About the Front Cover: The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is an allegorical Confederate soldier contemplating history. The sculpture is part of a monument by Pompeo Luigi Coppini erected in 1911 in Palestine, Texas.
Stephen Welton Taber is a specialist in diversity. He discovered 40 animal species unknown to science and reconstructed the evolutionary history of viruses and insects. He wrote 5 books on animals and plants published by two research university presses and published many articles in peer-reviewed science journals in Europe and The United States. He holds a Ph.D. in biology from The University of Texas at Austin, a M.S. in biology from Texas Tech University and a B.S. in physics from Texas A&M University. He is a full professor at a state university.