| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

Robert H. Jackson, editor. New Views of Borderlands History. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 1998. Pp. viii, 242. Cloth $40.00, paper $19.95.

Seventy years ago, Herbert Eugene Bolton awakened historians to the new historical perspective of "the Americas." He developed a new concept of the Spanish borderlands as a unified area of study, as opposed to taking a nationalistic perspective of history that was exclusively Spanish or Anglo-American. Now historians are being introduced to a new concept of the borderlands that is neither Anglo-American nor Spanish but as much Native American in its perspective. The "new views" of borderlands history represent a bold new "pre-contact paradigm" of the borderlands as a zone of cultural interchange between Native American society and the incoming Europeans. The new view examines the structure of frontier society on the borderlands, the demographic patterns, and economic development of the common people—Spanish settlers as well as Native Americans. 1

A collection of readings on different regions of the borderlands, this book draws on the research skills of several writers. Indeed, editor Robert H. Jackson asserts that, in many ways, the specialist contributors can provide more intensive historical review of their respective regions than a generalist could provide in a broad synthesis. The specialists, for example, are more familiar with the colonial sources for a regional history of the borderlands. They offer the advantage of cross-disciplinary methodology for the new paradigm, and they are more familiar with the latest historiographical issues in their own fields. 2

The range of topics in this book is so broad, however, that at first glance, it seems to defy a cohesive analysis. One chapter reviews population fluctuations in colonial Chihuahua, while another documents the formation of frontier indigenous communities in California and Texas. The chapters are as varied in methodology as they are in scope and geographical region. The book consists of several regional studies and a mini-book on Florida's colonial experience. Jackson has successfully coordinated several major themes from his talented writers. . . .

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