The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 42, July 1938 - April, 1939 Page: 284

284 southwestern Historical Quarterly
First, Professor Wesley attempts to show that the South did
not lack resources; secondly, with inept analogies to the Dutch
and American wars of independence, that superior economic re-
sources are not essential to win independence; and thirdly, that
the low morale of the Con federacy was in large part responsible
for the collapse. Disregarding geography and chronology, a
miscellany of contradictory evidence is introduced from sources
irrespective of reliability and without criticism. Often it is quite
impossible to tell whether the author is substantiating his theory
or destroying it.
"The morale of the Confederacy," writes Professor Wesley,
"from the autumn of 1864 was steadily declining. ... At the
bIeginning of 1865 a fatalism of defeat had replaced the feeling
of confident victory."
On the basis of previous studies these dates could safely have
been moved back at least two years, but unless Professor Wesley
can demonstrate that low morale and a i'eeling of defeatism pre-
cededed military defeat and economic distress, most students will
certainly bold that these psychological factors grew out of military
disasters and economic suffering.
-AROLD S CHOEN.
Amarillo Junior C(ollege.
The History of ILower] California. By D)on Francisco Javier
Clavigero, S. J. Translated from the Italian and edited
by Sara E. Lake and A. A. Gray. (Stanford University
Press, 1938. Price $4.00.)
Notwithstanding the great interest in the early history of Cali-
fornia manifested during recent years, this work of the eminent
Jesuit historian had remained practically unknown to English
readers. Clavigero's History of Mexico attracted immediate
and wide interest and was translated shortly after its appearance
in Italian in 1780-81 into English, French, German, Spanish and
J)anish. But the Storia della California, published by his brother
in Venice in 1789, two years after the author's death, remained
unnoticed even by Spanish readers until 1852, when Juan R.
Navarro selected one of two manuscript translations for publica-
tion in Mexico. Now after more than three-quarters of a cen-
tury this great work of one of the most distinguished and scholarly