, while more than 30 appear for the first time, addressing such subjects as the Texas Declaration of Independence, early roads, slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Texas-Oklahoma boundary disputes, and the tideland oil controversy. A dozen new entries for “Contemporary Texas” alone chart aspects of industry, agriculture, and minority demographics. Nearly all of the expanded essays are accompanied by multiple maps—everyone in full color.

The most comprehensive, state-of-the-art work of its kind, Texas: A Historical Atlas is more than just a reference. It is a striking visual introduction to the Lone Star State.

Dr. A. Ray Stephens, Professor of History (retired) at the University of North Texas, won the Angie Debo Prize for his book, Texas: A Historical Atlas, from the Inasmuch Foundation of Oklahoma City in recognition of exceptional scholarship and writing on the history of the Southwest. After receiving the Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin, he taught at Texas A&M University and at the University of North Texas. In addition to his teaching duties in the Department of History at the University of North Texas, he was the director of the Texas History Institute. He served as the major professor for six doctoral dissertations and twenty-five master?s theses on Texas history and history of the American West.

Stephens is the author of the Historical Atlas of Texas (with William M. Holmes as cartographer), The Taft Ranch: A Texas Principality, Texas and the World: Connecting Events in Texas to the World, Handbook for the Research and Writing of Local Business History, and a number of book chapters and journal articles on Texas history. He has presented many papers at history conferences that dealt with his research in Texas history.

Stephens served as a member of the Executive Council of the Texas State Historical Association, president of the East Texas Historical Association, and on various committees of the Western History Association, Texas State Historical Association, and East Texas Historical Association. He is co-founder and co-editor of H-Texas, an online discussion group on Texas history and culture for H-Net.

In addition to serving on university committees and as an advisor to student organizations, Stephens was involved in civic activities. He believes that academic personnel should be an integral part of the community in which they live. He has held elective offices as a member of the Denton City Council and as the mayor of the City of Denton, and appointments to civic and municipal boards, commissions, and committees. Stephens was honored as the Elected Official of the Year by the Municipal Library Directors Association of the Texas Municipal League.