{"product_id":"the-shape-of-texas-richard-v-francaviglia-9780890966648","title":"The Shape of Texas: Maps as Metaphors","description":"Texas-shaped ashtrays, belt buckles, earrings, kitchen utensils--\"Texas kitsch\"--fill gift shops alongside highways and in airports. The Lone Star State's unmistakable shape is appropriated by advertisers to hawk everything from beans to automobiles inside Texas' borders and beyond. As a billboard-sized neon sign glowing atop a popular honkey-tonk, the Texas map illuminates the Fort Worth night sky, attracting tourists in search of a good time--and a share of the Texas experience. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOver the years America's most recognizable state outline has become one of its most potent symbols, a metaphor for Texas popular culture. In the last decade, the private, commercial, and official use of the Texas map as cultural symbol has boomed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRichard V. Francaviglia identifies this current trend as \"Tex-map mania,\" and contends that the Texas map as icon integrates geography with history--and gives shape to a mythic landscape and to abstracted notions of what Texas is and who Texans are. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWritten in a lively style that engages both the scholar and \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ethe general reader in a discussion of the power of symbol and the \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003emeaning and significance of a shared aesthetic, The Shape of Texas is at the crossroads of cartography and popular culture. Francaviglia uses more than one hundred illustrations in offering a provocative visual and written account of this important, yet much neglected, aspect of Texas history and the dynamics of a still emerging Texas identity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Richard V. Francaviglia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0890966648\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780890966648\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Texas A\u0026amp;M University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/01\/1995\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 144\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.94lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.44h x 6.29w x 0.62d","brand":"Richard V. Francaviglia","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48216517247231,"sku":"9780890966648","price":29.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_bd8be374-9854-45bf-929e-3475960a32ef.jpg?v=1771991528","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-shape-of-texas-richard-v-francaviglia-9780890966648","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}