New Mexico Books

In this witty and helpful guide, Glave provides her reader with all the information needed to eat and drink the BEST of Santa Fe. The reviews are succinct and flavorful, the information is plentiful (with icons to alert one to great takeout options, family-friendly locales, romantic spots, pricing), and the layout is clean and accessible. Eat Drink helped me find the right spot for the right occasion -- and I don't plan to return to Santa Fe without my copy close at hand!

This book was written in the late 1970's when conciousness of the potential for human caused environmental disasters was still penetrating the general public. It is an accessable scholarly work on the tremendous impact of classical (Greek and Roman) civilizations had on the fragile ecology of the Mediterranean. The Greeks and Romans caused tremendous erosion on hillsides throughout their territory from which the Mediterranean and nearby arid regions still has not recovered. They irrigated large areas that became waterlogged and salinized. They changed the Mediterranean ecosystems from what must have appeared as a wonderful primitive garden of Eden into something much less appealing. We would do well to take heed and take warning.

I am a landscape photograper, like Mr. Varjabedian is, but not as good. His photographs are some of the best I have ever seen in my entire life, even better than Ansel Adams. This book is about "Los Hermanos Penitentes," or the Penitent Brothers, a Catholic lay brotherhood that was founded because of a lack of preists in New Mexico. The Brother's activities have always been very secret, but have been aggrandized by the early white settlers in the region. Mr. Wallis' text illuminates and fully explains this unusual brotherhood. I highly, highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in the history of New Mexico or, anyone who appreciates fine black and white photographs.

This is one of the nicest of the NMBM's "Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past" series. This 1991 edition is a major revision of the earlier "Scenic Trips to the Geologic Past #2" guidebook (which was just a short pamphlet, and is long out-of-print). The present guidebook is a substantial short book (137 pp.), and is much improved from the old pamphlet. It now includes both the "Enchanted Circle" drive and another loop drive to the mountain villages south of Taos. Many neat historical photos have been added, as has a nice section of color photographs. There's a short historical sketch of Taos, and quite a bit of general natural history in addition to the geology. This is the book you want for geological tourism around Taos.

Unfortunately, it's now out of print, and expensive used. You may want to check it out from your public library. Memo to NMBM: get this book back in print!

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman
Consulting Geologist, Santa Fe

I'd already read this extraordinary book in the original English edition and decided to check the Spanish one (sometimes they do terrible Spanish translations). Fortunately, this translated version captures perfectly the spirit and scope of Mr. Richardson's vision of America, and his wonderful history of achievements, all put in such excellent Spanish it feels as if one was reading the original work. I hope this inspiring story will help many Hispanic citizens know better a man highly qualified to guide the USA during the 2008-2011 presidential term.

This goal of this volume is to present a variety of perspectives on cultural heritage issues to a broad audience, from archaeologists to collectors, museum curators to the general public. As editor of this volume of essays originally published in 1989, and author of the 1999 update, I believe it is extremely important for all of us to be part of an ongoing dialogue about how to preserve the past for the future. When the University of New Mexico Press approached me to update the original volume, I was struck by the changes that have occurred in the last decade. In the United States, the passage and implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, has had a major impact on the treatment and disposition of American Indian objects of cultural heritage. And the world wide web has had a major impact on the kinds of information that is readily available to anyone, whether for the trade of antiquities or for tracking down stolen artifacts. At the same time, the problem of illegal and unethical destruction of the past continues--and in some areas of the world, has worsened. I hope the reader will find the essays thought-provoking and the appendices, including an overview of U.S. and international laws, statements of professional ethics, and a listing of resources and organizations, to be helpful in developing one's own stance on stewardship of the past.

Thoughtful and engaging - this is a smart book that examines our relationship with the natural world -- and it takes on the question of how to find solace in times that can seem bleak - how to feel ALIVE in an age of extinction. This is a searching, seeking sort of book -- and it's a pleasure to embark on such a journey with the author.

