Bolton and the Spanish Borderlands

Chronicles of America #23

by Herbert Eugene Bolton

In the early years of the twentieth century, Herbert Eugene Bolton opened up a new area of study in American history: the Spanish Borderlands. His research took him to the archives of Mexico, where he found a wealth of unpublished, even unknown, material that shed new light on the early history of North America, particularly the American Southwest. The seventeen essays in this book, edited by John Francis Bannon, illustrate the importance of his contributions to American historiography and provide a solid foundation for students of Borderlands history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1921

About the author

an American historian who pioneered the study of the Spanish-American borderlands and was a prominent authority on Spanish American history. He originated what became known as the Bolton Theory of the history of the Americas which holds that it is impossible to study the history of the United States in isolation from the histories of other American nations, and wrote or co-authored 94 works. Bolton was born on a farm between Wilton and Tomah, Wisconsin in 1870 to Edwin Latham and Rosaline (Cady) Bolton. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was a brother of Theta Delta Chi, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1895. That same year he married Gertrude Janes, with whom he eventually had seven children.

Bolton studied under Frederick Jackson Turner from 1896 to 1897. Starting in 1897, Bolton was a Harrison Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and studied American history under John Bach McMaster. In 1899, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and then taught at Milwaukee State Normal School until 1900.

Reviews

[Eyani · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief overview of the various borderlands of Spanish colonization of North America.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

Ok, so this guy's work is really influential in the history of the Southwest. And not for no reason! He's the first writer in the U.S. tradition to really give the Spanish their due in the colonization of the Southwest and situate this history alongside the others. A lot of other folks jumped on this bandwagon and produced some good history. But it's really Eurocentric, and its definitely part of this whole Anglo romanticization of the Southwest. I kind of liked reading this as an adventure story, but you know, it really glorifies conquest and stuff.