Conflict and Commerce on the Rio Grande: Laredo, 1755-1955 (review)

2010Book Reviews411 die uncontrollable tendencies offrontier citizens and also exploiting borderlands unrest toward its own objectives. We should be thankful forJ.C.A. Stagg's adroit analysis of the Madison administration's inner workings, even while we continue to grapple with the imperial character of the early American republic. TL· University of Texas at ArlingtonDavid E. Narrett Conflict and Commerce on tL· Rio Grande: Laredo, 1755—1955. ByJohn A. AdamsJr. (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008. Pp. 286. Preface, acknowledgments , illustrations, appendix, bibliography, index. ISBN 160344042g. $29.95, cloth.) In the historical literature of the borderlands, trade and commerce have often received less attention than cultural issues such as religion, identity issues of race, class, and gender, and die political negotiations and armed conflicts between Native Americans and Europeans. Yet it was the pursuit of wealth through trade and commerce that served as the underpinning of the borderlands from the arrival of the first conquistadors. In his book Conflict and Commerce on tL· Rio Grande: Laredo, 1755-1955, John AdamsJr. seeks to correct this imbalance by bringing commerce and trade to the forefront ofborderlands history, arguing that business transactions were often the driving force behind the establishment of early colonial setdements such as Laredo and therefore deserve closer examination. From its founding in 1755 by don Tomás Sánchez, a catde baron working under the auspice of the Spanish crown, to the Great Rio Grande flood of 1 954, Adams offers a rich and detailed history of Laredo. Along die way, he touches on all the major events, including Mexican Independence, the Mexican Revolution, and the Great Depression, demonstrating how Laredo's location on the border made it a community subject to the twists and turns of two national histories. Although the subject is Laredo, Adams also discusses the larger geopolitical picture and Laredo's place within this larger context. The political intrigues that would erupt between and within the royal courts of Spain, France, and England and the constantjockeying for territory and resources form the backdrop to this story. But like many historians today, Adams points out that influence did not always trickle from the top down. Indeed, settlements like Laredo formed the backbone of these empires, and continue to function as important conduits of economic and cultural exchanges centuries later. Adams presents exhaustive detail regarding this process, punctuating his narrative with the stories of entrepreneurial individuals who made their mark on the city as well as the natural and man-made calamities that disrupted Laredo's business environment. There is nothing groundbreaking in the author's thesis or in his theoretical approach to this chronicle. And while the years 1755 and 1 955 provide nice bookends for the narrative, Adams doesn't provide a compelling reason for why he ends his account in 1955 other than for the sake of symmetry. Nevertheless,John A. AdamsJr. has made a valuable contribution to the fields of Texas history, bor- 412Southwestern Historical QuarterlyJanuary derlands history, and business history. Well researched and written in clear, jargon -free prose, Conflict and Commerce on tL· Rio Grande: Laredo, 1755—1955 should finds its way into the hands of historians of this region. University ofTexas at ElPasoDaniel Melendrez War ofa Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and tL· U.S.-Mexican War. By Brian DeLay. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008. Pp. 496. Illustrations, maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 97803001 19329, $35.00 cloth.) This remarkable work fills an important gap in American historiography. DeLay cogendy argues that the numerous raids launched by Comanches, Kiowas, Lipans, and other (often Texas- or U.S.-based) independent Indians in the 1830s and 1840s paved die way for the American invasion and occupation ofmuch of northern Mexico during the war of 1846-48, contributing decisively to die Mexican defeat. DeLay differentiates a succession of stages in Comanche raiding diat he persuasively relates to important changes in political and economic conjunctures in the Comancheria. Comanche campaigns south ofthe Rio Grande became gradually larger in scale over time as Comanches built an increasingly wider network of Indian and non-Indian allies and trading partners, and gained new markets for their plunder. By the eve ofthe invasion, Indian incursions had...