Books about Galveston from Amazon.com

On September 8, 1900, a devastating hurricane destroyed most of the island city of Galveston, along with the lives of more than 6,000 men, women, and children Today that hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Despite this tragedy, many Galvestonians were determined to rebuild their city. An ambitious plan was developed to construct a wall against the sea, link the island to the mainland with a reliable concrete bridge, and raise the level of the city. While the grade was raised beneath them, houses were perched on stilts and residents made their way through town on elevated boardwalks. Galveston became a city on stilts. While Galvestonians worked to rebuild the infrastructure of their city, they also continued conducting business and participating in recreational activities. Zeva B. Edworthy's photographs document the rebuilding of the port city and life around Galveston in the early 1900s..
Price: $17.81 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The Texas coast offers rich avian treasures for expert birders and beginners alike, if only they know where to look. For those familiar with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's maps to the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, this book on the Upper Texas Coast offers more--more information, more convenient and detailed maps, more pictures, more finding tips, and more birding advice from one of the trail's creators, Ted Lee Eubanks Jr., and trail experts Robert A. Behrstock and Seth Davidson. For those new to the trail, the book is the perfect companion for learning where to find and how to bird the very best venues on this part of the Texas coast.

In an opening tutorial on habitat and seasonal strategies for birding the Upper Texas Coast, the authors include tips on how to take advantage of the famous (but elusive) fallouts of birds that happen here. They then briefly discuss the basics of birding by ear and the rewards of passive birding before turning to the trail itself and each of more than 120 birding sites from the Louisiana-Texas border, through Galveston and Houston, to just south of Freeport.

In an attractive, durable, and user-friendly format, the book includes:

Maps to each of 15 trail loops, with birding sites clearly marked
Text directions to each site
Site rating recommendations for prioritizing trips
Site descriptions that feature birds likely to be found Advice on finding bird groups

While not intended as a field identification guide, the book contains more than 175 color photographs of birds and their coastal habitat, giving readers an excellent feel for the trail's diversity and abundance. Whether you are making your annual spring pilgrimage to Texas, leisurely traveling with the family along the coast, or wondering what to do during a layover in Houston, using this book as your guide to the trail will greatly enhance your birding experience..
Price: $14.35 [Notify me when price goes down.]

It had no name and gave no warning, but crept stealthily into the Gulf and then roared ashore, killing six thousand people. Nearly one hundred years after its landfall, the hurricane that struck Galveston Island on September 8, 1900, remains the worst natural disaster the nation has seen. In Through A Night of Horrors, witnesses describe, in many never-before-published accounts, their encounters with this deadly storm. Casey Edward Greene and Shelly Henley Kelly spent several years culling the Rosenberg Library's unparalleled collection on the storm for this work. Some of the survivor accounts included were recorded in the days immediately following the disaster; others were put down after many years had passed. The letters and memoirs included in this volume not only provided catharsis to their writers but also left important documentation about the events for future generations..
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Galveston-a small, flat island off the Texas Gulf coast-has seen some of the state's most amazing history and fascinating people. First settled by the Karankawa Indians, long suspected of cannibalism, it was where the stranded Cabeza de Vaca came ashore in the 16th century. Pirate Jean Lafitte used it as a hideout in the early 1800s and both General Sam Houston and General James Long (with his wife, Jane, the "Mother of Texas") stayed on its shores. More modern notable names on the island include Robert Kleberg and the Moody, Sealy and Kempner families who dominated commerce and society well into the twentieth century.

Captured by both sides during the Civil War and the scene of a devastating sea battle, the city flourished during Reconstruction and became a leading port, an exporter of grain and cotton, a terminal for two major railroads, and site of fabulous Victorian buildings-homes,hotels, the Grand Opera House, the Galveston Pavilion (first building in Texas to have electric lights). It was, writes Cartwright, "the largest, bawdiest, and most important city between New Orleans and San Francisco."

This country's worst natural disaster-the Galveston hurricane of 1900-left the city in shambles, with one sixth of its population dead. But Galveston recovered. During Prohibition rum-running and bootlegging flourished; after the repeal, a variety of shady activities earned the city the nickname "The Free State of Galveston."

In recent years Galveston has focused on civic reform and restoration of its valuable architectural and cultural heritage. Over 500 buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and an annual "Dickens on the Strand" festival brings thousands of tourists to the island city each December. Yet Galveston still witnesses colorful incidents and tells stories of descendants of the ruling families, as Cartwright demonstrates with wry humor in a new epilogue written specially for this edition of Galveston.

First published in 1991 by Atheneum..
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Novelist Edna Ferber compared the city of Galveston to Miss Havisham, the gray, mournful abandoned bride of Dickens's Great Expectations A thriving port city in the nineteenth century Galveston suffered catastrophe in the twentieth as a hurricane and shifting economics dropped a pall over its waterfront and Victorian mansions. Originally conceived as a requiem for the faded city, The Galveston That Was (developed by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and funded by Jean and Dominique de Menil) instead helped resurrect the city. Architect-author Howard Barnstone, portrait photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, and architect-photographer Ezra Stoller captured the soul of the city in The Galveston That Was and, as a result, inspired a successful effort to restore Galveston's architectural treasures. The pace of demolition slowed dramatically after the book's initial publication..
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One hundred years after the hurricane of 1900 devastated Galveston, Texas, it remains the most deadly natural disaster in the United States history. Although many heeded the warnings of local weatherman Dr Issac Monroe Cline, numerous others did not. More than 6,000 souls perished. Shortly after the storm, author Nathan C. Green set out to share with the world the Story of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane. For those who had lost their lives, he would become their voice; for those who had somehow miraculously survived, he would become their chronicler. To further memorialise the events of the Galveston Hurricane, Pelican has reprinted Dr Isaac Monroe Cline's Storms, Floods and Sunshine: An Autobiography, which was first published in 1945..
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