With the polished style that characterizes all his works, Dr. Lawrence Clark Powell portrays Arizona in a way that will enthrall readers in any state, concluding with recognition that, like the ancient Indians and Spaniards, "We too hold the land in brief tenancy."

"O yes," said Senator Wade of Ohio, "I have heard of that country--it is just like hell."

Such was the reaction to Arizona Territory of the nineteenth-century politicians who opposed making it a state and forced it to wait for statehood almost half a century. Now an opposite idea--Arizona as paradise--attracts tourists and the retired by the thousands. Cliches about a land of cowboys and Indians have yielded to visions of swimming pools, golf courses, and desert sunsets. Author Lawrence Clark Powell probes deeper to a nobler Arizona of dramatic history and human achievement.