What do you think?
Rate this book
Southwest Center Series
Arizona: A History
Thomas E. Sheridan has spent a lifetime in Arizona, "living off it and seeking refuge from it." He knows firsthand its canyons, forests, and deserts; he has seen its cities exploding with new growth; and, like many other people, he sometimes fears for its future.
In this book, Sheridan sets forth new ideas about what a history should be. A History explores the ways in which Native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos have inhabited and exploited Arizona from the pursuit of the Naco mammoth 11,000 years ago to the financial adventurism of Charles Keating and others today. It also examines how perceptions of Arizona have changed, creating new constituencies of tourists, environmentalists, and outside business interests to challenge the dominance of ranchers, mining companies, and farmers who used to control the state. Sheridan emphasizes the crucial role of the federal government in Arizona's development throughout the book.
As Sheridan writes about the past, his eyes are on the inevitable change and compromise of the present and future. He balances the gains and losses as global forces interact more and more with local cultural and environmental factors.
In this book, Sheridan sets forth new ideas about what a history should be. A History explores the ways in which Native Americans, Hispanics, and Anglos have inhabited and exploited Arizona from the pursuit of the Naco mammoth 11,000 years ago to the financial adventurism of Charles Keating and others today. It also examines how perceptions of Arizona have changed, creating new constituencies of tourists, environmentalists, and outside business interests to challenge the dominance of ranchers, mining companies, and farmers who used to control the state. Sheridan emphasizes the crucial role of the federal government in Arizona's development throughout the book.
As Sheridan writes about the past, his eyes are on the inevitable change and compromise of the present and future. He balances the gains and losses as global forces interact more and more with local cultural and environmental factors.
434 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1995
63 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
August 8, 2012
Thomas E. Sheridan's Arizona is an excellent history of the forty-eighth state from prehistory through the present day. Despite its harsh desert climate, a wide variety of people have inhabited the area that is now Arizona over the last 10,000 years, including Native Americans, the Spanish, Mexicans and other Hispanic peoples, African Americans and, ultimately, the Anglo Americans who would annex the region and make it a part of the United States. While not dwelling on the fact, Sheridan makes it very clear that the current debate raging in Arizona over immigration from Mexico makes relatively little sense. For hundreds, if not thousands of years, a wide variety of human beings have inhabited Arizona and attempted to make it their home.
Sheridan divides the state's history into three major periods. The first, "Incorporation," describes the origins of human activity in the region and carries the story through to the end of the Indian Wars at the end of the 19th Century. The second, "Extraction," details the way in which Anglos and others attempted to exploit Arizona's natural resources like grasslands, minerals and water, in a way that often benefited large corporations and other entities that were headquartered far from the state. The third section, "Transformation," describes the development of Arizona in the 20th and early 21st centuries, as the state became part of the "Sunbelt" and began to base its economy on tourism, development, and other industries beyond mining, ranching and farming.
Through it all, Sheridan makes it clear that, though many people in Arizona see themselves and their ancestors as rugged individuals, carving a state and a society out of the desert, the state really owes its existence to the federal government as much as to anything else. The government wrested the land that would become Arizona from Mexico and then defeated the Indians in a long series of bitter engagements so that the land could be safely settled by whites. The government's military posts served as major markets for the goods produced by the first settlers. It also subsidized the railroads that enabled the state's citizens to import and export goods at a reasonable cost.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the government built a series of dams, taming Arizona rivers and providing electric power. Government expenditures during the First World War would be crucial to the state's economy and especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. During that period, the federal government collected a little over $16 million in taxes from the people of Arizona but spent well over $300 million building roads and government buildings, developing conservation projects and providing jobs and welfare to the state's people. Government spending during World War II essentially created the modern state of Arizona as the government poured millions of dollars into the state building defense plants and creating military bases.
Sheridan also analyzes many of the state's current trends and developments including the problems of water, climate change, population growth, declining educational standards and the ongoing sprawl of its two largest cities, the Phoenix metro area and Tucson. As Sheridan makes clear, there is much for the people of Arizona to worry about, particularly since the generation of forward-looking businessmen, politicians and others of the middle 20th Century have given way to a new generation of business and political leaders who, to put it charitably, do not exhibit the intelligence and the ability to plan for the future that spurred the state's earlier growth.
