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Book Reviews 143 from 1875 to 1910, their success in disposing of counterfeiting as a maior concern in the first decade of the new century was attributed to high moral standards, good pay, and career advancement. By 1910, this success enabled the service to expand its surveillance activities to the departments of State, \Xlar, Interior, and Justice. This general interpretation has some internal problems. First, the evidence for the history of the service's personnel is thin. There is considerable 111formation on its administration, but it is not clear how the administration actually advanced the work of its men. Neither is it dear how departments which considered the Service a rival institution furthered its growth and development. Indeed, the chronicle of ups and downs recorded here obscures the central thesis of its inexorable rise. Finally, the high rate of guilty pleas by those arrested, especially with bogus bail bonders, inept prosecutors, bought witnesses, and bribed jurors, calls into question the success that can be attributed to the criminal justice system. There are several highlights in this book. One is the detailed tables (for which there is no list ot) which present some of the results of the author's research in tabular form. These include arrests of counterfeiters both by geographical area, and time period. The second highlight is the considerable information that is provided on the major players, who include Andrew Drummond, James Brooks, Elmer Washburn, Hiram C. Whitley, and William P. Wood. Three is the author's willingness to engage the service at both the micro and macro levels. The fourth highlight is the insights into the urban context of organized crime in its formative era. Clearly written and ,1ttractively produced, Illeg11lTe11dershould rank as a major study of the evolution of a federal crime-fighting organization. Louis A. Knafla Uniuersity of Calgtzry Chris Wilson. The Myth of Santa Fe: Creating t1 Modern Regional Trndition. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1997. Pp. vii + 329 and select bibliography and illustrations and appendix. Chris Wilson has written a highly detailed and engaging account of the romantic mythology that has turned Santa Fe, New Mexico, into a popular tourist destination. His arguments are firmly grounded in the local history of 144 Canadian Review of American Studies Revup canadienne d etudes amertcaines the region yet draw on important developments in the field of cultural history. In exploring public ceremonies and tourism initiatives, Wilson draws mainly on his own area of expertise-the history of architecture-to offer a powerful polemic on popular memory, the commodification of culture, and the politics of commemoration. Wilson interrogates the ways in which a variety of interest groups have attempted to construct Santa Fe's past to serve their own ends. The appropriation of historical experience is never a one-way street, he reminds us: "Not only are outside images projected onto Santa Fe, but the Museum of New Mexico and local businessmen and women have appropriated select details of Pueblo and Hispano cultures to promote tourism and foster civic identity" (3). Moreover, ethnic and cultural stereotypes are often reclaimed as "weapons of resistance to cultural domination and tourist commodification " (3). Wilson sees 1912, the year New Mexico was granted statehood, as an important turning point in the Santa Fe myth. Until 1912, a progressive spirit coupled with the desire to appear fit for entry into the American union meant that Santa Fe's boosters maintained an air of ambivalence towards their city's future saviour: the tourism industry. The campaign for statehood also saw promotional literature place more emphasis on the town's Spanish heritage, while the Mexican and Native-American elements were underplayed. But with acceptance into the American federation secured, boosters quickly cultivated "local traditions in qpposition to industrial modernization" (110). Acceptance of the tourist induEtry meant an embracing of what made Santa Fe unique-and therefore usfful in competing for tourists. By 1915, for example, a newly arrived architect issued a call to emphasize "the Indian character of New Mexico's buildings in contrast to the Spanish character of California's architecture" (137)-a strategy that was unthinkable until statehood had been secured. With this focus on tourism came the necessity of sidestepping...

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