Southwest Books

Oddly enough, Agnes Franz hasn't created just a history of one Arizona town in the book, Historic Prescott. What I found instead in these collected descriptions and photos was a cross-section of the wild west as a whole.

Released in today's era of rapid and often bewildering change, this book provides a clear and colorful case study--a kind of executive summary by verbal and visual snapshots--across another time of development, one that occurred as America's wildest frontier morphed into today's version of civilization. Historic Prescott shows the world's most famous American fantasy era through the life of one pivotal town.

By gathering and rapidly describing countless key events in 16 chapters--chapters like Bucky O'neill - Rough Rider, Home on the Ranchland, Prescott's Chinese History, Indian Way of Change, Law and Some Order, and Rodeo--Historic Prescott uncovers a town--and the type of town--that was the backbone of the west.

Franz writes in a staccatto style that may take a page or so to get used to by some readers, but most will probably get into its flow right away. Events move along quickly; that's for sure.

The price leans toward the steep side, but if you're a fan of the old west, there's much to enjoy in this slim large-format volume. Franz's collection and easy-reading descriptions make it just plain fascinating to watch the west of our fantasy grow up into the modern era.

I would highly recommend this well-written book to every Prescottonian...Arizonian...in fact anyone interested in the history of Prescott and Yavapai County. The author's extensive research - both for facts and photographs - has resulted in a fascinating tale of the growth of a small mining town and its surrounds.

Dan Flores has lived most of his life in the Horizontal Yellow. Another, more historical term for this land would be the Spanish-Mexican Frontier. Florida was not settled from Mexico, of course, and the settlement of California was decades to more than a century later.

Flores explores this land from both the history and natural history points of view, with the historical part generally beginning with the first Spanish-U.S. contact as part of post-Louisiana Treaty boundary negotiations.

Not all Texas is the Southern spillover of Dallas and Houston; get acquainted with the rest of it, and adjacent areas, in this book.

Dan Flores' long-awaited new book once again proves he has few peers when it comes to a deep understanding of his native Near Southwest, a vision for its long term health, and the ability to weave a tale which is scholarly, literary, and deeply personal.

If you are serious about learning more about plants, all forms of propogation, then this is the book for you. It gets technical, but again, if you are serious, then you can figure it out. Comprehensive, well organized, good drawings, good glossary (no pronunciation guide though)and good index. A must have reference. Thanks to Ms Nokes.

This book has received an Award of Excellence for book design in the 2001 Southern Books Competition. "Lovely green cloth binding opens to stunning title page typography that sits upon faint leaves. The typographic design is classic without being boring. Details, like the screened-back ornaments on the Contents page speak to the refinement of the design." Congratulations to the author and illustrator, designer Ellen McKie, and the University of Texas Press.

I have not yet read this book, I have only just ordered it, but I am so excited to read it because currently I am the coordinator of the Hollenback Community Garden in Brooklyn New York. Our garden is on the former site of the Hollenback Mansion where Amelia grew up, which burned down in 1979.

Compiled, edited and Annotated by Mary J. Straw Cook, Immortal Summer: A Victorian Woman's Travels In The Southwest is a collection of letters and black-and-white photographs by Amelia Hollenback, a Victorian woman who had the opportunity to see 1897 America with her own eyes. With extensive contextual annotation, Immortal Summer is a vivid, superbly organized and presented primary source which takes in what American life, land and people were really like more than a century ago. One curious note: Author and historian Mary Cook lives in Santa Fe in the very house that Amelia Hollenback commissioned John Gaw Meem to build in 1932!

Chaco Canyon is in the middle of nowhere, a unexceptional canyon in the New Mexico desert where nobody in his right mind would try to make a living. All the more amazing is that this barren place was the center of the Anasazi civilization. The Great House of Pueblo Bonito is the largest pre-historic building north of Mexico, counting 800 rooms and constructed about 1,000 years ago.

