The American West in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography ed. by Richard W. Etulain (review)

Reviews 183 guarded by demons, and possessing great wealth. As Polk demonstrates, it was a romantic legend built upon and sustained by myths as disparate and tenacious as the Eastern sealed Paradise, Prester John, the classical Amazon myth, and even King Arthur. It was in search of such islands as these that Columbus set sail. The name “California” was applied alm ost im m ediately to the land dis­ covered by Cortez in 1533, and thenceforth explorers proceeded to find there what the myth dictated. The Isla de Mujeras on maps of the G ulf of California testified to the presence of Amazons. Polk discusses the debate that ebbed and flowed throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as to whether California (both Baja and Alta, or N ova Albion, as the British called it) was an island or a peninsula— a debate Jonathan Sw ift satirized in G u lliver’ s Travels. Whether California was an island separated from New Spain by a strait, or a peninsula separated by a sea, depended upon the political advantage each definition might give to king or privateer, but the island theory persisted for two centuries, in the face of known fact, largely ow ing to the strength of the myth. The island myth also could be fitted into another— that of the w est-east passage to China. In the island system , the Strait of California could be extend­ ed north until it connected with the mythical Strait of Avian. Sir Francis Drake hoped to find this strait, and Spaniards became convinced he had returned to England through it. Cartographers all over Europe devised and revised maps to show the several straits that myth demanded, and the book includes an abun­ dance o f these maps. The book transports us to a time when the word island carried a wealth of meaning, when the Indies, Cathay, the South Sea, Florida, and Virginia were large, exotic realms, and the jew els of Ophir were to be found in “Solom on’s Islands.” The Island o f California was originally published in the Arthur H. Clark series, “Spain in the W est.” Polk’s work is amply illustrated and includes an excellent bibliography; page headings make notes easy to locate. W hile the book focuses on Spanish exploration, it also shows how much the island myth animated all European commerce and empire-building and gave imagery to the literature o f the A ge of Discovery. ROSCOE L. BUCKLAND Western Washington U niversity The Am erican West in the Twentieth Century: A B ibliography. Edited by Richard W. Etulain, with Pat Devejian, Jon Hunner, and Jacqueline Etulain Partch. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, in cooperation with the Center for the American West, University of New M exico, 1994. 456 pages, $60.00.) This work is a major scholarly accomplishment. Easily “the most compre­ 184 Western American Literature hensive bibliography now available on the history and culture of the twentiethcentury W est,” it w ill remain a standard reference tool for a long time because o f the judicious, systematic selection and organization of more than 8,000 entries. Numbering all items consecutively, the B ibliography lists publications “through 1992,” with a few more recent ones. Its interdisciplinary approach suggests the manifold interest areas addressed, and m ethodological perspec­ tives applied, in the study of the modern trans-M ississippi West to date. Of the book’s thirteen sections, several are broken down into various subsections. The three initial sections com pile bibliographies and other reference works, as w ell as publications on general, regional, and state historiography. The follow ing ten sections focus on specific subject areas from a historical vantage point, such as society, politics, economy, environment, law, public policy, science, sports, and cultural and intellectual history. W hile social, econom ic, as w ell as cultural and intellectual history constitute the most extensive portions, even a more marginal field like the history of science, m edicine, and technology is not overlooked. The multiethnicity of the West is reflected in the social history section, which highlights “Indians” [iic], Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics. The book has an index of names that facilitates use by giving...