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Show BOOK REVIEWS In contrast, a number of Young’s other wives expressed dissatisfaction, and twelve women abandoned Young’s polygamous household through either divorce or separation or both. Turner quotes Young’s daughter Susa Young Gates who stated that her father “could not pay equal attention” to all his wives (327). Young himself admitted “that no polygamous husband could always satisfy all of his wives,” lamenting, “Where is the man who has wives and all of them think he is doing just right to them? I do not know such a man” (181). Fourth, Turner offers enlightening insights concerning Young’s inner thoughts and anxieties. In discussing Young’s troubled psyche at the time of the Utah War, the author vividly describes his subject’s “unusual and sometimes intimate dreams. In various dreams Colonel [Albert Sidney] Johnston and his old nemesis Lieutenant Sylvester Mowery tried to kill [Young], enemies chased him into a ravine, and a California emigrant first attacked him with a bowie knife before deciding to take his own life. In yet another dream, a woman approached him privately and indicated that ‘she wished to have connection with him.’” And in a third dream, “one of the new territorial judges ordered him [Young] to relieve himself in public.” Turner concludes, “The intimate disclosures and the hints at Young’s sexuality were out-of-character for a man usually circumspect about such topics” (289). The strengths of Turner’s biography notwithstanding, it is disappointing in several respects. A complete list of Young’s fifty-five wives and fifty-seven children is conspicuously absent—a striking omission given the author’s detailed discussion of Young’s involvement with polygamy. More seriously, the author fails to discuss other aspects of Young’s family life, in particular his interactions with his children. Other than brief mention of Young’s less-than-successful efforts to groom his three oldest sons for leadership positions within the LDS church hierarchy, little more is said about his role as a father. Turner also fails to elaborate on Young’s evolving relationship with his father and brothers. This oversight is perplexing given Turner’s earlier, detailed discussion of Young’s difficult relationship with his authoritarian father as contrasted to the amicable relationships with his brothers. Even more problematic is the tone and tenor of Turner’s narrative, painting a generally negative portrait of the Mormon leader. Granted, the author acknowledges Young’s notable accomplishments, specifically his success in persuading the largest number of Mormons to accept his leadership claims in wake of Joseph Smith’s 1844 assassination and his skill in shepherding thousands of his followers to the Great Basin and subsequently settling them in some 350 scattered settlements, thereby earning him the title, “the greatest colonizer in American history” (3). But, in general, the biography focuses on the less-uplifting aspects of the Mormon leader’s behavior and actions. Turner repeatedly notes Young’s 191 |
