When you mix the wisdom of a historian with the sharp mind of a lawyer and the storytelling prowess of a published author – you get none other than Dr. Bill Chriss. A self-described lifelong learner who was once described by a Texas Supreme Court justice as a man “with more degrees than a thermometer,” Bill is as approachable as he is entertaining and funny. Affectionately known as “Dr. Bill,” he wrote his latest book, Six Constitutions Over Texas, to peel back the layers of Texas’ identity, helping the world understand what makes Texans tick.
In his foreword to Six Constitutions Over Texas: Texas’ Political Identity, 1830-1900, historian H. W. Brands describes the saga surrounding the development of the Texas state constitution as having “the sweep of a Russian novel . . . populated by characters as colorful as any of Tolstoy’s.” Indeed, even a glance at the table of contents reveals hints of international and regional conflict, intrigue, and shifting political alliances that characterized the rise and–in the case of the first five iterations–fall of the constitutions serving as the guiding document for what was variously a state of Mexico, an independent nation, a member of the Union, a Confederate state, and a newly subdued region under Reconstruction.
