Big Wonderful Thing

By: Stephen Harrigan

Narrated by: George Guidall

The story of Texas is the story of struggle and triumph in a land of extremes. It is a story of drought and flood, invasion and war, boom and bust, and of the myriad peoples who, over centuries of conflict, gave rise to a place that has helped shape the identity of the United States and the destiny of the world.

"I couldn't believe Texas was real", the painter Georgia O'Keeffe remembered of her first encounter with the Lone Star State. It was, for her, "the same big wonderful thing that oceans and the highest mountains are."

Big Wonderful Thing invites us to walk in the footsteps of ancient as well as modern people along the path of Texas's evolution. Blending action and atmosphere with impeccable research, New York Times best-selling author Stephen Harrigan brings to life with novelistic immediacy the generations of driven men and women who shaped Texas, including Spanish explorers, American filibusters, Comanche warriors, wildcatters, Tejano activists, and spellbinding artists - all of them taking their part in the creation of a place that became not just a nation, not just a state, but an indelible idea.

Written in fast-paced prose, rich with personal observation and a passionate sense of place, Big Wonderful Thing calls to mind the literary spirit of Robert Hughes writing about Australia or Shelby Foote about the Civil War. Like those volumes it is a big book about a big subject, a book that dares to tell the whole glorious, gruesome, epically sprawling story of Texas.

©2019 Stephen Harrigan (P)2019 Recorded Books

Amazing!

Thorough, intriguing, and engaging! This is a great work of writing. I appreciated the vastness of the writing like the vastness of its subject. The narrator gave a stellar performance, causing me to laugh and to cry. At 29 hours, it is a journey, but one worth taking (especially if you live here!).

Should be the textbook that 7th graders should read

If this were the textbook for Texas History, students would be better informed about Texas. The Texas Legislature would probably ban it because it doesn’t perpetuate the heroic Anglo myths. Maybe, some chapters could be excerpted for additional reading assignments on particular topics. It tells a story of Texas with many of its warts included. Entertaining and nicely read.

Simply outstanding.

Seriously, good. Really wonderfully read. Awfully picturesque in the descriptions and the relating of the stories.

Simply magnificent.

A treasure for all Texans and all those who’ve heard of this big, beautiful thing.

The facts without the sugarcoating

I was interested in a version of Texas history that I didn't learn in school, and that's what I got. Well worth the listen, as only George Guidall can tell it (except for the mispronunciation of Kleberg). Fascinating insights into people previously known only as heroes.