Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History

This work has received extraordinary recognition, and deserves all the prizes it has won. I have only read 10% of the volume, but feel like it is the most meaningful history I have ever read. I highly recommend it.

The level of detail amassed by Horgan for this book is nothing short of incredible. Roughly half the book is dedicated to historical events; the other half covers culture, the role of religion, native living conditions, and a hundred other nuances of day-to-day living by peoples (both native and the later Spanish/American cultures) along the Rio Grande. Readers who want a VERY in-depth history of the Rio Grande can't do any better than this book. However, readers looking for a more general overview of events might want to consider other sources. I probably fell into the latter category; I found myself skipping 2-5 pages at a time because I just wasn't that interested in knowing every single detail of (for example) how the Indians dressed and meticulously prepared bits of food for a ceremony to welcome the growing season. Or details covering 5 pages of how Spanish missionaries held a typical mass in the settlements in 1650. That said, I recognize that this book is about as complete a works as could be published. I'd much rather skip over detail than have an account which isn't thorough.

This book is the best ever written on the history of the southwest along the Rio Grande. Horgan manages to capture the shared history of New Mexico, Texas and Mexico as no other historian/writer has ever done. This one will be around as long as readers want to understand history in the borderlands.

This two-volume series was my inroduction to Paul Horgan who became one of my favorite authors. It is interesting to note he and Frank Waters ('the Man who Killed the Deer') died recently just two weeks apart. They were both 92, and among the greatest authors who dealt with the Rio Grande. Mr. Hogan's dedication to detail set him apart from Willa Cather whose fame rests upon her book 'Death comes to the Archbishop,' using Lamy as her subject. She rejected the aproach of Paul Horgan who at the time was writing his own history, 'Lamy of Santa Fe.' Willa Cather was a novelist; Paul Horgan an historian, and of the two I prefer the truth. Anyone interested in the history of the Rio Grande will be delighted with Paul Horgan's two-volume introduction to it.

One of the major materpieces of American historical writing. The two volumes are a continuing delight, far better than any historical novel. Scene succeds scene, filled with movement, passion and unbelievable heroism. Won the Pulitzer and Bancroft Prizes for History, and is considered the greatest history of the Rio Grande from pre-Columbian time to mid 20th century.