Synopses & Reviews
New Mexico was ceded to the United States in 1848, at the end of the war with Mexico, but not until 1912 did President William Howard Taft sign the proclamation that promoted New Mexico from territory to state. Why did New Mexicoandrsquo;s push for statehood last sixty-four years? Conventional wisdom has it that racism was solely to blame. But this fresh look at the history finds a more complex set of obstacles, tied primarily to self-serving politicians. Forty-Seventh Star, published in New Mexicoandrsquo;s centennial year, is the first book on its quest for statehood in more than forty years.
David V. Holtby closely examines the final stretch of New Mexicoandrsquo;s tortuous road to statehood, beginning in the 1890s. His deeply researched narrative juxtaposes events in Washington, D.C., and in the territory to present the repeated collisions between New Mexicans seeking to control their destiny and politicians opposing them, including Republican U.S. senators Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana and Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island. Holtby places the quest for statehood in national perspective while examining the territoryandrsquo;s political, economic, and social development. He shows how a few powerful men brewed a concoction of racism, cronyism, corruption, and partisan politics that poisoned New Mexicansandrsquo; efforts to join the Union. Drawing on extensive Spanish-language and archival sources, the author also explores the consequences that the drive to become a state had for New Mexicoandrsquo;s Euro-American, Nuevomexicano, American Indian, African American, and Asian communities.
Holtby offers a compelling story that shows why and how home rule matteredandmdash;then and nowandmdash;for New Mexicans and for all Americans.
Review
andldquo;Forty-Seventh Star is the most complete, original, readable, and lively account of the sixty-year struggle between pro-statehood leaders and equally powerful anti-statehood forces, both in New Mexico and in Washington, D.C., that I have ever read. Equally significant is Holtbyandrsquo;s nonpartisan treatment, without prejudice, of Nuevomexicanos, Euro-Americans, and Indian Americans and their views. In short, this is the most important book about the New Mexican struggle for statehood to appear in a generation.andrdquo;andmdash;Howard R. Lamar, Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University
Review
andldquo;This thoroughly engaging narrative exposes the heroes and scoundrels who played important roles in New Mexico's hard-fought battles on the road to statehood. Although pitted against a Goliath of national political and economic interests, New Mexico survived. This is a drama that should be read by all New Mexicans.
Forty-Seventh Star is sure to become the definitive history.andrdquo;andmdash;
Rudolfo AnayaReview
andldquo;In less able hands, the story of New Mexicoandrsquo;s final push to win statehood might well have become a stodgy recital of the political maneuverings of self-serving men with inflated egos. Instead, David V. Holtby offers a thoroughly engaging examination of key figures and major events leading to New Mexicoandrsquo;s statehood year of 1912. This beautifully written and meticulously researched narrative provides new insights on politics in the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Southwest.andrdquo;andmdash;
Marc SimmonsSynopsis
Forty-Seventh Star recounts in detail, and for the first time, why and how even so powerful an advocate as Theodore Roosevelt failed to secure New Mexico statehood whereas his successor Taft prevailed. In the end, the deciding factor had less to do with the merits of the case than with congressional and presidential politics.
About the Author
David V. Holtby is retired as the Associate Director and Editor in Chief of University of New Mexico Press. He wrote this book while a research scholar at the Center for Regional Studies at UNM. He has published numerous articles on the social origins of the Spanish Civil War.