Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fireside Chat with Marshall Trimble about Arizona, July 5, 2000
The first time I leafed through Marshall Trimble's "Arizona, A Cavalcade of History." I found it difficult to put down. Trimble's descriptive style of writing combined with the richness of Arizona's true stories of hardship and danger instills an admiration for the spirit that created legends and left a legacy that remains on Arizona horizons. One cannot view Arizona without sensing its majestic past set in a geographical masterpiece of wild beauty that takes one's breath away. Trimble captures this majesty and weaves it into a record of history from prehistoric eras to Arizona's more recent times. Trimble's epic journey begins with Arizona dinosaurs, disappearing cultures, Native American sagas, mountain men, and spirited pioneers living through turbulent times where war and peace seesawed back and forth, and on into the formation of Arizona territories and statehood with the complexities of politics and the rapid introduction of technology. Trimble tells stories of men like Henry Clay Hooker who headed to Arizona with turkey profits and changed the face of Arizona ranching with his purebred cattle and magnificent stallions, or women like Nellie Cashman who had a thirst for adventure coupled with a charitable spirit, earning her the title "Angel of the Mining Camps." Trimble's frontier stories include famous legends like Cochise and Tom Jeffords, the white man who befriended him, or the terrifying Geronimo who taunted two well-known Generals - George Crook and Nelson Miles - who built (and lost) reputations in their quest to tame him. Arizona's rugged history finds ruffians and barbarism mixed with true generosity and courageous spirits. Trimble's stories are always interesting, often causing a chuckle or a cold shiver up the back. His narrative won't "feel" like a history lesson, but rather like an invitation to curl up next to a cozy fire and listen as he shares true stories about heroism in the face of tragedy, hope laced with humor, weakness counterbalanced with strength, good versus evil, and a spirit of determinism that defied the odds. Marshall Trimble's "Arizona, A Cavalcade of History" is well worth reading. I highly recommend it and hope other readers and history buffs enjoy their fireside chat as much as I have.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly a ceremonial procession of history, July 14, 2002
The word "cavalcade" means a ceremonial procession, especially of horsemen.It takes a good storyteller to turn historical facts into a ceremonial procession, but in _Arizona: a Cavalcade of History_ , Marshall Trimble has done just that.There are 19 chapters in Trimble's book. They begin with a chapter on the paleological eras of Arizona and conclude with a chapter called "recent Arizona history," but what that means is that it focuses on events since WW II.
There are chapters on the Spanish attempts at settling and controlling Arizona, and there is a very interesting chapter on Arizona's Native Americans. However, my favorite stories are from the many chapters on the time of the Old West.
I will wager that most American history books do not include the story that Arizona almost had a seacoast. One legend has it that when engineers were surveying west of Nogales, someone pointed out that the nearest saloon was in Yuma. So the thirsty engineers made a right angle turn. This makes an interesting story, but the truth of the matter was that when James Gadsden arrived in Mexico City in 1853, he had five different offers to make to the Mexican government. The largest was a $50 million offer that would have given Arizona seacoast on the Gulf of California. However the Mexican government declined that offer because they wanted to maintain a land bridge to the Baja Peninsula. Globe, Arizona, was a mining town. The first major mine was developed there in 1873 and the town grew. In time a school was built, but unfortunately no one realized that it was near a bordello. Since the law said that a bordello could not be within 400 feet of a school, some of the citizens of Globe requested that the sheriff shut down the bordello. At the same time, another group of citizens requested that the sheriff move the school. The sheriff measured the distance between the two structures and found that the 400 foot limit extended 4 feet into the front of the bordello. To solve the problem, the sheriff told the madam to conduct her business in the back rooms of the bordello which were just outside the legal limit. In the mining town of Jerome, the miners were paid once a month. For a few days afterward, the mines were closed as the miners spent their hard-earned cash at the local saloons. Some ended up spending a night in jail and some ended up before the local magistrate, a fellow named Lewis St. James who was totally deaf and could not hear any of the testimony. "But he seemed to know most of the defendants personally and ruled accordingly. Like most judges, he had an uncanny ability to know just how much money they were carrying and to set the fines accordingly." (p. 145) These delightful stories are among the many in Trimble's cavalcade. To help out his readers, Trimble has included numerous maps and photographs of the places and people about which he writes. There is also an index and a bibliography. Marshall Trimble has truly written a ceremonial procession of history.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best ways to learn about Arizona's history, August 7, 2001
I've read several of Trimble's books on Arizona and have thoroughly enjoyed each. Trimble has two gifts that make his books special. The first is his writing style. Although I enjoy reading about Arizona history, some books can make this tedious at times. I read a chapter or two, and then I need to take a break. When reading Trimble you find yourself wrapped up in history. His lively prose and frequent use of humorous and fascinating anecdotes make the pages fly by. This book is no exception. Even those that are bored by history will probably enjoy this book. The second of Trimble's gift is his knowledge of Arizona and the southwest. His books are packed with information about the state. There is a reason that he has been named the state's Official Historian. If you want to learn about Arizona's fascinating past, this book is one of the ones that you should start with.
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