Lest We Forget: World War I and New Mexico by David V. Holtby (review)

The carnage of the "War to End All Wars," or more aptly, World War I, ended over a century ago. Unlike the Civil War sesquicentennial, which resulted in hundreds of books, the century anniversary of the United States' involvement in the first modern global conflict was rather muted. Nonetheless, quality scholarship resulted in studies on the alteration of laws, science, and medicine, as well as economic and social upheaval. And there were a small number of superb localized histories that studied the war's effects on communities. David V. Holtby's' Lest We Forget: World War I and New Mexico falls into this latter category.

Holtby presents a thoroughly researched narrative history that brings several New Mexicans to life, through the haze of a century laden by yet another world war, a depression, and various other political, social, and global conflicts. He notes, in a chapter titled "Sleepwalkers," that "the battlefield's casualties reveal ordinary New Mexicans doing extraordinary things," and then adds that "they deserve to be heard." His book succeeds in doing more than that.

New Mexico was one of the two newest states when the US went to war against Imperial Germany and its allies. Its demographics were more than a mirror of the nation. There were citizens who traced their lineage to a period before the Spanish Land Grant of 1692; yet, wide sections of the US would not have viewed them as citizens. Holtby's use of original source material explains the patriotism of, and other reasons for, Hispanic New Mexicans as well as Native Americans joining the armed forces. One only need look at the bibliography to learn of Holtby's use of the personal correspondences and governmental records of the state's participants in the war. He brings to life their experience of basic training, journey to the Western Front, and life (and death) in the trenches. This includes the fact that some of the Nuevomexicano soldiers did not read or write English and had to rely on fellow soldiers to make it through military life.

Holtby also provides insight into the role of women during the war, including the importance of their efforts in promoting the war and gaining employment. Women, it has been written, achieved a foothold in the nation's economy and political life as a result of the war, and Holtby provides evidence that this occurred in New Mexico. Yet he also shows how in a population divided by race, ethnicity, and economy, the roles and advances of each group were hardly uniform, and that Anglos socially benefited more than any other group. If there is one shortcoming in the book, and this shortcoming is minimal, it is that he does not spend enough time on how the military's unique disciplinary system or how the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 and 1918 affected the state population.

New Mexico was, and is, not New York. Its population in 1917 placed it at the bottom of the list of state populations. And its demographics, though hardly homogenous, were unique to it. Yet any scholar who seeks insight into how a global conflict affects a state population should read this book, for it contributes superbly not only to New Mexico history but also to the history of the nation.