As the 2000 decision by the Supreme Court to effectively deliver the presidency to George W. Bush recedes in time, its real meaning comes into focus. If the initial critique of the Court was that it had altered the rules of democracy after the fact, the perspective of distance permits us to see that the rules were, in some sense, not altered at all. Here was a "landmark" decision that, according to its own logic, was applicable only once and that therefore neither relied on past precedent nor lay the foundation for future interpretations. This logic, according to scholar Jack Jackson, not only marks a stark break from the traditional terrain of U.S. constitutional law but exemplifies an era of triumphant radicalism and illiberalism on the American Right. In Law Without Future, Jackson demonstrates how this philosophy has manifested itself across political life in the twenty-first century and locates its origins in overlooked currents of post-WWII political thought. These developments have undermined the very idea of constitutional government, and the resulting crisis, Jackson argues, has led to the decline of traditional conservatism on the Right and to the embrace on the Left of a studiously legal, apolitical understanding of constitutionalism (with ironically reactionary implications). Jackson examines Bush v. Gore, the post-9/11 "torture memos," the 2005 Terri Schiavo controversy, the Republican Senate's norm-obliterating refusal to vote on President Obama's Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, and the ascendancy of Donald Trump in developing his claims. Engaging with a wide array of canonical and contemporary political thinkers-including St. Augustine, Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, Martin Luther King Jr., Hannah Arendt, Wendy Brown, Ronald Dworkin, and Hanna Pitkin-Law Without Future offers a provocative, sobering analysis of how these events have altered U.S. political life in the twenty-first century in profound ways-and seeks to think beyond the impasse they have created.

A mystery to the identity of who it was that tried to kill Private Investigator Dan D. Lyon by planting a car bomb wired to his ignition switch, brings two friends and a sworn enemy to the detective's aid. The three detectives begin working on the case while Lyon is recuperating in the hospital, and then at home. When one of the detectives gets too close to the truth it is deemed necessary to silence him. This only adds to the determination of Lyon to find the ones responsible. This mystery is the creation of three writers, each developing their character and using their writing style. It makes for a good read and a page turner for the readers.

1969. The year of Woodstock and the moon landing. Carl is a young Rhodesian on his way to a South African university for the first time. The world is his oyster but he finds himself being swept away by the sheer variety of new experiences on offer. Seduced by a world of women, drugs and politics, he loses his way academically and his life begins to fall apart. He has some difficult decisions to make.

Jack Jackson chronicles in rich detail the hundred years of Spanish ranching that came before Mexico, and subsequently Texas, gained independence. From the introduction of livestock into the province by various early entradas (expeditions), to the first big roundup in 1787, and beyond, he traces the development of the range and of cattle working. He shows the feral increase of the early herds, the conflicts over ownership of the wild animals (mestenos), the emergence of Spanish ""dynasties,"" and the attempts of colonial governments to regulate the industry. Although some scholars have attributed western ranching practices largely to the influence of Anglo settlers, Jackson meticulously traces both stock and stock raising techniques to their origins in Spanish Texas. Describing the founding of the first Anglo ranches in Texas, he carefully shows their adaptation of Hispanic cattle culture in the brands used, the market exploited, and the emerging lifestyle.

Texas' frontiers in the 1840s were buffeted by disputes with Mexico and attacks by Indian tribes who refused to give up their life-styles to make way for new settlers. To ensure some measure of peace in the far reaches of Texas, the U.S. Army established a series of military forts in the state. These outposts varied in size and amenities, but the typical installation was staffed with officers, enlisted men, medical personnel, and civilian laundresses. Many soldiers brought their families to the frontier stations. While faced with the hardships of post life, wives and children helped create a more congenial environment for all concerned. In this, the second volume in the Clayton Wheat Williams Texas Life Series, historian Robert Wooster covers life at the forts from reveille to taps, detailing the soldiers' uniforms, weapons, and duties, along with the activities of the local civilian inhabitants. As the numerous anecdotes of post residents show, military life on the Texas frontier was not one long battle against Indians or invaders. Many of the daily battles waged were against roaches, cholera, inappropriate government-issue items, harsh weather, and personalities. The presence of women in the forts was considered a healthy and civilizing influence by some; others doubted the morals of the fort's laundresses among lonely enlisted men. Despite the popularity of gambling and drinking, family environments did flourish at many posts: school was taught, dramatic entertainments were performed, religious services were held, and dances were organized to celebrate almost any occasion. A variety of troops manned the army's Texas posts. Blacks and whites, immigrants and Easterners, West Pointers and illiterates all contributed to garrison life. Their presence in Texas until the building of the railroads and defeat of the Indians prompted the closing of the forts affected the state dramatically, often in more subtle ways than fighting. As Sgt. H. H. McConnell explained in the 1880s, "if we didn't actually kill many Indians, who shall say...[the army] was not a potent factor in 'settling up the country.'"

The biggest, bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil took place in a sandy valley in Atascosa County near the Medina River in 1813, twenty-three years before the battles of the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto. Estimates of up to 1,000 American and Mexican republicans were killed or executed in the last major encounter of Spanish forces in Texas. Spaniards called it the battle of "El Encinal de Medina." In American history it is known as the Gutierrez-Magee Expedition or as the "First Texas Revolution." The gruesome battle halted and destroyed the American filibustering expedition that had crossed into Texas from Louisiana a year earlier. Texas independence would wait for another generation. This book was edited and annotated by noted author and historian Robert Thonhoff from a manuscript written by Ted Schwarz just before his death in 1977. A prize-winning author for this and other books, Thonhoff is a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Association, the oldest learned society in Texas

This careful study of eighteenth-century cartography along the Gulf Coast reveals a fascinating mix of cooperation and competition between Spain and France.Louis Juchereau de Saint-Denis explored much of the region around the Gulf and sent data to his homeland of France, but he also shared information with Spanish officials. Juan Manuel de Olivan Rebolledo used this information to create several maps, one of which was drawn to demonstrate how Spain might protect itself from the French threat in Louisiana and Canada.Information from the Olivan/Saint-Denis maps soon emerged on French maps. Guillaume Delisle's 1718 ""mother map"" of the Gulf Coast was made possible by Francois Le Maire, a virtually unknown French missionary in Mobile. Jack Jackson and Winston De Ville examine Le Maire's various memoirs and maps, which relied on Saint-Denis for their portrayal of the ""Western Country."" Le Maire's work explains how Delisle acquired the information to draw his profoundly influential map.This important book for cartographers will also be of interest to the lay historian and the Gulf Coast enthusiast.

Winner, Finalist, Soeurette Diehl Fraser Translation Award, Texas Institute of Letters, 2001 Texas was already slipping from the grasp of Mexico when Manuel Mier y Teran made his tour of inspection in 1828. American settlers were pouring across the vaguely defined border between Mexico's northernmost province and the United States, along with a host of Indian nations driven off their lands by American expansionism. Teran's mission was to assess the political situation in Texas while establishing its boundary with the United States. Highly qualified for these tasks as a soldier, scientist, and intellectual, he wrote perhaps the most perceptive account of Texas' people, politics, natural resources, and future prospects during the critical decade of the 1820s. This book contains the full text of Teran's diary-which has never before been published-edited and annotated by Jack Jackson and translated into English by John Wheat. The introduction and epilogue place the diary in historical context, revealing the significant role that Teran played in setting Mexican policy for Texas between 1828 and 1832.