Winner T.R. Fehrenbach Award
1985
"On behalf of the Texas Historical Commission, I am pleased to inform you that your entry in our 1985 Publications Contest has been selected as the winner in the Biographical and Family History category.
"Thunder Beyond the Brazos was selected from a number of quality entries. It makes an outstanding contribution to the study of Texas history, and we are proud to honor such a deserving publication. … An official awards presentation will be made at our Historic Preservation Conference in Austin on Friday, March 7 [1986]."
- Debbie Cottrell, Director of Publications, Texas Historical Commission.
Reviews
Thunder Beyond The Brazos
"Thunder Beyond the Brazos (Eakin Press) by Jack C. Ramsay, Jr., is a biography of Mirabeau B. Lamar, second president of the Republic of Texas. A native of Georgia, Lamar was a newspaper editor, fought in the Texas Revolution, served as vice-president and president of the Republic, and was responsible for the endowment of a system of public education in the Lone Star State. Notes, bibliography, and an index round out this study of Texas’s ‘poet president’."
-Review in Western Reading, Arizona and the West.
"I just finished reading Thunder Beyond The Brazos today. I have really enjoyed reading it. I had no trouble keeping up with the sequence of events. And the efforts you made in telling the story of Mirabeau Lamar in such an unbiased way was a welcomed change. After reading other accounts of historical events I usually felt like they were only heroes and villains, all good or all bad. It was wonderful to see Lamar presented as being truly human, with both triumphs and failures. You made it easier to understand the reasons behind his decisions and beliefs, based on the thinking of his times. It was fun following his travels, along with the help of my atlas. Having lived in Texas, and now in Georgia, added to my interest in Lamar’s history.... Thank you for the great reading.
- Chris Bryan, Peachtree City, GA.
