Texas occupies a special place in the American myth: It is the home of the Wild West, the Rio Grande, cowboys, Indians and the Alamo; the word 'gumption' springs to mind. In "Great Houses of Texas", author and resident Lisa Germany traces the architectural history of this self-made region, in which the land itself is the protagonist, through portraits of more than 25 homes built between 1853 and 2003, beginning with the Greek Revival and Victorian mansions of East Texas planters. Over the last 150 years, changing tastes have attracted architects like David Williams and O'Neil Ford (in Dallas and later San Antonio), as well as Chester Nagel, a former pupil of Walter Gropius. Even as Modernism permeated design sensibilities, the strong regional character and indigenous building forms remained, but as always, the land is the final authority on and shaper of lifestyles in the Lone Star State.