Attica Locke on Texas

The books you chose bring out the diversity you describe. Let’s begin with a book about Texas before it struck oil, J California Cooper’s The Wake of the Wind. Please tell us about it.

To my mind, J California Cooper is one of the most under-read American authors alive. Wake of the Wind is a story about living in the wake of the Civil War and emancipation, a picture of a nation and a state in transition. It’s a beautiful sweeping story about a black family trying to navigate a new landscape – a new cultural, political and physical landscape. And about how a recently emancipated people struggled for their version of the American dream. There’s so much literature about what it was to be enslaved and not nearly enough literature about what it was for people to learn to be free, become landowners, reunite with relatives, and put a life together.

It’s a point of pride for me that Juneteenth, a commemoration of emancipation celebrated among blacks, started in the state of Texas. It takes place on June 19, the day – 200-plus years ago – that the Emancipation Proclamation finally was enforced in Texas, more than two and a half years after President Lincoln signed it. Now people celebrate Juneteenth all over the country, it’s an official holiday in 39 states. It became a day in which people celebrate their freedom.

How does this book fit into the outlaw theme you’ve identified?

It turns the concept on its head. In The Wake of the Wind it’s people in power, people behind the badge, the whites who fear their way of life is “gone with the wind” – they’re the ones who operate outside the law in this story and throughout reconstruction.

Moving forward to the 20th century, when Texas struck it rich, you chose The Big Rich. One reviewer wrote that it’s about “capitalism at its most colourful”. Tell us about Bryan Burrough’s book and Texas’s distinctive brand of super-rich.

There’s no way to understand the culture and politics of Texas without talking about oil. It’s just not possible. The Big Rich follows four men who used to be called “The Big Four”: Roy Cullen, HL Hunt, Clint Murchison and Sid Richardson. These are the men after whom streets are named in Texas. The book starts all the way back in 1901, when oil was first discovered in Beaumont, Texas and stretches through the second half of the 20th century. For the most part these men came from very modest backgrounds. I think one was an elementary school dropout. They were called wildcatters, a name that reflects their risk-taking and outsized personalities.

People who remember the TV show Dallas might think the brand of conspicuous consumption associated with it is hyperbole. When you read this book you realise it was grounded in reality. These guys had huge mansions and every toy under the sun. They were from the sticks, but ended up travelling the world and entertaining world leaders.

I understand oil production just counts for a fraction of the revenue nowadays. Is oil still essential to understanding Texas today?

In my opinion, yes. You cannot separate oil from the state. The oil industry fuelled the rise of Texas and even though oil production isn’t dominant, the energy industry as a whole still looms large over the state and cities like Dallas and Houston. In the world’s imagination, we’ll always be associated with oil. Plus, as The Big Rich shows, oilmen were able to insinuate themselves into state and national politics. They used their oil money to lubricate the rise of the conservative movement and help along the careers of the three Texans who landed in the White House. This book came out in 2009, before the BP oil spill. Reading it will give you a sense of how we arrived where we’ve arrived in terms of oil power in our economy and our politics.