The Santa Fe Trail figures, to many Americans, as the epitome of the romantic West of the nineteenth century. Opened to commerce by William Becknell in 1821, the road stretched from Franklin (later, from Independence), Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico; from there, it continued southward to Chihuahua along the old Camino Real, New Mexico's traditional economic link to Mexico's heartland. The Santa Fe Trail sparked excitement and curiosity not only because of its economic potential but also because it brought Americans into contact with a culturally “exotic” area, and literary output about the trail, which was considerable during its heyday during the 1830s and 1840s, has continued to the present. Stephen G. Hyslop, an independent scholar, now stakes his claim on the subject. Hyslop relies heavily on the literary accounts of (mostly) Anglo American travelers and skillfully weaves their diverse narratives into a graceful, flowing portrayal of the Santa Fe Trail as experienced by those who made the journey to New Mexico and beyond. This approach, of course, lends a decidedly “American” perspective to the story—made plain in the title itself, Bound for Santa Fe—and thus perpetuates the well-worn east-to-west orientation commonly found in American “frontier” history. What sets this work apart from standard fare is Hyslop's sensitive reading of the contemporary sources. Through them, he explores the Santa Fe Trail as a cultural borderlands where competing societies—Anglo, Hispanic, and Native American—negotiated, made accommodation to, or rejected new social, economic, and political relationships.