"Johnson persuasively argues that understanding the history of Texas, a state full of contradictions and surprises, is essential for understanding the 'history of the United States.' A compelling account of a complicated, conflicted, and cantankerous state."-- Kirkus Reviews "A thoroughly compelling and up-to-date addition to the state's nonfiction library. [Johnson has] an innate storytelling sensibility."--Michael Barnes, Austin American-Statesman "Benjamin Heber Johnson has mastered his subject, balancing the good, the bad, and the ugly in his tale of Texan transformation. What Johnson has offered us, in lieu of a complete history of Texas, is one that can claim to be multicultural, engaging, and modern. For those who wish to try to understand Texas in 2025, there is now no better place to start."-- Civil War Monitor "Johnson's is not a story of unbridled optimism but a history that attends to pockets of resistance, to the formation of political power that got in the way, and to the wider violence embedded in Texas without glorifying it in turn.

Johnson makes his readers confront historical patterns in Texas so that they can better recognize particularly insidious forms of repetition in the state and on the national stage when they see them. This is indeed a kind of hopefulness: finding hope in the capacities of people to wield their history."--Emma Pask, Public Books "If Stephen Harrigan's Big Wonderful Thing is the big book of Texas history, Johnson's work is the small book of Texas history. I read it in two or three sittings."--Ross McCammon, Texas Monthly " Texas is a book as big as its topic, trekking through centuries of history via noteworthy anecdotes which provide a window into a place that defies stereotypes."--Stephen Hausmann , New Books Network (podcast) "Texas is a big place with a complicated history, and Ben Johnson brings to life the stories of Texas in all its diversity. This book is for anyone who believes that an inclusive history of Texas matters."--Rebecca Sharpless, Texas Christian University "Johnson gives us a history which is unapologetically revisionist but which also displays the author's genuine affection for his home state.

It is indispensable reading for non-Texans hoping to understand the Lone Star State, and for Texans seeking a better understanding of themselves."--Gregg Cantrell, author of The People's Revolt: Texas Populists and the Roots of American Liberalism "Authored by one of the best historians in the United States, this book's brilliantly conceived and beautifully written chapters will reshape public conversations, classroom discussions, and popular understandings of Texas's deep, varied, and contested past."--Stephen Pitti, Yale University "Writing about the 'good times' of the past is easy. More difficult and challenging is writing about the 'bad' and the 'ugly.' Ben Johnson does all three in his sweeping, elegantly written historical overview that features diverse voices and forgotten episodes to disrupt popular Texas myths and stereotypes. Johnson shows that the history of Texas is, indeed, an American history."--David Montejano, author of Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836-1986.