The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 130

Southwestern Hisforical Quarterly

wide chasm exists between the men and women of that glamorous
day and those of the more prosaic present.
The format of the book is good, the printing excellent, and
there are very few typographical errors, the use of "spent" for
spend and the misspelling of empresario being examples. Those
interested in memoirs should be pleased with the book, I Remember,
by Mrs. John Herndon James.
CLAUDE ELLIOTT.
Southwest Texas State Teachers College.
Santa Anna y la Guerra de Texas. By Jose C. Valad6s. (Mexico:
Imprenta Mundial. 1936. Pp. 315. 3 pesos.)
This interesting work from the pen of one of Mexico's promising
young writers deserves much praise. Sr. Valad6s, by making it
possible to check the source of his quotations, has departed from
the usual procedure of Hispanic-American works. Also, the reader
is gratified to find a nine-page bibliography listing materials used
in each of the fourteen chapters of the book. Finally, an adequate
index enhances the value of the book to the student and general
reader.
Conceived originally as a military history of the war, Santa
Anna y la Guerra de Texas developed into an interpretation of the
social and economic conditions from which resulted the events of
the period. Not only the fighting, but the background and after-
math of this historically important struggle are given searching
and fair treatment. The author is to be commended upon his clear
insight and analysis. The story of the Anglo-American settlement
of the department of Texas is well told in a survey of the period
from 1821 to 1835. No estimate of Austin is given, but the political
principles and methods of Sam Houston and President Jackson
are scored.
The political and economic situation in Mexico during the period
of the Texas war was marked with restlessness, turbulence, and
uncertainty. By 1835, conditions had become so chaotic and de-
plorable that Santa Anna was the inevitable product. His career
from 1810 to 1835 is given more charitable treatment than in any
other modern biography dealing with him. Valad6s summarily dis-
misses the idea, expressed by many writers, that Santa Anna had

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