Robert McPherson's The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900: Expansion Through Adversity is an amazing and informative examination of how the Navajos successfully defended and expanded their territory in an era when most Native Americans lost their lands. Focusing on the northern frontier borderlands and the "aggressive defensive" used to hold on to them, largely without making war, The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900 is a revealing look at how it is possible for a people to survive even when they are outnumbered and outgunned. The scholarly, college-level text is meticulously researched and preoccupied with truly understanding what was truly happening on the Northern Navajo Frontier and why during the specified period of 40 years. A most fascinating and thought-provoking study, The Northern Navajo Frontier 1860-1900 is an impressive and welcome addition to Native American history reading lists and reference collections.

Too many times, the Old Regular Baptists have been either ridiculed outright or praised as "quaint" or "anachronistic". Such praise still condescends. The ORB's have developed a hesitancy about opening up to the outside world who do not understand their way of worship. They will not allow cameras in the church house (as a rule) and anyone who brings a recorder into a church needs to be discreet to the utmost. That is why Howard Dorgan's book is so welcome. It well- and, more importantly, respectfully written.
Before I continue, the reader should know this reviewer grew up in the Old Regular Baptist Church. My paternal grandfather, his father, and his grandfather were all ordained Old Regular Baptist preachers.
Mr. Dorgan's book reads well and helps explain some of the idiosyncracies (to the eye of the outsider) of the denomination. They do not believe in Sunday school (and there is an historic and doctrinal reason for it), they do not pass a collection plate, they do not have musical instruments in the church. But what they do have is a spirit of God moving through their service that is incomparable to any I have ever seen.
The service is simple. There is singing, an introduction from the moderator, prayer, and two or three visiting preachers preach for 20 to 45 minutes each, and a prayer to close the service. There is none of the "extraneous" items, such as a bulletin, a youth group, announcements, children's church, a nursery, etc. It is just a time for pure worship.
Mr. Dorgan explains all this and more and I believe that he has even helped many of the faithful understand some of the reasons behind what they do. He does this with readable history and the theology behind the doctrine and practices of the denomination.
This ought to be required reading for anyone who wishes to go to an Old Regular Baptist Church for a service. You will not be questioned, you will not be looked upon suspiciously. Instead, the entire congregation may make their way to you and other new faces in the church to shake your hand and welcome you. If you are looking for "the good old-fashioned way", you will have found it here.
I recommend you also take a listen to their songs. The Smithsonian has put out a CD/cassette of the music by some of the best-known singers and preachers in the denomination.

John Archer has written an amazingly interesting account of Renaissance travel literature. He uses the concept of "paracolonialism" to discuss a range of Renaissance texts, some well known, some not. The intelligence of Archer's prose and analysis make this book an welcome oasis in the increasingly arid desert that Renaissance studies has become. Old Worlds will also be of deep interest to anyone working in colonial and post-colonial theory.

We have always enjoyed all of the regional On the Road Again with Man's Best Friend guides, and bought the Southwest version last summer for a trip to Santa Fe and Taos. We had trouble choosing between the 15 inns and B&Bs in Santa Fe - they all sounded wonderful. We stayed in a lovely pueblo style inn where each day our dog was presented an afternoon treat, while we enjoyed tea and freshly baked sweets. We used the book to find out where to hike with our dog, or take her in and around town. We loved traveling through New Mexico with our dog, but wouldn't have attempted it without this terrific book!

A moving critical study on those silences that confronted women artists in the West, focusing on professional, non-professional, and traditional women artists' struggles to find voices and to cope with markets for their work. Jensen discusses several artists whose careers were shadowed or distorted by husbands, some of whom were themselves artists or collectors. She also treats extensively the history of a Native American basket maker's struggles with market forces, traditional cultural artmaking and art-using practices, discrimination, and family forces. Covering late pioneer days through the rise of Hollywood and spanning painting, photography, literature, dance, and crafts, the book surprised me with its concise and compelling portrayals of many societies and art worlds. Jensen communicates immediate and personal interpretations of the "lifeways" of silenced and near silenced women artists, as well as some who succeeded--at their great cost--in finding a voice.

This is a great book, highly recommended. Hancock and McNamee capture the essence of the strange, mirage-like Southwest, full of ghosts and forgotten dreams.

