Six older books help set the stage for understanding that Texas take on modernism.
Urban planning takes a backseat to discussions of architecture in most of these Texas books.
A tiny minority of our state’s residents are old enough to recall the era that predated the modern Texas city.
Before towers, freeways and, especially, air conditioning.
Before top-rated universities, hospitals, museums and libraries.
Before up-to-date restaurants, parks, theaters, festivals and concert halls.
And well before all the digital technologies that make these modern things and others hang together these days.
It was not until 1950 that the U.S. Census recorded more Texans living in urban areas than in the rural ones, 30 years after America as a whole turned that demographic corner. (Pause to think about that.) So all that urban modernity that we take for granted today came rushing at Texans with great speed, mostly during the past 75 years.