Texas Oil, American Dreams: A Study of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association

In this intricately interpretive narrative, Lawrence Goodwyn explores the legend of the Texas wildcatter, the twentieth century's version of Thomas Jefferson's "yeoman farmer" and the nineteenth century's plains-riding cowboy. Goodwyn brings into clear relief the people who endeavored to act out the American Dream in the remote corners of "oil country." A driving force in American culture, the "American Dream," always difficult to define, nevertheless possesses one core quality: the thought t…