Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kindom of New Mexico

By John L. Kessell

Book Overview

A distinguished historian paints an evenhanded picture of uneasy coexistence For more than four hundred years in New Mexico, Pueblo Indians and Spaniards have lived "together yet apart." Now the preeminent historian of that region's colonial past offers a fresh, balanced look at the origins of a precarious relationship. John L. Kessell has written the first narrative history devoted to the tumultuous seventeenth century in New Mexico. Setting aside stereotypes of a Native American Eden and the Black Legend of Spanish cruelty, he paints an evenhanded picture of a tense but interwoven coexistence. Beginning with the first permanent Spanish settlement among the Pueblos of the Rio Grande in 1598, he proposes a set of relations more complicated than previous accounts envisioned and then reinterprets the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the Spanish reconquest in the 1690s. Kessell clearly describes the Pueblo world encountered by Spanish conquistador Juan de O?ate and portrays important but lesser-known Indian partisans, all while weaving analysis and interpretation into the flow of life in seventeenth-century New Mexico. Brimming with new insights embedded in an engaging narrative, Kessell's work presents a clearer picture than ever before of events leading to the Pueblo Revolt. Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico is the definitive account of a volatile era. John L. Kessell, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of New Mexico, specializes in the American Southwest during the Spanish colonial period. He is the author of Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and California and numerous other volumes. He resides near Durango, Colorado.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806141220
• ISBN13: 9780806141220
• Release Date: April 2010
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

knowledge of situations involving the players

This book is obviously written by a person very knowledgable about the Spanish colonial times in New Mexico. It is easy to read. It shows how all of the people groups survived resource poor New Mexico.

Chronicling history through the relation of linked, lesser-known true stories

Written by John L. Kessell (Professor Emeritus of History, University of New Mexico) Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico is a narrative history of the seventeenth century of New Mexico, accurately portraying the tension between the Pueblo Indians and Spanish colonizers. Chronicling history through the relation of linked, lesser-known true stories, Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico offers its own interpretation and analysis of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, the Spanish reconquest in the 1690s, and much more. A welcome addition to Native American and New Mexico state history shelves, especially recommended for public library collections.

Pueblos, Spaniards, and the Kingdom of New Mexico

Kessel has again delivered a hard-to-put-down narrative of Spanish New Mexico that would serve as a perfect accompaniment to a college-level course on my favorite subject: New Mexico!