The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 397

                                
Book Reviews

Rangers is "Dedicated in honor and memory of    Captain Dan
W. Roberts . ." not a single mention is made of the book's very
obvious debt to Rangers and Sovereignty. The nearest approach
to such recognition is made in the foreword to the book in which
the author states that he is retelling tales which he, as a child,
heard from the lips of Captain Roberts, his great-uncle. That
weak credit seems scarcely, if at all, to justify the wholesale repro-
duction of Captain Roberts' published work.
The stories presented are themselves good. They furnish a vivid
portrayal of Ranger activity on the Texas frontier of the 1870's.
and there is the breath of life in each of them. That breath was
furnished by Captain Dan W. Roberts and the credit should be his.
ROBERT LEE WILLIAMSON
Robert E. Lee Junior College
A History of Latin America, from the Beginnings to the Present.
By Hubert Herring. New York (Alfred A. Knopf), 1955. PP-
xx+796+xxvi. $6.50.
Like all other general accounts of Latin American history this
book offers interesting information to the private reader, satisfac-
tion to the buyer for a library, and organized material for the
student. The story runs all the way from backgrounds of discovery
and conquest to the national assets and liabilities in Latin America
in 1954. The organization is logical enough: American, European,
and African backgrounds; the discoveries and conquests; Latin
American colonial systems and institutions; the origins, main
features, and successes of the Latin American struggles for inde-
pendence; separate and associated affairs of the twenty nations,
from the beginnings of respective national independence to the
present time; and the relations of these nations with the United
States, from the formation of the Monroe Doctrine to the present
problems of the Organization of American States. The author
allots 240 pages to backgrounds, conquests, and colonies; 50 pages
to revolutions for independence; and 490 pages to national and
international affairs thereafter. The main value of the book is in
that last and longest portion, and for that reason it will be useful
in college courses in the history of Latin American nations.
The whole book is refreshingly interesting in both narrative

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