Lone Star Nation

How Texas Will Transform the Nation

By: Richard Parker

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Richard Parker delivers a provocative and eye-opening look at the most explosive and controversial state in America, where everything is bigger, bolder - and is shaping the future of America. Americans today are reckoning with a new Texas - that love-it-or-hate-it giant slice of America that has sparked controversy, bred presidents, and fomented change from the Civil War to the election of George W. Bush and the Iraq War.

In Lone Star Nation, Parker examines this evolving landscape. But the Texas that Americans think they know is changing, and as a result it will change America itself in the 21st century, just as California did in the last century. Richard Parker uncovers a new Texas: a profoundly urban one, an overwhelmingly Hispanic one, an increasingly liberal one, and one succeeding in the global economy while being forced to face the looming threats of poverty and climate change - and sooner rather than later. He explores the broader implications of change in Texas that could help remake Washington and energize the American economy. Along the way, he shares the stories of the powerful and everyday people that are shaping Texas and, as a result, the country itself, as one in every five Americans will soon call Texas something else: Home.

Richard Parker is an award-winning journalist who writes about political, economic, technological, and social change. His work appears in the Op-Ed and Sunday Review sections of the New York Times, the Columbia Journalism Review and other major newspapers. He lives in the Texas hill country outside Austin.

©2014 Richard Parker (P)2014 Recorded Books

Texas Is Changing When?

Parker’s book is a very readable review of how Texas is changing. With a publishing date of 2014, it misses recent elections. It reinforces a broadly held view that Democrats will be elected to statewide office based on immigration from more Democratic states and the growth of the Hispanic voting population. While it acknowledges that Texas will be a purple state before turning blue, it leaves the question of when this will occur. It also examines the broad challenges (water, climate, education) faced by the state government and how those challenges are currently ignored for short-term advantages.

Don't be mislead

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

If you get your news from MSNBC you'll feel right at home with this book. Every conservative is a racist or greedy or both. Texas' success is an accident of geography and certainly had nothing to do with any Republican policies in the last fifty years. And once the Hispanics become the majority, the Democrats can take over and lead Texas to the promise land.