This is a full and richly illustrated history of Texas. It's an atlas as well, by virtue of its attention to the land and to graphic representations of areas shaped and transformed by the development of the state. Stephens, director of the Texas History Institute, and Zuber-Mallison, artist and cartographer, have created a comprehensive volume that updates a similar title published 20 years ago. The current rendering includes 175 newly designed maps and 86 essays that reflect recent scholarship, 30 of which are entirely new to this publication and cover such topics as the Texas Declaration of Independence, early roads, slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, Texas-Oklahoma boundary disputes, and the tideland oil controversy. This is a highly useful reference and a striking introduction to the Lone Star state. Oversize: 10.5x12.5" Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)