Chaco is mysterious and this book of seventeen essays by authorities in several fields explores those mysteries. One is given the point of view of the scholars as well as representatives of the Pueblo, Hopi, and the Navajo Indians. Good charts, maps, and photos, some in color, support the text. Perhaps the most interesting of all the mysteries is how the Anasazi fed themselves in this unpromising environment and a brief sidebar talks about Chaco agriculture -- although not enough.

The most interesting essay in the book is titled "The Chaco Navajos" and is about the coming of the Navajos, the Spaniards, and the Anglos to Chaco Canyon long after the Anasazi had disappeared. Included is a brief account of pioneer archaeologist, Richard Wetherill, killed in a gunfight with a Navajo in 1910. "Richard Wetherill Anasazi" by Frank McNitt is a fine biography of Wetherill, a character worthy of legend.

"In Search of Chaco" is an attractive, up-to-date look at current theories and thinking about Chaco. One suspects there's a lot more to learn. One quibble: I despise the politically correct term "Ancestral Pueblo" used by the scholars for the people who built Chaco. The old and romantic name, "Anasazi," is far preferable.

Smallchief

Chaco Canyon is in the middle of nowhere, a unexceptional canyon in the New Mexico desert where nobody in his right mind would try to make a living. All the more amazing is that this barren place was the center of the Anasazi civilization. The Great House of Pueblo Bonito is the largest pre-historic building north of Mexico, counting 800 rooms and constructed about 1,000 years ago.

Chaco is mysterious and this book of seventeen essays by authorities in several fields explores those mysteries. One is given the point of view of the scholars as well as representatives of the Pueblo, Hopi, and the Navajo Indians. Good charts, maps, and photos, some in color, support the text. Perhaps the most interesting of all the mysteries is how the Anasazi fed themselves in this unpromising environment and a brief sidebar talks about Chaco agriculture -- although not enough.

The most interesting essay in the book is titled "The Chaco Navajos" and is about the coming of the Navajos, the Spaniards, and the Anglos to Chaco Canyon long after the Anasazi had disappeared. Included is a brief account of pioneer archaeologist, Richard Wetherill, killed in a gunfight with a Navajo in 1910. "Richard Wetherill Anasazi" by Frank McNitt is a fine biography of Wetherill, a character worthy of legend.

"In Search of Chaco" is an attractive, up-to-date look at current theories and thinking about Chaco. One suspects there's a lot more to learn. One quibble: I despise the politically correct term "Ancestral Pueblo" used by the scholars for the people who built Chaco. The old and romantic name, "Anasazi," is far preferable.

Smallchief

I have absolutely NOTHING good to say about ANY of Dan L. Thrapp's books ( just read my extensive, debunking reviews of his "Victorio and the Mimbres Apaches" and "Conquest of Apacheria" right here at amazon.com and find out!). As for Eve Ball, she has done an excellent job compilling accounts from Apaches themselves, which she expended great time-consuming efforts to draw out of them - especially from Daklugie, the embittered youngest son of Juh, chief of the Nedhnis.

This book is of profound value and importance to anyone who is seriously interested in the Apache and/or in Apache/European conflict because it contains NOTHING BUT first-hand accounts provided by Apaches, as opposed to books by crank writers such as Dan L. Thrapp (who routinely camouflaged his own tastes, likes, and dislikes within his rambling writings on historic facts and incidents).

Understand that while I do not adore the Apaches (in the twisted, Politically Correct sense of today) and that I also do not venerate any of their leaders or warriors of frontier times, I do respect them and have an intense interest in their own perspectives on making the change from the life way of "Wild" Indians to civilized citizens of an industrial and technological superpower. And after reading this book of Eve Ball's, I am very pleased about having purchased it.

Within these pages you will recieve "insider information" on the Apache religion, their social mores, their views of non-Apaches, the logic their leaders employed when trying to make sense of what took place during the European invasion of their territories, and much more.

Most importantly, you will find yourself given intimate information on many of the leaders, on their personalities, their capabilities, their alliances and so forth.

