Histria Books is pleased to announce the release of Treason and Traitors in Texas by Randolph W. Farmer. This book is published by Histria Academic, an imprint of Histria Books dedicated to outstanding scholarly works in the humanities by Histria Books.
Treason and Traitors in Texas examines George W. L. Bickley and the Knights of the Golden Circle, the secretive organization committed to expanding slavery and advancing Southern secession. Its starting point is a question: what gets missed when historians dismiss a political operator as merely a con man? Following disputed identities, family connections, newspaper notices, and financial interests, the book looks beyond Bickley’s self-made legend to the society that gave his ambitions room to grow. Texas emerges as more than a backdrop to the coming Civil War. It becomes a place where private networks, territorial schemes, and the defense of slavery converged. The approach is argumentative, attentive to small details, and willing to challenge familiar judgments.Â
For readers thinking about political mythmaking and the uses of history today, its particular interest lies in how personal reinvention and organized extremism can become entangled with respectable institutions and ordinary pursuits of wealth.
A native Texan with ancestral roots dating back to 1817, Randolph W. Farmer has dedicated decades to uncovering the true history of this legendary land—separating fact from myth through meticulous research.
