Book Notices John Colter: His Years in the Rockies. By BURTON HARRIS. (Lincoln: Univer-
sity of Nebraska Press, 1993. xxxvi + 180 p p . Paper, $8.95.) This edition of the biography of the legendary explorer J o h n Colter, first published in 1952, contains a fourteen-page a d d e n d u m by t h e author (1977) a n d a new introduction by David Lavender.
of t h e best preserved built environm e n t s of any m i n i n g town. Six essays trace Bisbee's history using t h e t h e m e s of u r b a n developm e n t , industrial history, social life, railroads, m i n e speculation, a n d labor problems—including t h e infamous 1917 deportation of 1,186 strikers/ Wobblies a n d their sympathizers in twenty-three cattle cars.
(Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992. xv + 145 p p . Cloth, $40.00; paper, $19.95.)
Black San Francisco: The Struggle for Racial Equality in the West, 1900-1954. By ALBERT S. BROUSSARD. (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1993. xii + 323 p p . $35.00.)
This large format book, printed o n heavy coated stock, contains m o r e than a h u n d r e d p h o t o g r a p h s that d o c u m e n t t h e b o o m y e a r s of 1880-1920 in Bisbee. This town near the Mexican b o r d e r was t h e n in its heyday as a great mining c a m p where copper was king. T h e p h o t o g r a p h s provide m o r e than an aesthetic c o m p l e m e n t to the book; they clearly show t h e evolution of o n e of the West's p r e m i e r mining towns. W h e n t h e b o o m years e n d e d Bisbee did not, like so many similar places, b e c o m e a ghost town o r like Bingham, Utah, disappear entirely; rather, it remains a lived-in town that is also a living m u s e u m offering o n e
By 1867 black San Franciscans h a d access to public transportation a n d in 1869 were granted t h e right to vote by the state of California. In 1875 they fought for desegregated schools a n d won. Yet in 1957 Willie Mays was initially d e n i e d t h e opportunity to purchase a h o m e in an exclusive San Francisco n e i g h b o r h o o d because h e was black. In exploring these a p p a r e n t contradictions Professor Broussard shows that while whites were outwardly civil to blacks in t h e city by the Golden Gate, they nevertheless d e n i e d t h e m e m p l o y m e n t opportunities a n d political power. As a result, blacks m a d e little progress in employment, housing,
Bisbee: Urban Outpost on the Frontier. Edited by CARLOS A.
SCHWANTES.