It's impossible to do justice to a book like this in a short review, but Sheridan has written a model state history and anyone interested in the development of Arizona, past, present and future, would be well-rewarded by reading it.
Sheridan divides the state's history into three major periods. The first, "Incorporation," describes the origins of human activity in the region and carries the story through to the end of the Indian Wars at the end of the 19th Century. The second, "Extraction," details the way in which Anglos and others attempted to exploit Arizona's natural resources like grasslands, minerals and water, in a way that often benefited large corporations and other entities that were headquartered far from the state. The third section, "Transformation," describes the development of Arizona in the 20th and early 21st centuries, as the state became part of the "Sunbelt" and began to base its economy on tourism, development, and other industries beyond mining, ranching and farming.
Through it all, Sheridan makes it clear that, though many people in Arizona see themselves and their ancestors as rugged individuals, carving a state and a society out of the desert, the state really owes its existence to the federal government as much as to anything else. The government wrested the land that would become Arizona from Mexico and then defeated the Indians in a long series of bitter engagements so that the land could be safely settled by whites. The government's military posts served as major markets for the goods produced by the first settlers. It also subsidized the railroads that enabled the state's citizens to import and export goods at a reasonable cost.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the government built a series of dams, taming Arizona rivers and providing electric power. Government expenditures during the First World War would be crucial to the state's economy and especially during the Great Depression of the 1930s. During that period, the federal government collected a little over $16 million in taxes from the people of Arizona but spent well over $300 million building roads and government buildings, developing conservation projects and providing jobs and welfare to the state's people. Government spending during World War II essentially created the modern state of Arizona as the government poured millions of dollars into the state building defense plants and creating military bases.
Sheridan also analyzes many of the state's current trends and developments including the problems of water, climate change, population growth, declining educational standards and the ongoing sprawl of its two largest cities, the Phoenix metro area and Tucson. As Sheridan makes clear, there is much for the people of Arizona to worry about, particularly since the generation of forward-looking businessmen, politicians and others of the middle 20th Century have given way to a new generation of business and political leaders who, to put it charitably, do not exhibit the intelligence and the ability to plan for the future that spurred the state's earlier growth.
It's impossible to do justice to a book like this in a short review, but Sheridan has written a model state history and anyone interested in the development of Arizona, past, present and future, would be well-rewarded by reading it.
December 18, 2018
It’s a solid book but it does get a little dry at the end but then again it’s on topics that are not at the pique of interest to me. I only have one complaint on the content and that has to do with how the author depicts the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They certainly deserve a lot of blame for the position that the Indians across the country are in but the author chooses an argument against them that I think is weak. He claims that the BIA went into the Navajo reservation and took their sheep, which they did, but the way he writes explains the action it make you feel that they did it with malice and ideas of further supremacy. He ignores that it was done to stop overgrazing, which the reservation had been devastated by. This happened in the 1930s which was the dust bowl and depression, stock reduction was happening everywhere. It did hit the Navajo hard though. You can’t argue that.
March 9, 2019
There is a lot of good stuff in here to be sure, and the author does a good job of including diverse views on a complex history.
However, some important people and events are surprisingly glossed over or even left out entirely. For example, there is no mention at all of Ira Hayes, the Pima Indian from Sacaton, Arizona who fought in the Second World War, and who helped to erect the flag over Iwo Jima, an event that was captured in that famous photo, and which also became a famous statue in Arlington, Virginia. Someone even wrote a book about it, which was adapted into a movie. I mean, Johnny Cash even sang a song about Ira's tragic demise ten years later in a small town off the 10 between Tucson and Phoenix, where you can now drive down Ira Hayes Boulevard. How is this not included in a book about Arizona history??
However, some important people and events are surprisingly glossed over or even left out entirely. For example, there is no mention at all of Ira Hayes, the Pima Indian from Sacaton, Arizona who fought in the Second World War, and who helped to erect the flag over Iwo Jima, an event that was captured in that famous photo, and which also became a famous statue in Arlington, Virginia. Someone even wrote a book about it, which was adapted into a movie. I mean, Johnny Cash even sang a song about Ira's tragic demise ten years later in a small town off the 10 between Tucson and Phoenix, where you can now drive down Ira Hayes Boulevard. How is this not included in a book about Arizona history??
