Bolton And The Spanish Borderlands

In the early years of the twentieth century, Herbert Eugene Bolton opened up a new area of study in American history: the Spanish Borderlands. His research took him to the archives of Mexico, where he found a wealth of unpublished, even unknown, material that shed new light on the early history of North America, particularly the American Southwest. The seventeen essays in this book, edited by John Francis Bannon, illustrate the importance of his contributions to American historiography and provide a solid foundation for students of Borderlands history.

First published in 1921, this classic monograph is the cornerstone of Spanish Borderlands historical research. Bolton argues that Anglophilic American history should give equal weight to Spain, which occupied North America longer than any other European colonial power and whose social and cultural legacy was firmly imprinted on the continent. In beautiful narrative prose, Bolton recounts the Spanish exploration and the permanent settlement of Old Florida, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and California. Albert L. Hurtado tells the fascinating story of the writing and editing of The Spanish Borderlands and places the volume in historiographical context.

This biography examines the life, works, and ideas of Herbert E. Bolton, a prominent historian of the American West, Mexico, and Latin America.

Bonded Leather binding

Renowned as the founder of Spanish borderlands studies, Herbert Eugene Bolton was the first U.S. historian to build his research on Spanish archives and other forgotten archives in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico, and Cuba. Yet before that, from 1906 to 1908, Bolton studied the Hasinai Indians of Louisiana and Texas. Russell Magnaghi has edited Bolton's previously unpublished examination of the Hasinais, a settled, agricultural American Indian tribe in East Texas and one of the two major branches of the Caddoan Indians. Bolton's ethnohistorical analysis' includes chapters on the Hasinai interaction with the Spanish and the French; their economic life and social and political organization; their housing, hardware, and handicrafts; their dress and adornment; their religious beliefs and customs; and their war customs and ceremonials.