The Southwest: Old and New by W. Eugene Hollon (review)

Reviews 169 stubborn support of the disputed Bartlett-Cond6 line raged high at the time of his dismissal. Hine believes that Bartlett and his friends on the commission were never given the opportunity to bring their studies to an appropriate conclusion, and that faced with controversy and lack of support, their efforts were the more remarkable. Hine’s work is a significant contribution to literature on the South­ western boundary as well as that about Bartlett himself. It is concise, well documented, and contains useful bibliographical information, in addition to inclusion of the extremely important illustrations. The book is somewhat ungainly because of the dimensions of the illustrations, but this is compensated by the fact that they may be viewed without turning the book on its side to study them. The plates are misnumbered beginning with number 37 (which is actually number 48), but this is a minor mechanical difficulty which in no way detracts from the excellent quality of Hine’s work. Kenneth H ufford, Principia College The Southwest: Old and New. By W. Eugene Hollon. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968. 487 pages, $2.95.) W. Eugene Hollon’s The Southwest: Old and New, first published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961, has been newly printed as a Bison Book by the University of Nebraska Press, with a foreword by Joe B. Frantz of the Uni­ versity of Texas. To designate a particular section of the United States as the Southwest, as author Hollon points out, must of necessity be somewhat arbitrary, for concepts of what constitutes the Southwest vary widely. Mr. Hollon limits his study to the four states of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona, thus giving his work a sharp geographic focus. Still this is an ambitious undertaking, attempting to survey the history and civilization of the region from pre-Columbian times to the twentieth century. Furnished with an excellent index and highly useful annotated bibliographical notes, the book is unquestionably of distinct value to anyone interested in the manifold aspects of the Southwest. Hollon begins his study of this land of contrasts, “this paradoxical combination of youthful exuberance and age,” with a brief examination of the climate and geography, following the thesis of the late Walter Prescott Webb that climate and geography have profoundly influenced the institutions of the region. From this point on, the book generally follows a chronological 170 Western American Literature arrangement, treating in its twenty chapters such subjects as the pre-Columbian native, the Spaniards and the French, life in the Texas Republic, the impact of gold on the Southwest, the Southwest and the Civil War, the cattle industry, the industrial boom, politics, cities, and culture. The book is well organized and written in clear and unpretentious prose. Hollon chooses his details with care, offering enough to support his general ideas, but usually avoiding the tedium too often found in historical data-collecting. Furthermore, the writing is enlivened by occasional humor and wit. Of special interest is the chapter on the Southwest and the Civil War, a subject that has received little attention by historians. Other well-presented topics are Hollon’s account of the colorful camel experiment in 1856, customs and life in the Texas Republic, the early surveys for a feasible transcontinental railroad, and the history of ranching. Perhaps the least successful parts of the book occur when Hollon becomes the crusader trying to reform his region rather than remaining the historian, allowing his political leanings to detract from scholarly objectivity. These excursions appear especially in the latter portions dealing with twentiethcentury politics and education. As Professor Frantz points out in the foreword, Hollen’s “liberal” views are no secret. What is rather disturbing, regardless of the reader’s political persuasion, is Hollon’s tendency to editorialize and oversimplify. For example, he speaks of opponents of the New Deal and various liberal programs as “racial bigots,” “anti-intellectuals,” or “nouveaux riches.” On the other hand, he speaks of a “distinguished” liberal educator, and refers to a well-known liberal Texas weekly as offering the “best” critical coverage of politics as opposed to the “reactionary” metropolitan daily news­ papers. On such occasions, the balanced vocabulary of the objective scholarhistorian...