How the history of Texas illuminates America's post–Civil War past Tracing the intersection of religion, race, and power in Texas from Reconstruction through the rise of the Religious Right and the failed presidential bid of Governor Rick Perry, Rough Country illuminates American history since the Civil War in new ways, demonstrating that Texas's story is also America’s. In particular, Robert Wuthnow shows how distinctions between "us" and “them” are perpetuated and why they are so often shaped by religion and politics. Early settlers called Texas a rough country. Surviving there necessitated defining evil, fighting it, and building institutions in the hope of advancing civilization. Religion played a decisive role. Today, more evangelical Protestants live in Texas than in any other state. They have influenced every presidential election for fifty years, mobilized powerful efforts against abortion and same-sex marriage, and been a driving force in the Tea Party movement. And religion has always been complicated by race and ethnicity. Drawing from memoirs, newspapers, oral history, voting records, and surveys, Rough Country tells the stories of ordinary men and women who struggled with the conditions they faced, conformed to the customs they knew, and on occasion emerged as powerful national leaders. We see the lasting imprint of slavery, public executions, Jim Crow segregation, and resentment against the federal government. We also observe courageous efforts to care for the sick, combat lynching, provide for the poor, welcome new immigrants, and uphold liberty of conscience. A monumental and magisterial history, Rough Country is as much about the rest of America as it is about Texas.

Investigating the shooting murder of a kayaker at a women-only Minnesota resort, investigator Virgil Flowers finds more suspects than anticipated including the victim's fellow patrons and a talented local country singer.

Includes essays tracing Country's growth from hand-me-down folk to a major American industry; concise biographies; critical album reviews, from the earliest commercial recordings of the 1920s through the mulitplatinum artists of today; and vintage album jackets and previously unpublished photographs.

The horse’s hoofs rang loudly on the boards as the wagon rolled onto the bridge. Suddenly there was a loud crack, a shower of hot lead, then a grinding, splintering crash. In a matter of seconds the stream became a bloody turmoil of screaming horses and men! Again the vicious killers struck without warning and disappeared without a trace. They would stop at nothing to realize their mad dream of empire and untold wealth! To bring them to justice was Jim Hatfield’s mission. And as the Texas Ranger set forth to find their hidden haunt he became a marked target of death!

The 25 Best Thriller Books of the Summer—New York Post Best New Books Coming Out Summer 2018 —Southern Living 46 Great Books to Read This Summer—Nylon Dazzling Debuts"—WYPR, "The Weekly Reader" Summer Thrillers That Will Have You at the Edge of Your Chaise Lounge—Refinery29 8 New Books You Should Read This June—vulture.com What We Read, Watched, and Listened to in May—Outside “Furious and electric . . . a fever dream."—Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review!* Breaking Bad meets No Country for Old Men... Ever since their father's untimely death five years before, Wyatt Smith and his inseparably close twin sister, Lucy, have scraped by alone on their family's isolated ranch in Box Elder County, Utah. That is until one morning when, just after spotting one of their steers lying dead in the field, Wyatt is hit in the arm by a hail of gunfire that takes four more cattle with it. The shooter: a fever-eyed, fearsome girl-child with a TEC-9 in her left hand and a worn shotgun in her right. They hold the girl captive, but she breaks loose overnight and heads south into the desert. With the dawning realization that the loss of cattle will mean the certain loss of the ranch, Wyatt feels he has no choice but to go after her and somehow find restitution for what's been lost. Wyatt's decision sets him on an epic twelve-day odyssey through a nightmarish underworld he only half understands; a world that pitches him not only against the primordial ways of men and the beautiful yet brutally unforgiving landscape, but also against himself. As he winds his way down from the mountains of Box Elder to the mesas of Monument Valley and back, Wyatt is forced to look for the first time at who he is and what he’s capable of, and how those hard truths set him irrevocably apart from the one person he’s ever really known and loved. Steeped in a mythic, wildly alive language of its own, and gripping from the first gunshot to the last, Rough Animals is a tour de force from a powerful new voice.

Second chances aren't easy. Sometimes, it takes some Rough Love. Bruce Tannen is known as Brutal from his days as a monster on the football field. But now, he's a farmhand on what used to be his family's land, and change is all around him. New family. New expectations. New friends. It's all fine by him until he runs into the one woman to ever hold his heart. Allyson left him a lifetime ago, but she's the only thing that's ever felt right. In his arms, in his heart, and in his life. Something's different, though. She's a shadow of her former self, and he wonders what could've dulled her shine. He can help fight her demons and bring back her sunny smile, but should he? Allyson Meyers had her life all figured out, but a wrong turn took her on a journey she never imagined. Not even in her worst nightmares. But she's stronger now for the one person who matters... her son, Cooper. Being a single mother is a burden she's grateful to bear alone until she sees a pair of all-too-familiar broad shoulders and dark, knowing eyes that remind her of who she once was. Bruce was the one she'd left behind. The path she should've taken. It's too bad you can't rewrite history. But if she's brave enough, can they create a new future? Can Bruce open his heart to the one that shattered it in the first place? And can Allyson blend who she is now with who she used to be, and live the happily ever after she should've had? Rough Love is a full-length Romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger. It can be read as a standalone.

She's a little bit country, and he's...not. Arizona businessman and long-lost McKay love child Gavin Daniels has been awarded sole custody of his teenage daughter, Sierra. In order to steer her back on track after a brush with the law, he heads to Wyoming...even if he isn't sure where they fit in the McKay dynamic. But he's thrown for a loop when his new housemate, Rielle, is a whole lot sexier than he remembered. Rielle Wetzler has finally overcome the stigma of having hippie parents and being a young single mother. But now Gavin is in Sundance to claim the house that's rightfully his. Rielle knew this day would come, but she isn't prepared to leave the home she built for herself. And to further complicate matters, her long-dormant libido is definitely not ready to live with this newly buff Gavin--who has the take-charge attitude to prove he's all McKay. Sharing a roof is too much temptation, and before long, Gavin and Rielle are sharing a bed. But are they ready to share their hearts, lives and families forever? Warning: Contains a feisty, independent heroine who doesn't need a man to take care of her needs outside the bedroom and a sweet, sexy and bossy hero who's up to the challenge of proving her wrong