My Life in the Klan

A full account by the first journalist to infiltrate the KKK and discover the true nature and aims of the secret society and its covert operations

Thompson, Jerry

Biographies & Memoirs

Putnam Pub. Group

Oakland's famous and vibrant arts heritage is known throughout the country, but many people are unaware of the extent of this city's contribution to the national stage in terms of music, dance, visual arts, and literature. Black Artists in Oakland celebrates this amazing story over the past half century through vintage images, from the early days of Slim Jenkins's nightclub to the changing styles of Esther's Orbit Room and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts. More than 200 photographs lift the curtain on many inspiring artists--masters in their chosen aesthetic and neighbors to the community. Among the artists highlighted in these pages are Ruth Beckford, Raymond Saunders, Alice Walker, and E. W. Wainwright.

Black Artists In Oakland (CA) (Images of America)

Arts & Photography

Deterville, Duane

History & Criticism

Arcadia Publishing

Growing up, Jerry Thompson knew only that his grandfather was a gritty, "mixed-blood" Cherokee cowboy named Joe Lynch Davis. That was all anyone cared to say about the man. But after Thompson's mother died, the award-winning historian discovered a shoebox full of letters that held the key to a long-lost family history of passion, violence, and despair. Wrecked Lives and Lost Souls, the result of Thompson's sleuthing into his family's past, uncovers the lawless life and times of a man at the center of systematic cattle rustling, feuding, gun battles, a bloody range war, bank robberies, and train heists in early 1900s Indian Territory and Oklahoma. Through painstaking detective work into archival sources, newspaper accounts, and court proceedings, and via numerous interviews, Thompson pieces together not only the story of his grandfather--and a long-forgotten gang of outlaws to rival the infamous Younger brothers--but also the dark path of a Cherokee diaspora from Georgia to Indian Territory. Davis, born in 1891, grew up on a family ranch on the Canadian River, outside the small community of Porum in the Cherokee Nation. The range was being fenced, and for the Davis family and others, cattle rustling was part of a way of life--a habit that ultimately spilled over into violence and murder. The story "goes way back to the wild & wooly cattle days of the west," an aunt wrote to Thompson's mother, "when there was cattle rustling, bank robberies & feuding." One of these feuds--that Joe Davis was "raised right into"--was the decade-long Porum Range War, which culminated in the murder of Davis's uncle in 1907. In fleshing out the details of the range war and his grandfather's life, Thompson brings to light the brutality and far-reaching consequences of an obscure chapter in the history of the American West. &nbsp;

Wrecked Lives and Lost Souls: Joe Lynch Davis and the Last of the Oklahoma Outlaws

Historical

University of Oklahoma Press

For a half century, John Ellis Wool (1784-1869) was one of America's most illustrious figures--most notably as an officer in the United States Army during the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War. At the onset of the Civil War, when he assumed command of the Department of the East, Wool had been a brigadier general for twenty years and, at age seventy-seven, was the oldest general on either side of the conflict. Courage Above All Things marks the first full biography of Wool, who aside from his unparalleled military service, figured prominently in many critical moments in nineteenth-century U.S. history. At the time of his death in 2016, Harwood Hinton, a scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge of western history, had devoted fifty years to this monumental work, which has been completed and edited by the distinguished historian Jerry Thompson. This deeply researched and deftly written volume incorporates the latest scholarship to offer a clear and detailed account of John Ellis Wool's extraordinary life--his character, his life experiences, and his career, in wartime and during uneasy periods of relative peace. Hinton and Thompson provide a thorough account of all chapters in Wool's life, including three major wars, the Cherokee Removal, and battles with Native Americans on the West Coast. From his distinguished participation in the War of 1812 to his controversial service on the Pacific coast during the 1850s, and from his mixed success during the Peninsula Campaign to his overseeing of efforts to quell the New York City draft riots of 1863, John Ellis Wool emerges here as a crucial character in the story of nineteenth-century America--complex, contradictory, larger than life--finally fully realized for the first time. &nbsp;

Courage Above All Things: General John Ellis Wool and the U.S. Military, 1812–1863

Hinton, Harwood P.

After 23 years in the US Army, much of it stationed in New Mexico, Sibley resigned his commission in May 1861 and started home to Virginia. Somewhere on the way he contrived the idea of conquering New Mexico for the new-born Confederacy, with the ultimate goal of extending it to San Francisco. The invasion failed miserably, but details of it have been lacking until now. Veteran Civil War writers Wilson and Thompson put the first-hand account into historical perspective. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Civil War in West Texas and New Mexico: The Lost Letterbook of Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley (SOUTHWESTERN STUDIES)

History

Wilson, John P.

