Tucson: The Life and Times of an American City

by C.L. Sonnichsen, Donald H. Bufkin (Illustrator)

Dedicated to all those living elsewhere who would rather be in Tucson Tucson is the first comprehensive history of a unique corner of America, a city with its roots in Indian and Spanish colonial history; its skies broken by the towers of a Sunbelt metropolis. In these pages C. L. Sonnichsen, dean of southwestern historians-and a Tucsonan by adoption―chronicles with humor and affection the growth over two centuries of one of the region's most colorful communities. Today's metropolitan Tucson is a city of half a million people. Set along the Santa Cruz River in the Lower Sonoran Desert in a great basin surrounded by soaring mountain ranges, it is different in many ways from any other city in the United States. Like all other Sunbelt centers, however, it is growing by great leaps and bounds. A popular winter resort, it attracts fugitives from the frozen North. The site of the University of Arizona, it draws many with an intellectual bent. For artists the attractions of the "Old Pueblo" are all but endless. The city booms with new people, industries, shopping centers, and subdivisions. Newcomers tend to bring along their ideas, life-styles, and landscapes, including Bermuda grass and mulberry trees, and have moved Tucson closer to the familiar patterns of urban America. But tradition and geography limit their efforts, for Tucson has always been the center of a separate world, with a history, population, and character of its own. It was an oasis far from other Indian cultural centers a thousand years ago. It was a remote outpost in 1776, when the Spaniards founded a presidio there. It was not far from the edge of the world when Anglos began settling along the Santa Cruz not long before the Civil War. Even with the coming of the railroad, the airplane, and television, Tucson has remained insulated from the rest of the country by distance and by special habits of mind. Much of Tucson's charm derives from this insulation. Beyond the separateness, says the author, is a fact too often Deserts Were Not Made for People. Technological skills make survival possible for most of the population; only the long-resident Papago Indians are truly at home there. In such a difficult environment early-day white settlers had to make do with little, undergo much, and be prepared for the worst. Today their successors live in what is essentially an artificial environment, using their natural resources as if they were inexhaustible― for water Tucson depends entirely on underground sources-and continue to enjoy the genial, if sometimes superheated, climate, the casual life-style and western friendliness of the population, the Indian-Spanish-Mexican cultural and historical ambience, and the artistic and intellectual life. The problems of other great American cities are Tucson's also. Perhaps it is those very problems and the uncertainty of the future that add a special urgency to the savoring of life in this special corner of America.

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

CHARLES LELAND SONNICHSEN
Ph.D. (in English Literature, 1931) at Harvard University

Taught at University at Texas in El Paso for 41 years.

You may read more about this author at
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/on...

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so poorly written I am amazed that people recommend this. The syntax is awful. The author will jump around with dates in a haphazard manner that you completely lose any semblance of place in history. Image a 2 hour long Sarah Palin word salad, multiply that by 50, and you have this book.

Do not waste your time with this book.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Superficial and sketchy for the most part – Sonnichsen’s one saving grace is that he’s a better writer than historian. The best thing about the book might be the numerous period photographs, most from the Arizona Pioneer Historical Society’s collection.

[Lee.stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-fiction comprehensive account of the delimit of this city and Southern Arizona from the 14th century to 1980s
Does cover a lot of people and places and seems well referenced

Sort of a textbook factoid account but no real contexts or themes

Makes things a bit disjointed but packed with facts

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detailed, yet readable, history of the city. The city is even larger than when this book was written, and still growing. Sonnichsen makes a prophetic claim at the close that the desert is really not made for people. One can only wonder how this desert city will fare in the centuries ahead. A good overview of Tucson's history for those who are interested in the Southwest, cities in general, and most of all for those who live in this city. Interesting read.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

reading this as context for a course paper. Dense. Sonnichsen was a former editor of the Journal of Arizona History, but never taught in AZ, as far as I can see. Sixty pages in, he seems to cast a broad net to grab a wide range of sources. He also has a very "readable" style.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just reread this history of Tucson. Well-written. I know a lot about Tucson pre 1450 AD so it was nice to be reminded about what happened later!