Empires Lost and Won: The Spanish Heritage in the Southwest

by Albert Marrin

A vivid examination of the Spanish influence in the American Southwest by a Boston Globe/Horn Book Award winnerAlbert Marrin, prize-winning historian, presents the sweeping tale of the Spanish conquest of the American Southwest. Early in 1540, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado left Mexico City to claim the fabled cities that lay to the north. The cities were really Pueblo Indian villages, but by 1610, Santa Fe was firmly established as the capital of New Mexico. In the nineteenth century Texans voted for independence from Mexico, the United States declared war, and in the end Mexico lost its entire northern empire. Martin sets this powerful tale firmly in its period and place, making dramacticly clear the importance of the unfolding events.

Genres: History

216 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Albert Marrin is a historian and the author of more than twenty nonfiction books for young people. He has won various awards for his writing, including the 2005 James Madison Book Award and the 2008 National Endowment for Humanities Medal. In 2011, his book Flesh and Blood So Cheap was a National Book Award Finalist. Marrin is the Chairman of the History Department at New York's Yeshiva University.