Dominique Laxalt was sixteen when he left the French Pyrenees for America. He became a sheepherder in the Nevada desert and nearby hills of the Sierra. Like all his fellow Basque immigrants, Dominique dreamed of someday returning to the land of his beginnings. Most Basques never made the journey back, but Dominique finally did return for a visit with family and friends. Sweet Promised Land is the story of that trip, told by his son Robert, who accompanied him to the pastoral mountain village in France. Dominique came home victorious, the adventurer who had conquered the unknown and found his...

Provides an excellent ethnography of a French Basque agrarian and sheepherding community. The commune of Sainte-Engrace extends along a mountain valley in the southeastern corner of Soule, one of the three Basque provinces in France. Sandra Ott examines the importance of cooperation and reciprocity as the essential basis for the main institutions within this community.

In the dramatic third volume of Robert Laxalt s trilogy, Leon the eldest son of immigrant parents becomes the governor of Nevada during the 1960s. An able lawyer in his own right, he is a neophyte when it comes to dealing with the political ploys of the entrenched officeholders who dominate in Nevada. Leon faces the crisis of his budding political career when he is caught between J. Edgar Hoover s FBI, bent on cleaning out the Mafia, and his own need to protect the autonomy of his native state. An unexpected ally appears when the only man rich enough to solve the governor s dilemma comes to...