Read
November 26, 2015Should be required reading for anyone residing in this state or thinking of residing in this state.
March 16, 2021
After moving to Arizona I searched for a book that would give me an overview history of the state, and I finally found what I was looking for in this book by Thomas Sheridan. It is excellent and I’ve learned a ton. At first I thought he skipped too quickly past the early history of American Indians in the Southwest, but it turned out that there was so much history to cover that he has to make lots of choices of things to skim in order to give the overview up to 2010. I will continue to read books specifically about American Indian history separately. He has a series of good bibliographic essays at the end of the book to help direct you to further reading.
The history of Arizona feels like a continual series of shocks. Genocide, forced removal, and devastation of the native peoples. Strip mining the land’s resources of lumber, animal feed, minerals. Institutional and cultural racism and segregation. Staggering corruption and criminality from politicians and banks. High levels of poverty and inequity in the 20th century. Rapid growth and rapid population turnover, with hardly a glance at the state of the environment.
It sounds like Arizona desperately needs good government that takes all the needs of the current and future population and environment into consideration. From what I’ve seen so far in my first year of living here, we don’t currently have that.
The history of Arizona feels like a continual series of shocks. Genocide, forced removal, and devastation of the native peoples. Strip mining the land’s resources of lumber, animal feed, minerals. Institutional and cultural racism and segregation. Staggering corruption and criminality from politicians and banks. High levels of poverty and inequity in the 20th century. Rapid growth and rapid population turnover, with hardly a glance at the state of the environment.
It sounds like Arizona desperately needs good government that takes all the needs of the current and future population and environment into consideration. From what I’ve seen so far in my first year of living here, we don’t currently have that.
August 19, 2025
As promised, this book offers a comprehensive history of Arizona. Sheridan pulls the trick of remaining approachable while conveying his seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of the state.
The book ranges widely through Arizona history, touching upon Native life pre-contact, the Spanish presence, farming, mining, labor issues, and the eventual shift to the tourist-focused "Grand Canyon State." Water is a constant concerns, as different factions attempt (and generally fail) to bend the state's waterways to their ends. Eventually dams are built and aquifers are tapped, at the cost of much of the state's riverine ecosystems.
Power dynamics are another focus, ranging from forcing the Navajo, Tohono O'odham and other native groups off their ancestral homelands to shipping strike mine workers via boxcar into the remote New Mexico desert. The book doesn't neglect the cruelty built into the state's colonialism and extraction. Racism, waves of deportations and unsanitary shanty towns are all part of the history Sheridan shares. But triumphs and industry are present as well.
I am not well versed in Arizona history, so many of the players are names are unfamiliar to me. But the author did a good job placing them all in this single-volume narrative, helping me to feel informed but not overwhelmed.
The book ranges widely through Arizona history, touching upon Native life pre-contact, the Spanish presence, farming, mining, labor issues, and the eventual shift to the tourist-focused "Grand Canyon State." Water is a constant concerns, as different factions attempt (and generally fail) to bend the state's waterways to their ends. Eventually dams are built and aquifers are tapped, at the cost of much of the state's riverine ecosystems.
Power dynamics are another focus, ranging from forcing the Navajo, Tohono O'odham and other native groups off their ancestral homelands to shipping strike mine workers via boxcar into the remote New Mexico desert. The book doesn't neglect the cruelty built into the state's colonialism and extraction. Racism, waves of deportations and unsanitary shanty towns are all part of the history Sheridan shares. But triumphs and industry are present as well.
I am not well versed in Arizona history, so many of the players are names are unfamiliar to me. But the author did a good job placing them all in this single-volume narrative, helping me to feel informed but not overwhelmed.
