Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range

William deBuys's Enchantment and Exploitation is widely regarded as the finest bioregional history written about northern New Mexico. Centered on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, it braids ecology, land grants, acequia culture, logging, and ranching into a single complete account of how human society and a mountain range have shaped each other over centuries. First published in 1985, it quickly became a New Mexico classic and a model for environmental historians.

This is the revised and expanded edition from the University of New Mexico Press, adding a final chapter in which deBuys examines wildfire, climate change, and the transformations still unfolding across these natural systems. The cover photograph of a snow-dusted Sangre de Cristo village with cattle grazing captures the book's intimate sense of place. Endorsed by Patricia Limerick, Dan Flores, and Robert Adams, this sound copy documents a work that remains essential reading for understanding the region.