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

William deBuys's Enchantment and Exploitation is a bioregional history of 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. The cover carries endorsements from Patricia Limerick, Dan Flores and Robert Adams.