October 30, 2020
I’d give five stars for the first 2/3 of the book and one star for the last third. The book suffers from a problem I find in most history books: the historian can succinctly describe the events, trends, and defining moments of history up until about the time he or she becomes an adult. Then, they get caught up in the minutiae of events they lived through and can’t keep from interjecting their personal political preferences into everything. The last two chapters of this edition are almost unreadable - unless you want a recap of county commission meetings and failed ballot initiatives. His characterization of various political figures seems almost sad and his off hand comments on economics and environmental issues undermines the objective and scholarly tone he set while describing Arizona up until about 1970. Predictions of the future are also pretty unhelpful, as we are now living in that future and can see for ourselves what is happening.
Ok, enough of my complaint - it’s a solid history of Arizona and helpful to understand the state when visiting or working there.
Ok, enough of my complaint - it’s a solid history of Arizona and helpful to understand the state when visiting or working there.
June 6, 2017
"'I have often heard my mother say that the coming of the Americans was a Godsend for Tucson, for the Indians had killed off many of the Mexicans and the poor were being ground down by the rich. The day the troops took possession there was lots of excitement. They raised the flag on the wall and the people welcomed them with a fiesta and they were all on good terms. We felt alive after the Americans took possession and times were more profitable.'" (quoting Carmen Lucero, 66)
"'The change came with the tractors. They [the O'odham] saw the white man sitting up there on top of the tractor and doing in one day what it took them a week to do with horses. It took the heart out of them.'" (quoting a government farmer, 225)
"Ninety-three percent of the people moving into the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas between 1975 and 1980 came from outside Arizona. For every ten people who settled in Arizona each year during the early 1980s, seven moved away." (339)
"'The change came with the tractors. They [the O'odham] saw the white man sitting up there on top of the tractor and doing in one day what it took them a week to do with horses. It took the heart out of them.'" (quoting a government farmer, 225)
"Ninety-three percent of the people moving into the Phoenix and Tucson metropolitan areas between 1975 and 1980 came from outside Arizona. For every ten people who settled in Arizona each year during the early 1980s, seven moved away." (339)
October 20, 2018
This was a very easy read, even though some of the topics were difficult to stomach (especially many of the massacres that were described in the beginning). Sheridan's writing style makes HISTORY approachable and easy to read. I enjoyed this, and would suggest it for anyone interested in learning a bit more about how Arizona was formed into what it is today - a product of the forces of colliding cultures, politics, and circumstance.
May 12, 2023
Very deep — feels as though the writing and editing process included efforts at scrubbing of unconscious bias (which I am learning to appreciate). I highly recommend it to anyone interested in deepening their perspectives of indigenous people (from a non-indigenous author) and the results of colonial, post-colonial and more recent American influences in the Western US and Northern Mexico.
May 25, 2019
First half of the book was interesting although a little tedious. The second half of the book was just tedious. Definitely a lot of work went into it and it's detail is impressive but eventually the minutia became tiring.
November 10, 2017
I have read it twice. Arizona is the land of my heart.
May 2, 2018
It was a great book for a textbook, and gave me lots of avenues to jump off to learn more.
February 11, 2019
A comprehensive study of Arizona's history in fine narrative voice. Illuminates the wild, wild west in entertaining fashion.
January 6, 2022
Comprehensive ... though to a newcomer, it would have been very helpful if there were more maps. It was difficult to know where specific places were.
February 18, 2025
Very solid introduction to Arizona history
February 17, 2021
A readable, comprehensive, and even-handed history. Loses one star because it desperately needs more maps, and would benefit from more illustrations.
May 14, 2020
It's been a while since I've read a book purely focused on history, and this one was an excellent way to return to the genre. Thoroughly researched, expansive without being excessively detailed, and written in an engaging and compelling style, this book gave me a deep and broad awareness of the complex history and myriad issues that have shaped Arizona into the place it is today. I particularly appreciated how Sheridan describes the various boom-and-bust cycles that have transformed Arizona for centuries, and how they are ultimately tied to human populations exceeding the constraints of the natural landscape and climate. I felt both a sense of enlightenment and foreboding as I read through the final chapters– seeing history about to repeat itself as the cycle of pre-Colombian droughts and population shrinkages more than a thousand years ago seems underway in the unsustainable use of water by the sprawling Phoenix and Tucson metro areas. For however long I live in Arizona, and if and when I eventually move away, I will bear in mind what I see as an implicit lesson of Sheridan's book: either live in harmony with the full diverse array of your neighbors and in balance with nature, or face an eventual catastrophic collapse of the ability to survive in the desert. As an environmental movement that Sheridan quotes said, "Nature always bats last."
