Subject: FW: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo, Skeptic)
From: "John Broders" <jbroders@texasmonthly.com>
Date: 10/29/09, 12:29
To: <barriticus@gmail.com>
CC: "Eileen Smith" <EDSmith@texasmonthly.com>

FW: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo, Skeptic)
Mr. Brown,
 
We have written about this (Texas Primer:  A Texan Looks at Lyndon - Sep. 87).  At the moment, we're making very few freelance assignments, but you're welcome to query us again.
 
Thanks for thinking of us.
 
Sincerely,
 
John Broders
 


From: Eileen Smith
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:50 AM
To: Jake Silverstein
Cc: John Broders
Subject: FW: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo, Skeptic)

FYI
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From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:13:21 -0400
To: <edsmith@texasmonthly.com>
Subject: Query from Barrett Brown (Vanity Fair, HuffPo, Skeptic)

Hi, Eileen-

I wanted to check in with you to see if Texas Monthly might be interested in taking a look at a piece I'm about to write about an interesting little piece of Texas political history.

I'm a regular contributor to Vanity FairThe Huffington PostSkeptic, and The Onion, and my work has appeared in dozens of other outlets, including several based in Texas (I'm from Dallas myself). My first book, Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, was released in 2007; my second, Hot, Fat, and Clouded, is scheduled for publication next year.

The article in question is an allegedly humorous examination of A Texan Looks at Lyndon: A Study in Illegitimate Power, written by historian and cowman J. Evetts Haley. The book, which came out in 1964 to much fanfare across the state and received some national attention to boot, covers much of Johnson's early career, obviously with a negative slant. 

The screed itself is interesting for a number of reasons. It's packed with accounts of mid-20th century Texas corruption and written by an equally colorful fellow who ran for statewide office several times on a segregationist platform (indeed, he campaigned to redeploy the Texas Rangers as a means of enforcing such things). And Haley, though no doubt a fine historian of the southwest, is completely adrift when dealing with anything beyond the region - by the second paragraph of the preface, he has already asserted in passing that Julius Caesar was feared by the people and feared them in turn, when in fact he was so extraordinarily popular that he was appointed dictator several times, his assassins were hunted down by mobs, and his adopted son was eventually made both an emperor and deity by virtue of that inherited popularity. Elsewhere, he sprinkles the book with observations of the following intellectual caliber: "History indicates that illegitimate power cannot afford to let rebellion grow and spread." And a fair portion of the book consists of what are really just complaints about people who have allegedly screwed him over on business deals.

Let me know if this interests you or if you'd like to receive other queries from me down the line.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302


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