Many years ago I wrote an essay entitled “Sons (and Grandsons) of Bolton” examining recent trends in borderlands historiography. The volume under review demonstrates that Mexican borderlands research is not only in a post-Boltonian, but even in a post-Weberian stage. From the editors to the contributors to the author of the foreword, many familiar names abound: De la Teja, Frank, Weber, José Cuello, Cynthia Radding, Jane Landers, Susan Deeds, Tom Sheridan et al. This excellent volume gathers together 11 explorations of how, and how well, the Spanish crown controlled its distant northern frontier in the face of a penny-pinching colonial bureaucracy, hostile indigenous peoples, and ever-increasing encroachment by foreign powers.
Far from a reiteration of the Boltonian presidio and mission paradigm, the essays reflect a new level of sophistication in exploring how social control was exercised, how it was linked to constructions of social identity, and how indigenous and European...