Sibley, Henry Hopkins

Americas

Texas Western Pr

Fifty Miles and a Fight: Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman's Journal of Texas and the Cortina War, a rare and dramatic firsthand account of one of the most volatile and traumatic events in the long history of Texas—the Cortina War, chronicles the day-to-day activities of one of the most cultured, dedicated, and well-respected (although often vain) officers of the antebellum frontier army. It was while Heintzelman was at Camp Verde on September 28, 1859, that a daring thirty-five-year-old illiterate ranchero named Juan Nepomuceno Cortina sent shockwaves throughout Texas by brazenly leading some seventy-five angry raiders into the dung-splattered streets of Brownsville. Tired of a clique of Brownsville attorneys, resentful of men he accused of killing tejanos with impunity, and determined to settle a blood feud with bitter enemy Adolphus Glavecke, Cortina initiated a war that would reverberate north to Austin and beyond to the halls of Washington and Mexico City. Fifty Miles and a Fight magnifies the brutal nature of the Texas Rangers, a portrayal not readily evident in other sources. Not only does Heintzelman, who was placed in command of the Brownsville Expedition with orders to crush Cortina, record his disdain and distrust of the Rangers, but also their indiscriminate killing of both mexicanos and tejanos. Heintzelman's journal, which reads like a Zane Grey thriller, provides a detailed and vivid account of the battles at El Ebonal and Rio Grande City as well as glimpses into the filibustering activities of the shadowy Knights of the Golden Circle, who were hoping to expand the Cortina War into a larger conflict that would lead to the eventual annexation of Mexico and the creation of a slave empire south of the Rio Grande. Heintzelman's impressions of his senior commander, Col. Robert E. Lee, are also noteworthy. A real jewel of soldiering on the Southwestern frontier, Heintzelman's journal begins on a sunny and optimistic New Orleans day, April 17, 1859, with his family on its way to Texas, and ends on a depressingly cool and overcast December 31, 1861, also in the Crescent City, with secession fever sweeping the South and the nation on the verge of war.

Fifty Miles and a Fight: Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman's Journal of Texas and the Cortina War

Texas State Historical Assn

It was on the South Texas border that the Mexican War began and the Civil War ended. Over the centuries the border area has been the setting for extraordinary endeavors, retrieved here in A Wild and Vivid Land: Jose de Escandon's gallant band of colonizers, the grandiose dreamers who struggled to create the 1840 Republic of the Rio Grande, the ill-fated Mier Expedition, and the soldiers who fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in 1846. The dramatic historical events and the strong (sometimes headstrong) personalities that shaped the region's growth and development are skillfully integrated in evocative accounts of the steamboat commerce on the Rio Grande, where Richard King began to amass his fortune, the Civil War cotton trade, the sheep and cattle industry, the coming of the railroads (including the story of Uriah Lott's seven-thousand-dollar-a-mile Texas Mexican) in the 1880s, and the citrus and oil and gas industries of the twentieth century. Also recounted are Juan Cortina's brazen 1859 raid on Brownsville, the Union occupation of the Lower Rio Grande Valley in December 1863, the legendary defense of Laredo in March 1864, Catarino Garza's run from the Texas Rangers in the chaparral in the 1890s, and the stories of ordinary men and women who, throughout, endured floods and depression, bandits, revolutions, and drought.

A Wild and Vivid Land: An Illustrated History of the South Texas Border

With more than 150 images, many never before published, historian Jerry Thompson tells the story of what Pulitzer Prize–winning historian William H. Goetzmann has called a "wild and vivid land." From the Coahuiltecan Indians and the Spanish colonizers who clustered along the banks of the Rio Grande, to the cattlemen and oil wildcatters who conquered the brush country, Thompson details six centuries of exciting and entertaining history in a thoroughly researched and comprehensive text, lavishly illustrated by the work of artists Lino Sanchez y Tapia, Theodore Gentilz, and Frederic Remington, photographers Robert Runyon, E. O. Goldbeck, and Russell Lee, and many others.It was on the South Texas border that the Mexican War began and the Civil War ended. Over the centuries the border area has been the setting for extraordinary endeavors and events, many of them related in A Wild and Vivid Land: José de Escandon's gallant band of colonizers, the grandiose dreamers who struggled to shape the 1840 Republic of the Rio Grande, the ill-fated Mier expedition, and the soldiers who fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in 1846. The dramatic historical events and the strong personalities that influenced the region's growth and development are skillfully presented in words and pictures. Readers will see the steamboat commerce on the Rio Grande, where Richard King of King Ranch fame began to amass his fortune; the Civil War cotton trade; the sheep and cattle industries; the coming of the railroads in the 1880s; and the citrus and oil and gas industries of the twentieth century. Thompson also recounts Juan Cortina's brazen raid on Brownsville; the Union occupation of the Lower Rio Grande Valley in December 1863 and the Confederacy's legendary defense of Laredo in 1864; Catarino Garza's run from the Texas Rangers in the chaparral in the 1890s; and the ordinary men and women who, throughout, survived floods and depressions, bandits, revolutions, and drought.The exciting history presented here is distinguished by scrupulous scholarship and by the author's clear enthusiasm and love for South Texas. This book of remarkable pictures and stories is the kind of book one returns to again and again, that causes one to muse and dream on the past. The South Texas border becomes vivid in the mind—a singular and an unforgettable encounter.Contents:• The Land• Coahuiltecans• Spanish Exploration• José de Escandón• Camargo, Reynosa, Revilla, and Mier• Dolores• Laredo• San Patricio, Corpus Christi, and Dolores• Revolutions• Republic of the Rio Grande• Second Texas-Mexico War• Mier Expedition• Mexican War• Steamboats on the Rio Grande• Brownsville• Cortina War• Secession and Civil War• Guerrilla Warfare in the Nueces Strip• Reconstruction• Catarino Garza• Gregorio Cortez• Mexican Revolution• Railroads• Sheep and Cattle Industry• Jovita and Nicasio Idar• Citrus• Oil and Gas• Falcon Dam and Reservoir

