Great River

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize for History, Great River was hailed as a literary masterpiece and enduring classic when it first appeared in 1954. It is an epic history of four civilizations--Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and Anglo-American--that people the Southwest through ten centuries. With the skill of a novelist, the veracity of a scholar, and the love of a long-time resident, Paul Horgan describes the Rio Grande, its role in human history, and the overlapping cultures that have grown up alongside it or entered into conflict over the land it traverses. Now in its fourth revised edition, Great River remains a monumental part of American historical writing.
An epic history of the American southwest.
"Extremely well written, in a style that is sometimes as eloquent as Macaulay's, sometimes precise and restrained like that of Prosper Mérimée...In short, a book of exceptional merit, among the very best of its kind."--Marcus Cunliffe, Manchester Guardian

"Extremely well written, in a style that is sometimes as eloquent as Macaulay's, sometimes precise and restrained like that of Prosper MériméeIn short, a book of exceptional merit, among the very best of its kind."--Marcus Cunliffe, Manchester Guardian

"Here is known and unknown history, emotion and color, sense and sensitivity, battles for land and the soul of man, cultures and moods, fused by a glowing pen and a scholarly mind into a cohesive and memorable whole."--Boston Sunday Herald