The Myth of Red Texas

A timely call for Texas--and the South--to reclaim its radical history, drawing lessons for today's struggle from the populists and socialists of yesteryear.

In blood-red states such as Texas, politics operates under the fallacy that these places were always conservative, so that it would be foolish, even utopian, to propose a progressive alternative. The Myth of Red Texas, David Griscom's debut book, reassesses this misconception, arguing that the Lone Star Left must embrace its hidden past to reach a brighter future.

Cowboys on strike, socialists on the ballot, farmers fighting tooth and claw for what they termed the "cooperative commonwealth"--Texas was once a wellspring of radicals hell-bent on taking power from the robber barons who ruled the day. With a careful eye for history, Griscom demonstrates how Texans' left-wing parties, from the populists to the socialists, organized against the Right and often won--and how reclaiming that tradition can help today's Left break the political deadlock in Texas and beyond.