I been living in Arizona for the past twelve years and have enjoyed the countless courses that we have in our wonderful state. I seriously thought that I knew all of the best courses in my state until last Christmas when my wife bought me this informative book. Since then I've discovered numerous courses that I may not have discovered if it wasn't for this well thought out book. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in dicovering the vast resources of golf courses throughout my home state. By the way... Jimmy Shacky writes beautifully.

This is a collection of magnificent pictures by America's premiere photographer, sadly marred by the pretentious twaddle of a chronic kicker from Tucson who faults everyone in the Southwest except his own redeeming presence.

It's beautiful work by Ansel Adams, well worth whatever you pay for the book. The pretentious twaddle by Lawrence Clark Powell is typical Tucson, people who manage to find fault with everything.

First, the pictures. Photography was part of my job for years, and I have visited probably half of the places included in this book. For example, consider the picture of White House Ruin in Canyon de Chelly, taken in 1942. I've taken dozens of photos of it, and hiked every foot in the vicinity. Nothing of mine comes close to the mastery of Adams beautiful black-and-white photograph. I suspect that even if I copied his picture as precisely as possible, mine would still look dull in comparison to his artistry.

Adams' mastery of the camera and the art of making prints is such that even in black-and-white, his pictures sparkle with a luminosity that puts color to shame. In recent years newspapers have wasted a great effort on color pictures. Adams' work shows how superior the old black-and-white photos could be in comparison to modern newspaper color. Any photo editor would weep to have such quality today. More's the pity the newspapers do not emphasize quality instead of glitzy novelty.

It's more than a book about the Southwest; it's a book about how to see nature and the world around us. Adams had an eye for natural beauty. I've no doubt he could find beauty and art even in a junk yard. He knew what to include in a picture, and how much to leave out, and the precise moment when it all came together. His pictures of cacti, aspens, rocks and adobe structures will cause anyone to look again and more closely at their surroundings, to appreciate the beauty of detail in a grander setting.

Sadly, the words fall far short of the pictures. Fifty years ago, Joseph Wood Krutch wrote in praise of the Southwest, "the combination of brilliant sun and high, thin, dry air with a seemingly limitless expanse of sky and earth [that] my first reaction was delighted amusement. How far the ribbon of road beckoned ahead! How endlessly much there seemed to be of the majestically rolling expanse of bare earth dotted with sagebrush!"

Such beauty still exists in the Southwest, even today. I have often driven such roads.

In contrast, Powell is an old grouch. The only things he finds to praise are his own presence and ruined adobes. He seeks the negatives, such as Gallup, New Mexico, where "the Indian may be seen in the stages of disintegration -- drinking, fighting, staggering and falling to the sidewalk and gutter. Here is the place to read 'Laughing Boy,' LaFarge's lament for a people debauched by an alien race."

Powell ignores the fact Gallup has established one of the nation's outstanding alcohol rehabilitation programs, far superior to anything in Tucson. His ugly words are a contrast to the beauty of Adams' photographs.

It doesn't matter. Buy the book for the photographs, they are worth it. Ignore Powell's whiney complaints. You'll get a gem in terms of wonderful pictures, and for laugh's you'll see Tucsonian political correctness run amok.

I have read this book time and time again, it still teaches a lot. It is an amazing look back in time as to when Pimas' were Pimas'. Being Pima myself, A Pima Remembers is my number one book. George Webb had great dedication and meaning, reading the book tells you where it came from.

An absolutely mesmerizing account of the capture, survival and ultimately return to frontier Fredericksburg, Texas. An insiders look at Native American existence, its differing cultures, its taboos and its different forms of organization. It is not a pretty picture.

In events strikingly similar but less well-chronicled to those taking place on the Northern Plains, the 1870's witnessed the demise of the Southern Plains Indians--Apaches, Lipans, Commanches. Enter this young Henry Lehmann, an eleven-year old white taken from his frontier family by an Apache raiding party. Over the next ten years he matures from captive slave to fully "Indianized" warrior, only to ultimately (and reluctantly) reunite with his family. This amazing firsthand account details Indian life as it reached a violent climax with encroaching white settlement. A real page-turner and a must read for those interested in Plains Indians and Texas frontier history.