For all its historical riches, the nineteenth century, particularly the first half, is a period in Mexican history neglected by historians for far too long. Almost forty years ago, Nettie Lee Benson lamented the lacunae when she stated that much was yet to be learned about what actually happened during the period between 1810-1857. Fifteen years ago the refrain was much the same when Eric Van Young called this early national period a "hueco." Four years later, Josefina Zoraida Vázquez focused on the lack of attention to nineteenth century Mexico when she characterized this period the "forgotten years." As late as eight years ago, Professor Vázquez exhorted the historical community to apply social and economic histories to clarify who the actors were and what role they played in the political life of nineteenth-century Mexico instead of shrouding the political realities behind the themes of foreign aggressors and pronunciamentos.

It would be misleading, however, to interpret the introductory paragraph on this review as characterizing a complete void in historical studies of the period in question-much has been done in the last forty years. Seemingly as a response to Professor Vázquez, Mark Wasserman, whose book is the subject of this review, masterfully synthesized a suite of extant historical works-books and articles-which previously had to be consulted collectively to order and place in perspective this neglected period of Mexican history known erroneously for its chaos and disorder.

Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico demarcates the nineteenth century into three periods, from the formation of the nation-state until the disastrous war with the United States; Guadalupe Hidalgo through the internecine wars of the Reform ending in the triumph of Liberalism and the Tuxtepec Revolution; and the Profiriato until the dawn of the Mexican Revolution. Wasserman introduces each period with a biographical sketch of the leading figure of the period, in this case being Antonio López de Santa Anna, Benito Juárez and Porfirio Díaz. Additionally, the author provides a brief but useful timeline that orders the period in question.

The overarching theme that the author provides for nineteenth-century Mexico is that it was a time of pervasive wars, the most disastrous one for Mexico being the war with the United States followed by the Reform civil wars. And it is this constant warfare that resulted in the nation's economic stagnation and hence inability to develop fully. Furthermore, this constant warfare reverberated in the social space by creating demographic shifts, particularly of women. War and the resulting migrations also irrevocably altered gender relations as women fought wars with greater frequency than had been thought, and migrated to industrialized urban centers and became workers.

This book is clearly meant for the introductory survey level, hence its limited bibliography and lack of footnotes. While the bibliography is limited, many more studies were consulted in constructing this synthesis as evidenced by the acknowledgement section of the book and the footnoted acknowledgements at the beginning of each chapter.

Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico provides a much needed synthesis of nineteenth-century Mexico with an excellent balance of political economy, social and gender history that will surely become the de rigueur introductory survey for students of Mexican history in general and nineteenth-century Mexican history in particular.

This is actually one of the better studies of the gestation of Darwin's theory from his early travels and researches from the 1840's to the publication of Origin. The author brings out the way in which Darwin's thinking crystallized before he had the foundations of knowledge to put forth his thesis, and his hesitations, doubts, and uncertainties are clear from the record. In fact, the lack of evidence for his thesis was central to his difficulties. He was forced to argue not so much for the correct theory as the least objectionable one. And in fact, among other reasons due to the prodding of his sudden competitor Wallace he was forced to publish too soon. Lots of interesting details from Darwin's notebooks, a useful and cogent study.

No problem has given rise to more disagreement among economists than that of economic and social change. Is it a mechanical static concept concerned mainly with economic equilibrium, or an evolutionary dynamic, one concerned with growth, development, and expansion? Hamilton argues that how one answers this question is the fundamental point of difference between classical economics and evolutionary or institutional economics. Hamilton defines classical economists as all those in the economic mainstream, from Adam Smith to John Maynard Keynes, and institutional economists as only those who are followers of Thorstein Veblen. He traces the origin and development of the two points of view by showing how economists have dealt with the problem of change since the time of Smith. He discusses the Newtonian and Darwinian frames of references: change and human nature, change and social organization, and change and progress. For Hamilton, economics as a science is part of a continuum with the other social sciences, one capable of incorporating the major sociological, as well as the economic issues of the twentieth century. It is in theories of dynamics, he charges, that the classical theoretical structure is without foundation, because it accepts a mechanical and essentially static concept instead of a cumulative cultural outlook.

In reviewing Evolutionary Economics, in The Economic Journal, S. G. Checkland said that it should be read as a vigourous attempt to relate economic to general thinking and as a challenge to those who are practitioners of elaborators of narrowly prescribed techniques. The work is of particular interest to social scientists interested in economic development, where the static concepts of conventional theory seem least applicable and where an adequate concept of social and economic change is vital.
--- from book's back cover