Book Description

"This is the best documented look at the Texas City disaster everdone."

—Robert B. Fairbanks, Associate Professor of History, University of Texas at Arlington

Customer Reviews (10)

MATTER OF FACT BOOK
I would describe this as something of a 'matter of fact book', not a thrill to read.That is not to say it's a bad book by any means, only that it is not written as a great story, but as a narrative of events in Texas City in April 47.The author looks at what happened, how it played out, and who was responsible.The human side of the disaster gets little attention, although there are some notable descriptions from time to time. The disaster is largely attributed to inexperience and complacency in handling explosive chemicals and fertilizer.Readers interested in the subject will likely enjoy this book, but it is far from the last word on what took place at the docks when the Grandcamp and High Flyer exploded.

pipi
A bit of American history that I had never known about.

A very detailed book about a bad day in Texas.

Texas History Reference
This book is a good source of information about the Texas City Disaster.I felt that the author was very factual about the events.However, I also felt that he seemed to concentrate on all the mistakes.Although it is necessary to point out the mistakes so that they may not be repeated, I felt that the book could also emphasize some of the positive results of the disaster.This is a very good book for reference.It is not weighted down with a lot sensationalism.

Little Known Event
I never read about this event in any of my history books. This story of events grips the reader or at least me and had me questioning how things could go so bad. It does not really touch you on an emotional level but more on an intellectual one. The information is all there and is told in matter-of-fact prose.It does not really editorialize and that is what I liked about it.

Thorough, but neither personal nor exciting.
This is a horrible disaster which needs to be known to all of us. As far as facts and figures, causes and blames, go, the book is thorough. What it is NOT is exciting or dramatic. I have read lots of disaster fiction and nonfiction, and what I find lacking in this book is the personal element--most such books DO include some of the many personal dramas which are part of such a major event. Lacking these, the book does not "touch" one the way it should. Similarly, the lack of personal histories weakens the drama inherent in such an event.

Certainly, read the book for the facts. But do not expect gripping drama. ... Read more

Book Description

Product Description
STREETWISE® Austin, Texas (TX) Map insets with scales:
Main Austin Map 1:30,000
Austin Area Map 1:180,000
Downtown Austin Map 1:10,000 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A lifesaver
I moved to the Austin area nearly three years ago and this is the map I came back to over and over again, and I bought a lot of them when we first moved here.It's not detailed enough to help you pinpoint a specific, minor street, but it's great in understanding the overall layout of Austin and the surrounding towns.It can get you downtown from anywhere, it can help you figure ou how to get out of downtown and how to figure out other options when there's a slow-down on the road you're on.I love that it's laminated -- it still looks new after nearly three years. My husband and I fight over which car it gets to live in.Now that we've lived here awhile, it doesn't get used quite as much, but it was INVALUABLE in helping me figure out Austin!I highly recommend it.

I Prefer the Hotel Map
As title said, I prefer using the map I got from the hotel I stayed in than this map.Wish the Professor Pathfinder has published an Austin TX map.. ... Read more

Book Description
Experience the flavor of the Lone Star State with Where The Locals Eat Texas Edition: A Guide To Local-Favorite Restaurants In 101 Texas Cities.Where The Locals Eat Texas Edition is a handy and reliable restaurant guide that is indispensable when you want to find good food in Texas.More than 1,000 local-favorite restaurants in 101 Texas cities are included in the guide.Listings were compiled entirely from the recommendations of local business and professional people and from local newspaper and magazine readers' polls -- none of the restaurants in the guide paid to be included.Names, street addresses, and phone numbers are given for every restaurant.And, each restaurant is classified under one of 75 informative category headings to let you know what sort of restaurant it is and what style food it serves.Light and portable, Where The Locals Eat Texas Edition fits easily in a briefcase, knapsack, or purse, so you can take it with you wherever you go in Texas! ... Read more

Book Description

In the clubs, ballrooms, and barbecue joints of neighborhoods such as Third Ward, Frenchtown, Sunnyside, and Double Bayou, Houston's African American community birthed a vibrant and unique slice of the blues. Ranging from the down-home sounds of Lightnin' Hopkins to the more refined orchestrations of the Duke-Peacock recording empire and beyond, Houston blues was and is the voice of a working-class community, an ongoing conversation about good times and hard times, smokin' Saturday nights and Blue Mondays.

