At the height of the sixties, a group of Texas writers stood apart from Texas' conservative establishment. Calling themselves the Mad Dogs, these six writers--Bud Shrake, Larry L. King, Billy Lee Brammer, Gary Cartwright, Dan Jenkins, and Peter Gent--closely observed the effects of the Vietnam War; the Kennedy assassination; the rapid population shift from rural to urban environments; Lyndon Johnson's rise to national prominence; the Civil Rights...