Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A welcome corrective to Anglocentric versions of American history, which continue to dominate the textbook market--thanks, at least in some measure, to diversity-doubting Texas. Texas, of course, is a key place in a historical geography that predates Jamestown and Plymouth Rock by a century. Spanish missionaries and conquistadors were busily colonizing what are now California and Florida well before the arrival of other European powers, and as historian Herbert Eugene Bolton noted a century ago, their presence left a deep imprint on the places they settled: "[T]he Southwest," he wrote, "is as Spanish in color and historical background as New England is Puritan, as New York is Dutch, or as New Orleans is French." In a sense, Fernndez-Armesto's (History/Univ. of Notre Dame; Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration, 2006, etc.) argument is an extension of Bolton's, though with more political fire behind it and a keen sense of the injustices perpetrated when Hispanic America came under Anglo sway. For that reason, he offers "a history of the United Statesslanted toward a Hispanic perspective," one that extends across the southern tier of the United States--embracing in particular Florida, which, the author is quick to remind us, is fast tracking to a minority-majority population in which 85 percent of people under the age of 5 speak some language other than English at home. Fernndez-Armesto makes numerous important observations, noting that Spain's New World empire grew so large in part due to competition with those other European powers, and he takes in episodes of history that are largely overlooked--e.g., the El Paso "salt war," in which Anglos and Hispanics fought for control of that critically important resource. The correctives are useful and necessary, and it is easy to imagine that this book will become required reading in ethnic-studies courses--and, with luck, in American history survey courses as well.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
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Taking on the conventional Anglo-centrism of American history, this superb survey offers a different way of looking at the nation's past. A leading scholar of the Americas at the University of Notre Dame, Fernandez-Armesto (Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration) brilliantly reveals the U.S.'s deep roots in Spanish and Hispanic culture and aspirations. With convincing arguments and deftly told stories, he shows how Spain and Hispanics have influenced American history from well before the British arrived. Likely to be controversial, Fernandez-Armesto's study makes a strong case for the 20th-century being America's " second Hispanic colonization" and argues that "the United States is-and has to be-a Latin American country." Along the way, readers will learn who the real Zorro may have been and how literary magical realism may have originated in the U.S. While not an entirely new way to look at the American past, no one has presented it better or with more zest. A first-person, opinionated, learned, wide-ranging, and delightfully written book, this is responsible revisionist history at its very best and deserves the widest possible attention. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Most high-school and college survey texts for U.S. history continue an Anglocentric approach, although recent efforts have been made to acknowledge the contribution of non-English and non-European groups to our cultural heritage. A giant swath of current U.S. territory, from California to Florida, was once part of the Spanish Empire, and subsequently much of it was part of the Mexican Republic. Fernandez-Armesto, a professor of history at Notre Dame, provides a useful and absorbing counterperspective. He utilizes a chronological approach beginning with the first Spanish explorers and conquistadors in the sixteenth century and finally analyzes the effects of the current second Hispanic colonization as our Latino population surges. He touches on various aspects of Latin American achievements and contributions to our country. His assertions that the U.S. should be and soon will be viewed as part of the broader Spanish-speaking American continents is unlikely to win broad acceptance but will certainly provoke interesting debate.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist