Forty-Seventh Star

Forty-Seventh Star is the most complete, original, readable, and lively account of the sixty-year struggle between pro-statehood leaders and equally powerful anti-statehood forces, both in New Mexico and in Washington, D.C., that I have ever read. Equally significant is Holtby's nonpartisan treatment, without prejudice, of Nuevomexicanos, Euro-Americans, and Indian Americans and their views. In short, this is the most important book about the New Mexican struggle for statehood to appear in a generation."" - Howard R. Lamar, Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University ""This thoroughly engaging narrative exposes the heroes and scoundrels who played important roles in New Mexico's hard-fought battles on the road to statehood. Although pitted against a Goliath of national political and economic interests, New Mexico survived. This is a drama that should be read by all New Mexicans. Forty-Seventh Star is sure to become the definitive history."" - Rudolfo Anaya ""In less able hands, the story of New Mexico's final push to win statehood might well have become a stodgy recital of the political maneuverings of self-serving men with inflated egos. Instead, David V. Holtby offers a thoroughly engaging examination of key figures and major events leading to New Mexico's statehood year of 1912. This beautifully written and meticulously researched narrative provides new insights on politics in the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Southwest."" - Marc Simmons

David V. Holtby is retired as the Associate Director and Editor in Chief of University of New Mexico Press. He wrote this book while a research scholar at the Center for Regional Studies at UNM. He has published numerous articles on the social origins of the Spanish Civil War.