The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 398
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
and description, as well as in interpretations, restraints, and con-
clusions. Mr. Herring is already well known for his lively, delight-
fully human style of presentation, which pleases any reader and
even allures an otherwise reluctant student. That fact and the
over-all coverage of many years and countries entitle this work to
a respected place alongside of several other general text-books in
Latin American history. The careful reader will not fail to gain a
fairly good perspective of those years and of the affairs and insti-
tutions of those countries.
That very virtue of the book, however, is, as is the case in all
such text-books, its main weakness. About as many interesting and
sometimes essential facts had to be omitted, for lack of space, as
were included. Many of the narratives are expressed in a hasty
style that will leave the reader less than clearly informed about
them. He must then choose between contentment with confusion
and the necessity of reading elsewhere for clarification and amplifi-
cation of facts. Mr. Herring has provided, for this need, a good
reading list, fourteen pages long, consisting largely of well known
works, most of them secondary sources. The quality of the book
really suffers from too many omissions,-but so does that of every
other general, one-volume coverage of Latin American history.
In form this volume leaves little to be desired. The type and the
off-white pages are easy on eyes. Topic headings are reliable. So is
the index. Thirty black-and-white maps are convenient and help-
ful. Six tables of current social and economic statistics are useful.
The omission of a table of political statistics may be regarded as
discreet. Very few lapses in proofreading appear, such as New
Spain for Peru on page 162, Mather for Rather on page 317,
1679 for 1697 on page 412, and a slight misspelling of pasteuriza-
tion on page 431.
The student of Texas history will find no harvest and few glean-
ings in this book. The whole story of Spanish Texas is left to the
reader's inference and to one item in a map on page i 51. The story
of Mexican Texas is limited to two pages, on one of which occur
two misleading statements about Santa Anna's activities in Texas.
The measured significance of the annexation of Texas by the
United States, in the ensuing approach of war between the United
States and Mexico, is well told in less than one page, except for398
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/424/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.