New Mexico is a land with two faces. It is a land of enchantment, legendary for its natural beauty and rich cultural heritage. But it is also a land of paradox. In America, New Mexico, Robert Leonard Reid explores deep inside New Mexico's landscape to find the real New Mexico—with all of its gifts and challenges—within. Having traveled and hiked countless miles throughout the state, Reid knows New Mexico's breathtaking landscape intimately. But he knows the human landscape as well: its artists and poets, medicine men and businessmen, preachers and politicians, Hispanics and Anglos. He knows that amid the glittering mansions of Santa Fe there are homeless shelters, that the Indians of myth and legend combat alcoholism and poverty, and that toxic waste lurks beneath a land of almost surreal beauty. America, New Mexico is a book about land, sky, and hope by a writer whose passion and inspiring prose invite us to see the promise and possibilities of reconnecting with the natural world. It is unflinching in its depiction of the adversities facing New Mexicans and indeed all Americans. But above all, it searches behind and beyond these troubling issues to find, standing staunchly against them, a quiet and unshakable confidence rooted in New Mexico's natural world. For anyone who has ever been moved by the incomparable beauty of New Mexico, for anyone concerned with the landscape in which all Americans live, America, New Mexico is an unforgettable book.

Robert Leonard Reid is the author of Mountains of the Great Blue Dream and editor of A Treasury of the Sierra Nevada. He lived for eight years in New Mexico and now resides with his wife and son in Carson City, Nevada.

"From deserts to mountains, the freedom of prairie expanses to dodging traffic on Central Boulevard in Albuquerque, Reid leaves the reader appreciating his accuracy and forthrightness. . . . Don't let this one get away. It delivers enthralling reading." —Taos News"Reading what someone has written about your home state is an experience similar to listing to an analyst describe your mental symptoms: You cringe and you snort and, occasionally, you stand amazed because the writer has hit the mark exactly right." —Albuquerque Journal