Customer Reviews (2)

Weathered chunk of history
Roger Wood begins this labor of love with a tacit admission that, on moving to H-town in 1981 for job related purposes, he was unaware of the blues history lining the cracks of the nearby Third Ward sidewalks until the February 1, 1982 obituary in the Houston Chronicle of lifelong native Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins.With this tome under his belt it appears he's made up for lost time since then.

In addition to covering the wealth of blues greats who were either born in Houston or called the area home for any length of time, Wood also documents the underbelly of the lower class club scene, those low rent juke joints and converted shotgun houses that kept the I-IV-V alive all those decades, and still continues to do so.Wood rightfully laments the city's growing distance from it's blues heritage as well as the disappearance of it's historic venues, but "Down in Houston" is a verbal and pictorial testament to the bedrock that no one can strip away.

Excellent history of Houston blues scene
Fans of the blues will thoroughly enjoy this outstanding book by Roger Wood and James Fraher, who spent seven years researching and interviewing folks involved with the largely "invisible" blues music scene in Houston and the surrounding area.Fraher's photographs are outstanding, and they help drive the lively text.The authors interviewed musicians, club owners, producers and many others associated with the music scene in Houston's Third Ward and the Fifth Ward.The book moves easily from clubs to ballrooms to barbecue joints, where the music first took root and is still played today. Many legendary blues musicians such as Lightnin' Hopkins, Clifton Chenier, Gatemouth Brown and others of similar rank make appearances in the text.This is a high-quality book from a production standpoint and is an incredible bargain at full price or the Amazon.com sale price. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Government Finance Review, published by Government Finance Officers Association on April 1, 2003. The length of the article is 3176 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Bridging the gap: budget balancing in the city of Austin, Texas.
Author: Rudy Garza
Publication: Government Finance Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2003
Publisher: Government Finance Officers Association
Volume: 19Issue: 2Page: 22(6)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Bank Marketing, published by Bank Marketing Assn. on March 1, 1992. The length of the article is 605 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Compliance with the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 is regarded by First City Texas-El Paso NA as a normal extension of its services to the El Paso, TX, community. The adoption of a proactive CRA strategy gives First City the rating of 'outstanding' from CRA examiners. The bank carries a long history of commitment to the community as reflected in its partnerships with elementary schools, in-school savings awareness programs, loan programs to high school students, and mortgage programs geared for the low- to middle-income members of the community.

Citation Details
Title: Texas Bank views CRA compliance as every day business. (First City Texas-El Paso N.A.; Community Reinvestment Act of 1977) (BMA Bulletin: Information Center Issues)
Author: Sylvester Flood
Publication: Bank Marketing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 1992
Publisher: Bank Marketing Assn.
Volume: v24Issue: n3Page: p40(1)

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Book Description

On a day that dawned with brisk breezes, a clear sky, and perfect temperatures, the small town of Texas City suddenly found itself facing the greatest industrial disaster in the most industrialized nation on the planet. And, in time, the survivors of that all-American city found themselves wondering if their own government had delivered them into this hell on earth.

In 1947, Texas City was experiencing boom times, bristling with chemical and oil plants, built to fuel Europe's seemingly endless appetite for the raw materials needed to rebuild its ruined cities. When an explosion ripped through its docks, the effect was cataclysmic. Thousands of people were wounded or killed, the fire department was decimated, planes were shot out of the sky, and massive ocean-bound freighters disintegrated. The blast knocked people to their knees in Galveston, ten miles away; broke windows in Houston, forty miles away; and rattled a seismograph in Denver, Colorado. Chaos reigned, the military was scrambled, the FBI launched investigations -- and ordinary citizens turned into heroes.

For months on end, the brave residents of what had once been an average American town struggled to restore their families, their homes, their lives. And they also struggled to confront another welling nightmare-the possibility that the tragedy that almost erased their city from existence might have been caused by the very government they thought would protect them.

City on Fire is a painstakingly researched saga of one of the most profound but forgotten disasters in American history. The Texas City Disaster was a searing, apocalyptic event that had an enormous ripple effect for millions of people around the world.

