Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range, Revised and Expanded Edition

by William deBuys

Overview

First published in 1985, William deBuys's Enchantment and Exploitation has become a New Mexico classic. It offers a complete account of the relationship between society and environment in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico, a region unique in its rich combination of ecological and cultural diversity. Now, more than thirty years later, this revised and expanded edition provides a long-awaited assessment of the quality of the journey that New Mexican society has traveled in that time—and continues to travel.

In a new final chapter deBuys examines ongoing transformations in the mountains' natural systems—including, most notably, developments related to wildfires—with significant implications for both the land and the people who depend on it. As the climate absorbs the effects of an industrial society, deBuys argues, we can no longer expect the environmental future to be a reiteration of the environmental past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826353429
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	12/15/2015
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	8.90(w) x 6.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

William deBuys is the author of many books, including, most recently, The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures. He lives in northern New Mexico.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition xiii

Preface to the First Edition xv

Acknowledgments xix

Introduction Place 1

Book I Three Frontiers

1 Spirit Homes 11

2 Into the Mountains 25

3 Brothers on the Fault Line 35

4 Holding On 51

5 Lithic Parallels 67

6 Pandora's Scouts 75

7 Discord and Dollars 87

8 Discipline 103

9 The View from the Top of the Cliff 115

10 Gold in Them Hills 125

Book II Collectivity

11 Inventory 141

12 Fractions of Justice 149

13 Manitos 169

14 Washed and Worn 187

15 Bully Boys and Bureaucrats 205

16 Land and Cattle 223

17 Wilderness 245

18 Trails 265

19 The Look of the Land 281

Appendix: Land Grants in North-Central New Mexico over 600 Acres 301

Notes 305

Bibliography 329

Index 347

Editorial Reviews

"Author William deBuys provides a detailed analysis of the relationship between the natural ecosystem and human activity in northern New Mexico. His historical perspective reflects centuries of interactions between people and the physical environment."—Rosanne Boyett, Cibola Citizen

"Everything that made Enchantment and Exploitation a kind of instant classic of New Mexico history is still here. Those elements are worth revisiting and mulling three decades later."
—New Mexico Historical Review

"A classic work of regional history and cultural analysis."
—Pasatiempo

"William deBuys is a nature writer who brings clear and deep insights to his subjects. . . . [Enchantment and Exploitation] tells the long, twin, interlaced stories of the human history and the natural history of northern New Mexico through the lens of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains."
—Albuquerque Journal

From the Publisher