A richly illustrated history, Civil War and Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier contains more than 125 of the best images taken by Louis de Planque and other photographers, the vast majority having never been published. From numerous archives and private collections, these images include everything from the destruction following the killer hurricane of 1867 to gripping views of the heart-wrenching hanging of an American army deserter and three unfortunate followers of Cortina, who happened to get caught on the wrong side of the river. Also included are rare scenes of Brownsville, Matamoros, and vice-ridden Bagdad, as well as Juaristas, Imperialistas, Cortinistas, Confederates, Federals, Unionists, cotton traders, journalists, merchants, socialities, de Planque himself, and more than one bandit. Accompanying these images is a comprehensive narrative that superbly chronicles the historic events that engulfed this raw and vast frontier during this tumultuous era. Representing a significant historical achievement, the book is prodigiously researched and detailed.

Civil War and Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier: A Narrative and Photographic History

Jones III, Lawrence T.

With more than 150 images, many never before published, historian Jerry Thompson tells the story of what Pulitzer Prize–winning historian William H. Goetzmann has called a "wild and vivid land." From the Coahuiltecan Indians and the Spanish colonizers who clustered along the banks of the Rio Grande, to the cattlemen and oil wildcatters who conquered the brush country, Thompson details six centuries of exciting and entertaining history in a thoroughly researched and comprehensive text, lavishly illustrated by the work of artists Lino Sanchez y Tapia, Theodore Gentilz, and Frederic Remington, photographers Robert Runyon, E. O. Goldbeck, and Russell Lee, and many others. It was on the South Texas border that the Mexican War began and the Civil War ended. Over the centuries the border area has been the setting for extraordinary endeavors and events, many of them related in A Wild and Vivid Land: José de Escandon's gallant band of colonizers, the grandiose dreamers who struggled to shape the 1840 Republic of the Rio Grande, the ill-fated Mier expedition, and the soldiers who fought at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma in 1846. The dramatic historical events and the strong personalities that influenced the region's growth and development are skillfully presented in words and pictures. Readers will see the steamboat commerce on the Rio Grande, where Richard King of King Ranch fame began to amass his fortune; the Civil War cotton trade; the sheep and cattle industries; the coming of the railroads in the 1880s; and the citrus and oil and gas industries of the twentieth century. Thompson also recounts Juan Cortina's brazen raid on Brownsville; the Union occupation of the Lower Rio Grande Valley in December 1863 and the Confederacy's legendary defense of Laredo in 1864; Catarino Garza's run from the Texas Rangers in the chaparral in the 1890s; and the ordinary men and women who, throughout, survived floods and depressions, bandits, revolutions, and drought. The exciting history presented here is distinguished by scrupulous scholarship and by the author's clear enthusiasm and love for South Texas. This book of remarkable pictures and stories is the kind of book one returns to again and again, that causes one to muse and dream on the past. The South Texas border becomes vivid in the mind—a singular and an unforgettable encounter. Contents: • The Land • Coahuiltecans • Spanish Exploration • José de Escandón • Camargo, Reynosa, Revilla, and Mier • Dolores • Laredo • San Patricio, Corpus Christi, and Dolores • Revolutions • Republic of the Rio Grande • Second Texas-Mexico War • Mier Expedition • Mexican War • Steamboats on the Rio Grande • Brownsville • Cortina War • Secession and Civil War • Guerrilla Warfare in the Nueces Strip • Reconstruction • Catarino Garza • Gregorio Cortez • Mexican Revolution • Railroads • Sheep and Cattle Industry • Jovita and Nicasio Idar • Citrus • Oil and Gas • Falcon Dam and Reservoir

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thompson, Jerry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Thompson, Jerry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thompson, Jerry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

My Life in the Klan

Black Artists In Oakland (CA) (Images of America)

Wrecked Lives and Lost Souls: Joe Lynch Davis and the Last of the Oklahoma Outlaws

Courage Above All Things: General John Ellis Wool and the U.S. Military, 1812–1863

The Civil War in West Texas and New Mexico: The Lost Letterbook of Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley (SOUTHWESTERN STUDIES)

Fifty Miles and a Fight: Major Samuel Peter Heintzelman's Journal of Texas and the Cortina War

A Wild and Vivid Land: An Illustrated History of the South Texas Border

A Wild and Vivid Land: An Illustrated History of the South Texas Border

Civil War and Revolution on the Rio Grande Frontier: A Narrative and Photographic History

A Wild and Vivid Land: An Illustrated History of the South Texas Border