75 Books Like Galveston and the Civil War

This is the book I always recommend to people who don’t know very much about the Civil War battles that were fought in Texas. It is short, well-written, and has lots of good illustrations, photographs and maps. Don Frazier is one of the best Texas historians the state has ever produced and he really knows how to tell a story in an interesting and engaging fashion. Most Texans are amazed to see how many unusual and important battles were fought in Texas and this is the perfect introduction to the topic.

One of the most interesting stories involving Texas during the Civil War is the blockade runners that operated out of Galveston and other Texas ports. As other Confederate ports were captured by the Union, Texas gradually emerged as the last important route for Southern goods to be exported and weapons and other war materials to be imported. Andy Hall is the acknowledged expert on this subject and this book is essential for anyone wanting to explore this interesting and important subject. One of the best features of this book is that it includes many photographs, maps, and illustrations that are not available anywhere else.

This book includes 16 important essays by prominent Texas historians exploring a wide variety of themes relating to Texas and the war. The editors provide a useful introduction to the subject and the essays themselves are among the best things ever written on the chosen subjects. Alwyn Barr’s article on “Texas Coastal Defense,” for example, is a short but complete description of the ways that Texas Confederates chose to creatively and successfully defend their large coast. If you are interested in Texas history, this book is essential reading. I find myself returning to its pages again and again.

This book includes 11 essays by an all-star cast of historians. It goes well beyond the military events of the war and covers the impact of the war on various groups of people. The essays discuss previously unexplored topics ranging from the wartime experiences of Texas women to the impact of the war on German immigrants. It also includes essays discussing the post-war impact of the conflict. Of particular interest is Carl H. Moneyhon’s essay on the reaction of Texans to Confederate defeat. This is not only an important book, but will also be interesting even to casual history lovers.

Based in Galveston, Texas, Claire Abelard works as a ghost tour guide as a cover for her real job for The Bureau of Historical Preservation. As a high-level sensitive, her responsibilities are to protect the projections (ghosts) under her care, although she frequently answers the call of rogue projections. While assigned to give a private tour to a ghost-hunting group, she receives reports that rogue projections are disappearing.

Ghost Agents and the subsequent two books were page-turners. I don’t normally subscribe to newsletters for additional materials, but I especially wanted to discover more once the series ended. The projections (ghosts) are entertaining, the historical elements are well-researched and support the plot. I particularly enjoyed the family dynamics and the romance that develops for the main character.

Climate change may well be increasing the frequency and intensity of violent storms and hurricanes, but they are certainly nothing new.

This is a vividly written account of what has been dubbed one of the worst natural disasters to have ever hit the United States, the hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, in 1900. The narrative is constructed using the letters and reports from Isaac Cline, a meteorologist working at the US Weather Bureau at the time.

The storm described in this book occurred 124 years ago, yet readers will find eerie precursors to the issues we hear being discussed globally today: despair at our seeming hubris and disturbing unpreparedness in the face of increasingly volatile and unpredictable natural events.

By now, it should be obvious that I’m a pushover for stories that reveal the lengths to which we will go for the people we love. In An Ocean of Minutes, Polly agrees to time travel to the future as a bonded laborer to save her boyfriend Frank's life during a deadly flu pandemic—only to be stranded five years later than planned in a strange, divided America.

Though a somewhat depressing read, Polly’s determination to make her way back to Frank had me shouting encouragement from the wings.

Incidentally, this novel was published in 2019, before the word "pandemic" became part of our everyday vocabulary. This eerie relevance added an extra layer of poignancy to the story, making Lim's world feel all the more vivid and unsettling.

Texas schools do an incredible job of acculturating their students in Texas history. The school system starts by telling the story of true Texans. Unfortunately, some of those tales were what we called “stories.” 

In college, I took a course called The History of Mexico. The course book used by Professor Macias (if I remember his name correctly) was a small book, less than 200 pages, called The Compact History of Mexico. What a wonderful course and wonderful book. 

I have not looked at the book in years, even though I ordered a copy when writing this. I felt like a child reading the book, being told a different story than I had been told over the years, providing to me – a black student – the why and how history and both sides of a story are so important. Always feeling left out of the discussion, hearing a distorted… show more.

I think Cory Dean, who was the long-time science editor for the New York Times, was perhaps the first to delve into the now well-documented and diverse impacts of the multiple human efforts to engineer and control our shorelines.

She visited dozens of threatened coastal communities and interviewed countless coastal geologists, engineers, elected officials, and citizens in order to better understand why decisions were made to modify shorelines in individual communities, more often than not, with predictable and damaging impacts on beaches.

In lively and engaging prose, she clearly explains each setting and location and why things went awry when Mother Nature always bats last.

This book resonates with Golden Age sci-fi vibes. Set in the wonderfully described frontier that is the Mars colony, Ballingrad captures the difficulty and hardship experienced by people who venture to the edge of civilisation in hopes of a better life and reminds us that it is these hardworking people that build the foundations for everything that comes after.

Annabelle is a young girl who embarks on a journey seeking justice after bandits steal the last recording of her mother's voice. On her quest she falls in with a gang of ne’er-do-wells while all communication and transport from Earth mysteriously ceases.

If you enjoy space westerns and the bygone era of classic sci-fi, this book is for you.