It's easy to forget Spain once owed a large part of the western hemisphere. This book is a good reminder of that fact. Mr. Godwin has written a a very well researched book that everyone should read at some point. Spanish influence in the West is still apparent, but largely just accepted without any real thought as to why it is like that. Great book! Kudos, Robert Godwin!

Filled with great facts and thoroughly researched this book weaves together the facts to turn an interesting tale of a wonderful topic into a must read.

A deeper history of Spanish speaking America from the time of Columbus, I found it a very interesting read but would have liked more detail in some chapters

I really enjoyed the story of the spanish in America. I thought the author did a very good job presenting the information and I would enjoy reading other works by Mr Goodwin. Many americans today forget that there were people here before us and we must honor and learn that history.

This book describes the history of Spanish-speaking North America, starting with Columbus through the end of the Spanish-American War. This is a needed perspective on the history of North America, because the history of the Spanish Empire is often overlooked, and the history of English-speaking North America is focused upon instead. This book offers new information and interesting anecdotes about the time period. However, the book could have improved in its historical analysis. There are several chapters where primary sources are simply summarized instead of offering analysis and contextualization on why we should take these sources seriously (or not). The book can also lose focus from the main story at times by instead focusing on other events from a person's life that is tangential to the history of Spanish North America. The treatment of Native Americans is also uneven, because it is important that we consider their perspectives on the Spanish Empire as well, which could be improved by including more Native American primary sources. However, it is important that this story continues to be told, especially in English, and we need to continue to learn about the history of Spain in North America and develop different perspectives than what we were taught in school.

This is an excellent overview of the Spanish colonization of the Americas with some very interesting foci on little-known incidents that had a substantial impact. Easily accessible to a lay reader and highly recommended.