Perfect Crystals & Valuable Ores
Perspectives on New Mexico History
by Paul Kraemer
340 pages; 6 x 9 pb (65 photos) ISBN 978-1-936744-18-3 $19.95
Finalist, New Mexico History, New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards, 2013
Perfect Crystals and Valuable Ores: Perspectives on New Mexico History references an 1882 address by Adolph Bandelier to the Historical Society of New Mexico in which he said that unearthing the “perfect crystals and sometimes the most valuable ores” in our historical studies is “the task of the Society.” This volume contains 20 articles by Paul M. Kraemer done over a period of more than three decades of historical research and writings in which he always sought to unearth “valuable ores” even when he found many less than perfect crystals.
As these articles show, Paul Kraemer has a deep and passionate interest in New Mexico history, particularly its Spanish Colonial and Mexican periods. His love of history is mirrored by his equally deep interest in science, particularly cell biology and cancer research, the focus of his long career as a leading scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He holds doctoral degrees in both microbiology and public health and has published more than 90 scientific papers.
This Historical Society of New Mexico Publications in History continues the Society’s long-standing publication efforts, begun in 1881, along with the recent award-winning three-volume Centennial Series, Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past.
Having proven his genius as a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist, Paul Kraemer has now proven his mettle as one of New Mexico’s most accomplished historians. Not willing to simply rehash what others have thought and written, his book includes both new topics and new interpretations in essays that add fresh perspectives to our knowledge of the past. The result is a provocative book sure to be valued by all who study New Mexico history from the Spanish colonial period to the late nineteenth century. — Richard Melzer, former President, Historical Society of New Mexico
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul M. Kraemer holds doctoral degrees in both Microbiology and Public Health. Now retired, he served as a Group Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he published more than ninety papers in microbiology, cell biology, biochemistry, and genetics. In addition, he has maintained an active interest in New Mexico history. He is a former trustee of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation and a member of the Friends of the Palace of the Governors. He is also a former treasurer of the Historical Society of New Mexico. He contributed three chapters to Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past, vol. 1 and one chapter to Sunshine and Shadows in New Mexico’s Past, vol. 2.