Although the New Mexico Territory was far distant from the main theaters of war, it was engulfed in the same violence and bloodshed as the rest of the nation. The Civil War in New Mexico was fought in the deserts and mountains of the huge territory, which was mostly wilderness, amid the continuing ancient wars against the wild Indian tribes waged by both sides. The armies were small, but the stakes were high: control of the Southwest. Retired lieutenant colonel and Civil War historian Dr. Walter Earl Pittman presents this concise history of New Mexico during the Civil War years from the Confederate invasion of 1861 to the Battles of Valverde and Glorieta to the end of the war.
“Completely honest and highly informative. To look at a legislative body is to observe democracy in the raw—with all its diverse characters and influences and its many conflicts, compromises, and achievements. Dede Feldman, a first-rate observer and chronicler, shows us the insides of the New Mexico State Senate.”—Fred Harris, former U.S. Senator and professor emeritus of political science, University of New Mexico Elected to New Mexico’s state senate in 1996, Dede Feldman faced the challenges that confront state legislators around the country along with some that are uniquely New Mexican. In this forthright account of the workings of New Mexico’s legislature, she reveals how the work of governing is actually accomplished. In New Mexico’s part-time citizen legislature, Spanish may be spoken in the halls of the capitol as often as English, and Native American issues are often pivotal. But each year the Land of Enchantment’s legislators, like those in other states, must balance revenues and expenditures, tangle with lobbyists, and struggle with redistricting and campaign finance reform. State legislatures’ approaches to air pollution, drunk driving, and chronic disease, Feldman’s book reveals, find their way into national law after they’ve been road tested on the highways of various states.
"This volume unifies the concerns of Civil War and western history, revealing how Confederate secession created new and shifting borderlands. In the West, both Civil War battlefields and Civil War politics engaged a wider range of ethnic and racial distinctions, raising questions that would arise only later in places farther east. Likewise, the histories of occupation, reincorporation, and expanded citizenship during Reconstruction in the South have ignored the connections to previous as well as subsequent efforts in the West. The stories contained in this volume complicate our understanding of the paths from slavery to freedom for white as well as non-white Americans. By placing the histories of the American West and the Civil War and Reconstruction into one sustained conversation, this volume expands the limits of both by emphasizing how struggles over land, labor, sovereignty, and citizenship shaped the U.S. nation-state in this tumultuous era. This volume highlights significant moments and common concerns of this continuous conflict, as it stretched across the continent and throughout the nineteenth century"--Provided by publisher.
The issue of money looms large in American politics. A series of Supreme Court decisions have cleared the way for corporations and rich donors to pour money into the political system. Proponents of current campaign finance laws argue that it's their right to donate money. Opponents see unlimited corporate money as a threat to democracy itself. This important volume examines the role that money plays in politics and the arguments for and against the status quo.
Former New Mexico Governor Cargo--attorney to the downtrodden as well as the rich and famous; a changer of legislative reapportionment, and at the same time creator of the first Governor's State Film Commission in the United States--presents his priceless historical memoir.
The vital history of New Mexico and Arizona during the formative years between the American Occupation and the coming of the railroad has been compressed by the author into one volume with hundreds of footnotes and many profiles that make this book of vital importance to teachers, students, and researchers. The book is broken into four parts: "General Kearny Comes to Santa Fe," "The Confederates Invade New Mexico," "Carleton's California Column," and "The Long Walk." Many famous men walk and talk through these pages, including Kearny, Doniphan, Baylor, Canby, Carleton, Sibley, and a host of others. In addition, the story of the impact of the Civil War in New Mexico on the Indians, and the tragic results, is told here in detail for the first time. Long out of print, the book is available once again with a new foreword by Marc Simmons and preface by Michael L. Keleher, William A. Keleher's son. It also includes brief biographies of Ernest L. Blumenschein and Oscar E. Berninghaus who provided the original illustrations. William A. Keleher (1886-1972) observed first hand the changing circumstances of people and places of New Mexico. Born in Lawrence, Kansas, he arrived in Albuquerque two years later, with his parents and two older brothers. The older brothers died of diphtheria within a few weeks of their arrival. As an adult, Keleher worked for more than four years as a Morse operator, and later as a reporter on New Mexico newspapers. Bidding a reluctant farewell to newspaper work, Keleher studied law at Washington & Lee University and started practicing law in 1915. He was recognized as a successful attorney, being honored by the New Mexico State Bar as one of the outstanding Attorneys of the Twentieth Century. One quickly observes from his writings, and writings about him, that he lived a fruitful and exemplary life. His knowledge and understanding of humankind is evidenced by this quote attributed to Sir Thomas Browne, 1686, and printed after the title page in "Turmoil in New Mexico": "The iniquity of oblivion scattereth her poppy and deals with the memory of men without distinction to merit and perpetuity.who knows whether the best of men be known, or whether there be not more remarkable men forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of time."
Jamie Koch, lifelong Santa Fean, known by many as a major powerbroker in the state of New Mexico according to the New Mexico Business Weekly, has been an often behind-the-scenes voice for fiscal responsibility and prudent planning as well as being an unselfish public servant in New Mexico politics since 1968. In this book is a collection of his candid, recorded conversations with key people who have helped shape New Mexico over the years. It provides a unique look at New Mexico political history from 1967 to 2015 through conversations with those directly involved. Topics of these conversations include the state’s first subdivision regulation, the Open Meetings Act, the severance tax permanent fund, the Terrero Superfund cleanup, the founding of the New Mexico Mutual Casualty Company, Project SEARCH and Koch’s thirteen years as regent of the University of New Mexico. Forty-two significant individuals are interviewed including former governor Bill Richardson; United States Senator Martin Heinrich; Senior Editor of the Albuquerque Journal Kent Walz; former House Speaker Raymond Sanchez; Paul Roth, MD, chancellor, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, and dean of the School of Medicine; Chaouki Abdallah, past interim president of the University of New Mexico and past provost; former CEO of the University of New Mexico Hospital Steve McKernan, former State Superintendent of Insurance Chris Krahling; and Bill King, son of former governor Bruce King. Anyone interested in New Mexico politics and politics in general will find this book invaluable.