It changed the way Americans respond to disasters and the way people viewed the American government -- the Texas City Disaster opened the door for average Americans to confront their government and its leaders in the nation's courts of law. It was the first time that the United States of America was named as a defendant in a case that, after a series of dizzying twists and turns, would end up in the nation's highest court.

Ultimately, the story of Texas City is a story of courage, humanity, bravery, and a painful quest for justice. It is the story of ordinary Americans behaving in extraordinary ways -- and serving as role models for dignity and grace.

Customer Reviews (22)

Fact as (poorly written) Fiction
Needs an index, chapter listings, footnotes, and a bibliography.Author claims to have interviewed two hundred people, but does not list their names.If this is non-fiction, he needs to remember Joe Friday's (Jack Webb's) famous quote "Just the facts ma'am."
If a reader is serious about history or the events of the explosion at Texas City, and chooses this volume, I would hope he is good at speed reading, otherwise it may be a long haul.

No, it's not non-fiction...
Don't lose sight of the fact that this book is NOT an absolute documentary piece of work -- the writer says as much in his introduction.

It is instead an extremely well-told, compelling story pieced together from documentary evidence, witness accounts and interviews that well chronicles this tragedy and puts the reader right in the middle of the event.

I couldn't put it down.

Could have been much better
"City on Fire" is a book that had to be written, for it's the shocking true story about the industrial port city of Texas City, Texas, that was devastated by a pair of ammonium nitrate explosions in April 1947. It's an event that was largely forgotten about until Bill Minutaglio's book came along.

That said, "City on Fire" was a disappointment for me. The first third of it dwells on Father Bill Roach, the Catholic priest who crusades for the city's underclass. This is the worst part of the book, for much of it seems utterly made-up. As another reviewer pointed out, there's no way all of this could be factual; how could Minutaglio possibly know what Roach is seeing, thinking and saying? Other characters are treated in similar fashion.

While the book is full of florid characterizations, it has precious little about ammonium nitrate, such as how it is handled, why it is explosive, how it is manufactured and so forth. A map of the city prior to the event would have been helpful, too, as would a diagram of the Grandcamp, the ship that was the first to explode.

Minutaglio writes as if he's writing the screenplay for a low-budget TV movie. Another complaint -- far too much italic type, much of which is put there for no apparent reason.

Can't wait for the movie
I recently read in Variety that Tom Cruise might be making a movie of this book so I thought I would check it out. Turns out it's an incredible story -- made even more so by the fact that it really happened and hardly anyone knows about it.Once I started I couldn't put it down. This is one powerful book-- and so visually written.I'll be the first one at the theatre when it comes out as a film....

A waste of money
Sometimes a small book about a local tragedy can be a great find -- a good action narrative worth the money. Unfortunately, this book isn't.

I bought this book on the recommendation of a bookstore clerk, who said it hadn't sold well but promised an appealing story. As it turned out, the story is pretty predictable and lacks a writer's skill in the telling. The author deserves credit for attempting to present an ensemble of interesting characters, but mostly they are caricatures. The writing is fairly clunky and the promise of the subtitle -- that the horrific 1947 explosion in Texas City produced a landmark legal ruling -- turns out to be something of an overstatement. The death of 600 people is no small event, but the long-ago events of Texas City have been eclipsed by the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

As a regional book, City on Fire might kindle the interest of Texas historians and descendants of those who died in the disaster. But for those who like good active narratives, this one falls short.

A reader Houston, TX ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Public Personnel Management, published by International Personnel Management Association on September 22, 1994. The length of the article is 2066 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Dallas, TX, was awarded the 1993 IPMA Agency Award for Excellence in a large agency, in recognition of the city's outstanding personnel management efforts. Among the city's commendable projects are in-house temporary help services, safety training programs, organizational streamlining, modified classification and compensation packages and health care cost containment. The city also has a cultural awareness program for workplace diversity and involves employees in decision making. Plans for the year 2000 are already being implemented.

Citation Details
Title: City of Dallas Dallas, Texas Agency Award for Excellence - Large Agency. (IPMA Agency Award for Excellence)
Publication: Public Personnel Management (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1994
Publisher: International Personnel Management Association
Volume: v23Issue: n3Page: p447(6)

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