Deep in the Heart of San Antonio - by Char Miller (Paperback)

About the Book

Char Miller's essays cover a wide range of South Texas topics, from natural and environmental history to urban development to San Antonio's future. Miller uses simple subjects--the First Friday Art Walks in South Town, for example--as a springboard for a deeper discussion of urban city planning and an elusive future of sensible growth and diversity.

Book Synopsis

Char Miller's collection of essays provides an insightful survey of San Antonio and South Texas. The essays are grouped into six thematic sections: an overview; natural and environmental history; water issues; urban development; politics; and the city's future. Miller describes the First Friday Art Walks in Southtown, where the promenade reenacts the pedestrian traffic envisioned by the San Antonio founders when they planned the city around a central square and cathedral. He recreates the history behind the Alamo Quarry, when the upscale shopping center was a cement factory and self-contained community. Ranging further afield, he recounts how the Aplomado Falcon made a come-back in the Rio Grande Valley, and how the river in the same valley has fared in water wars between the United States and Mexico. In the four essays devoted to water in San Antonio, Miller subtly and successfully portrays how water has shaped the region's demographic and political realities.

About the Author

Char Miller, formerly a professor of history at Trinity University, is the W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College. He is the author of the award-winning Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism, Deep in the Heart of San Antonio: Land and Life in South Texas, and Public Lands/Public Debates: A Century of Controversy, as well as the editor of On the Border: An Environmental History of San Antonio and Fifty Years of the Texas Observer. His most recent books for Trinity University Press are Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. the California Dream and On the Edge: Water, Immigration, and Politics in the Southwest. Miller is a frequent contributor to print, electronic, and social media.