Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
The book for this week, Fugitive Landscapes – the Forgotten History of the U.S. – Mexico Borderlands by Samuel Truett was a fascinating chronicle of lower Arizona and the Mexican province of Sonora. The author traced the history of this area from the earliest Jesuit missions of the 1500s, to the influx of miners, merchants and ranchers in the 1600s and 1700s, the advent of the railroads in the 1800s and the border separation of nations, cultures, and peoples during the 1900s. Isolation; lack of supplies and distance from established markets; epidemics of smallpox, typhoid, measles and yellow fever; constant attacks from Apache raiders and other native Mexican tribes; the fugitive nature of the laborers in the mines; and the on and off tensions and distrust during the 1800s in the borderlands all contributed to the roller coaster ride of boom and then desolate bust of the towns and mines in this area. The Mexican politics of the 1900s, revolution, nationalization of lands and mines in northern Mexico, and tighter border control completed the separation of cultures and nations. On the positive side, U.S. and European investors flocked to this region during the 1800s, investing millions of dollars to further enhance the mining centers of Cananea and Nacozari in Sonora, and appropriating land grants for ranches, only to see their investments crumble when the Mexican political tide turned in the early 1900s.
I agree with higbeejonathan that most Americans have long forgotten the history of this area or have no interest in it. To drive through lower Arizona today, a person would never know that Tombstone was once a very thriving center of silver mining and trade, other than just the site of Wyatt Earp and the OK Corral, and that the towns of Bisbee and Douglas were even on the map. It appears now to be mostly desert with nothing of value except a few scattered farms. Who would even guess that millions of dollars-worth of minerals came from those desolate hills! I also thoroughly agree with Alyssa Foster that the way Truett sectioned the book helped with the reading and understanding of the story. The author presented an overwhelming amount of information, as sourced from the long list of references in his bibliography, and thoroughly covered his topic by using specialized sections to cover specific topics.
The author covered many points in his book, specifically the history of the area, and the development of the mines, but most importantly the human factor: the mine workers, the farmers and ranchers, the merchants, the Chinese servants, and the investors. When he referenced a quote by someone, he made sure to mention that person’s name and his or her title. His in-depth research of all sources produced a book describing the transient historiography of this area with great attention to detail and illustrations. The sources Truett was able to amass, consolidate, and use was nothing but astounding, among which were archival collections, papers, bibliographies, corporate archives, and library documents; periodicals; corporate annual reports; government documents; published articles, dissertations, and theses. To amass such an enormous amount of historical wealth and to be able to organize that and write a finished book using page after page of documents is an immense feat considering many of these documents were found in two different countries, and written in two different languages. To me, this book is scholarly important because it focuses on unknown border relations between the United States and Mexico, and puts front and center a history of the American Southwest and frontier that not many Americans know about. Arizona history to most Americans can be summed up in one town – Tombstone. This book not only mentions Tombstone but also Bisbee and the surrounding towns on, near, or across the Mexican border, and the interconnecting history this region played in the prosperity or bust of these towns based on their proximity to railroads, the money invested, the materials mined, the labor involved, and the politics.