If you read this book and then read anything by Dan L. Thrapp or other cranks who write about the Apache, you'll soon realize what these other so-called "authors" are capable of in terms of distortion of historic fact and also in terms of injecting their own biases, likes, dislikes, and fantasies into historic accounts in order to stear their readers to an opinion on people and events that is desired by these disgusting information manipulators.

Another aspect I really liked about this book is the way the personalities of the various Apaches whom Eve Ball interviewed came through. You can see by their words who still had intensely negative feelings about civilization and who was more accepting. But best of all, there is the correction of details connected to what really did happen during the many Apache wars and their confinement on reservations before being shipped east. These corrections are worth ten times the price of this book alone because they offer sensible and accurate evaluations of various occurances between Apaches and Europeans, and occurances surrounding various prominant Apache leaders and warriors. Much distortion concerning Geronimo, his leadership qualities (always called into question by the crank, Dan L. Thrapp!), his personal life, his views and strategies, his religious observances, his "Powers", and his later years in the east are all set right by never-before-heard intimate details provided by Indians who were with him on the warpath and on the reservations. After reading this book, Geronimo becomes a very interesting, highly astute and intelligent, multi-dimensional personality. A far cry from his popular image of either a one-track-minded, blood thirsty savage or the more recent (and equally inacurate)Politically Correct version which holds him as some sort of poor, persecuted, helpless soul constantly hounded across the Southwestern mountains and plains. The Apache statements concerning Geronimo alone, blow ALL of the drivel spewed out by Dan L. Thrapp right out of the water in terms of credibility.

Actually, I can't say enough about this book in the positive sense. I'm glad Eve Ball produced it. She did both the Apaches and we Whites a great service in giving us a document that really does allow us to understand one aspect of Frontier history accurately. Equally, it serves as a means to FINALLY discredit the blathering swamp of details which comprise fanciful, distorted, and biased works by the likes of Dan L. Thrapp!

If you want great reading on the Apaches and on their role in frontier history, read "Indeh, An Apache Odyssey". Its superb! The bottom line is, "go to the source" and who better to explain aspects of the Apaches than the Apaches themselves?!

This book depicts the best from collections of early Native American Pueblo silverwork. The photographs allow the reader to identify key characteristic features of traditional Native American jewelry. The informative verbal descriptions do not insult the reader nor the makers. There are few books that portray the early Southwest jewelry as well as this one.

Excellent reference on Southwest Indian Jewelry. A good read before going in search of old or modern day Native American jewelry teasures.

Wilford
Wilford's Trading Post
Gallup, New Mexico

This book describes the affects of Spanish, Mexican, and American settlement in Indian country on Californian tribes. The author points out differences and similarities between northern, central and southern coastal California Indians and how some tribes were affected and therefore reacted differently to new arrivals from Spain, and the east coast of the blossoming United States.

California is unique to all other areas in today's United States in that it was the last area occupied by American settlers. It was also the last place left for fleeing and exiled tribes from the east to go to. This not only caused strife for local Californian tribes, but led to integration of cross-tribal cultures. Native Americans were very unique from not only outsiders, but also to other tribes.

This book is clearly written and moves at a consistent pace because every sentence is pertinent to California's amazing history!

Sutter's treatment of and plan for Native Americans is something so-called "historians" at Sutter's Mill should learn about before they tout him as some kind of heroic frontiersman. Rape, murder, suicide, disease, corrupted politics, vigilantism, paradoxical alliances between tribes and "White" men... and much more are all in here! I couldn't put this book down! Though it is a history book (of sorts), it reads like a dramatic murder-mystery book... only difference is is that this is non-fiction!! I never knew California's history was so unique and full of intrigue! You'll never think of California as the surfer-dude, Hollywood, sunny golden state again after reading this book...

I bought this book for a California History class, but I ended up reading it for pleasure as well. It's an amazing look at the history of this state and the unique Indians that inhabited the area as the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans began to settle it.

It's very easy to read and goes by quickly. It helps that the stories used as examples are very interesting and provide a lot of insight into why certain things are the way they are now in California. The book also paints a vivid and disturbing picture of Sutter and how his often despicable actions affected the Indians.

The main thesis of this work is that the story of Indians in California should not be told as a story of destruction and death (though that of course occurred), but rather as a story of adaptation and the will to survive. In fact, in many cases, their own attempts at survival led to their downfall (such as their entry into the new labor force separating families and leading to decreased reproduction rates). The rape and abuse of women by outside settlers is also discussed.

This is definitely a great read for anyone interested in California and its history, or the history of Indians. I would recommend it, for a class or just for your own enjoyment.

Item being reviewed


The Journey and Ordeal of Cabeza de Vaca: His Account of the Disastrous First European Exploration of the American Southwest

Good, fast service! Book exactly as stated by seller. Thank you.

This report of the 1528 to 1536 "journey" of Cabeza de Vaca is in his own words and that is really what makes this book so interesting, even to this day. The expedition was doomed by greed and stupid decisions from the start and then we follow the story of de Vaca as he survives for 8 years without even the clothes on his back as he travels 6000 miles through unknown geography before returning to "civilization". And although this story itself is interesting enough, it is to my mind most fascinating because it is a first hand account from that time. You can read about his changing attitudes towards the "Indians" who help him survive, yet enslave him. Ironically there is a slave among his small band of survivors. His attitude towards the Indians changes with time and when he is found by a group of Spanish Conquistadors he is digusted by how these treat the Indians that helped him. Yet de Vaca never seems to really consider that these savages are really as human as "Christians". He's constantly referring to himself and other members of his group as "Christians" although religious distinctions are hardly what he's referring to by this.

It is not just an interesting adventure story, it is also a look inside the mind of that age - something to make you wonder how 500 years from now others will read our memoirs and marvel at our superstitions and misinformed judgements.

The translation is easy to read and contains enough parenthetical additions that allow you to easily follow the journey on the modern map that is included.

Enjoy a "real" story for a change.

This is a classic piece of history, meticulously researched from available records. It is of particular importance and significance to those, like myself, who are researching family history of those ancestors who lived in this area of the Virginia frontier during the years 1740-1780.

With its vast territorial rights and claims, Virginia at one time had the most extensive frontier of any of the original thirteen states and colonies. Moreover, Virginia served as a gateway for the various migrations to the west, northwest, and southwest by early colonists, including the intrepid Scotch-Irish. By far the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the advance of the Virginia frontier in colonial times is Kegley's Virginia Frontier--a mammoth work detailing the social, religious, and family life in Southwest Virginia from 1730 to 1790.

The importance of this extraordinary work to genealogists cannot be overstated. Kegley culled through a multitude of original records to ensure that his work would be the most reliable sourcebook available on this subject. To help the reader understand the migration into this new area, Kegley focuses particularly on the settlers themselves. He identifies each newcomer with his place of settlement, and then examines the pioneer's experiences and subsequent movements, using nearly three dozen maps to show more definitively the location of settlements and important homesteads. More than sixty additional illustrations further enhance and clarify the text.

The narrative is divided into five parts: Part I covers the Virginia frontier from the beginning of the colony to 1740; Part II covers the period from 1740 to 1760; Part III tells the story of the Virginia frontier in the French and Indian War; Part IV covers the closing years of the war and the settlements from 1760 to the organization of Botetourt County in 1770; and Part V details the organization and development of Botetourt County from 1770 to 1783. Throughout each of these parts--in section after section--there are biographical sketches and countless lists of land grants and deeds of conveyance identifying thousands upon thousands of settlers and their family members. This documentary history is without a doubt the premier source of information on the pioneers of the Virginia frontier.

"Henceforth [Kegley's Virginia Frontier] will be regarded and accepted as the one necessary and sufficient corner-stone in any collection of books dealing with the history of the Virginia frontier."--Samuel M. Wilson