July 10, 2015
I was assigned to read this book for my Arizona history class; so I didn't pick this book up voluntarily. One of the earlier comments made was that this book read like a novel. A really, really, dry novel. Gosh, my lips are chapped from just thinking about it.
The writing style presented content that in some places, was easy to understand and absorb, but in others, the info just flew over my noggin. In some parts, I had to keep re-reading to understand what I just read! But aside from that, the actual information was interesting when I wasn't falling asleep.
Compared to high school textbooks, Sheridan's Arizona: A History is a much more mature read. As a student, I found it really helpful to write small notes on each page. Events and their dates, important people, or just small blurbs that summarize whatever I just read on that page. It was tedious at times yes, but I wouldn't have gotten through the book without this! Plus, highlighting. Lots and lots of highlighting. Make that book glow, sucka.
The writing style presented content that in some places, was easy to understand and absorb, but in others, the info just flew over my noggin. In some parts, I had to keep re-reading to understand what I just read! But aside from that, the actual information was interesting when I wasn't falling asleep.
Compared to high school textbooks, Sheridan's Arizona: A History is a much more mature read. As a student, I found it really helpful to write small notes on each page. Events and their dates, important people, or just small blurbs that summarize whatever I just read on that page. It was tedious at times yes, but I wouldn't have gotten through the book without this! Plus, highlighting. Lots and lots of highlighting. Make that book glow, sucka.
September 7, 2012
This is a good, well researched history of the state. It took me awhile because I read this on my lunch breaks. Some books can be hard to follow in small chunks, but I didn't have a problem with this book. I was able to read half a chapter one day and the easily resume a day or two later. The author is a research anthropologist and that was clear in the writing style and an emphasis on the story behind the facts. His personal opinions on some things are clear, but usually limited to a statement or two at the end of a section. The book does not have any citations or foot/end-notes which I found a little disconcerting. There is a 'bibliographic essays' section at the end. I would have liked to see a few more maps.
November 12, 2013
This book received rave reviews on Amazon.com. Per my earlier comments, I found the book difficult to get through as it contains a lot of geographical references but not readable map to put the locations in any kind of context. It may have been written as an in-state history text book with the author assuming that his readers knew the places he was talking about. There were quite a few native American tribe names in the early chapters with no pronounciations provided by the author. The author seems to include all the important names, dates, and events, he never provided a compelling narrative or interesting cast of characters. This is the type of history book that makes kids hate history.
May 4, 2013
Fabulous. A truly comprehensive look at the state of Arizona, starting with the land before Europeans came, and moving through the ages. Touching on changes to industry, landscape. Always also looking how changes affected women, Native Americans, and Mexicans. If you want to understand why Arizona is what it is today -- for better or worse (and it's too often worse IMO), this will explain it.
August 19, 2018
From stone spear points more than 10,000 years old to the boom and bust of the housing market in the first decade of this century, Arizona: A History explores the ways in which Native Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and Anglos have inhabited and exploited Arizona. If you like informational books about states, this is the best I have read about Arizona.
October 14, 2007
This is probably the best, most succinct history of Arizona in print.
December 20, 2007
Great history book. Sheridan is magical.
April 21, 2009
Packed full of good information, but a very dry read.
December 13, 2010
one of the better text books i've come across
July 13, 2012
Easily readable history that they didn't teach ya in the 4th grade about our mixed up beautiful state...apparently our present situation ain't all that new!
February 28, 2013
Really liked this book. It has an easy writing style making it understandable to those with no prior knowledge of the events covered.
January 2, 2016
Lots of information lots of fun-
(mild spoiler) and now I know that the town of Snowflake wasn't named for the weather in the winter....and a whole lot more.
(mild spoiler) and now I know that the town of Snowflake wasn't named for the weather in the winter....and a whole lot more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews