Utah Historical Quarterly Volume XLVI

UHQ 1978 - Volume 46 - no 1 - Book Reviews and Notices

Utah: A Bicentennial History. By CHARLES S. PETERSON. The States and the Nation Series. (New York and Nashville, Tenn.: W. W. Norton and Company and the American Association for State and Local History, 1977. X + 213 pp. $8.95.) The most impressive-and enduring -commemorative enterprise to emerge from the recent Bicentennial celebra­tion is the series of fifty-one historical essays (one for each of the states plus the District of Columbia) sponsored by the American Association for State and Local History and subsidized by the National Endowment for the Humani­ties. Intended for that ubiquitous crea­ture, the "general reader," the volumes are "designed to assist the American people in a serious look at the ideals they have espoused and the experiences they have undergone in the history of the nation." The authors were given a formidable charge: to fashion within 75,000 words not a conventional his­tory but "a summing up-interpretive, sensitive, thoughtful, individual, even personal-of what seems significant about each state's history." The selection of Charles S. Peterson, professor of history at Utah State Uni­versity, to write the Utah installment was a happy one. A rancher-turned-academician, Peterson has intimate knowledge of the state-its people, its landscape, its history. His expertise and experience are evident throughout a slim yet weighty book that is a concise chronicle of Utah's past as well as an excursus on the spirit, character, and heritage of its people. An outstanding example of the historian's craft, Utah ranks among the very best volumes yet published in a distinguished series. Readers already familiar with the course of Utah history will find few sur­prises in this survey of the two centuries from the Dominguez-Escalante expedi­tion of 1776 to the Bicentennial of the American Revolution. The salient fea­tures of Indian society, the activities of early explorers and trappers, the Mor­mon migration and colonization, the territorial tribulations, and the state­hood movement are well known. But all will immediately recognize that this is a much bigger book in terms of its contri­bution to and place in Utah historiog­raphy than is suggested by its 200 pages. In producing the most readable and reliable survey of Utah history to date, Peterson has organized, integrated, and interpreted a vast amount of material with consummate skill. Here readers will find succinct, authoritative statements about major topics and trends in Utah history ranging from church-state rela­tions to ethnic cultures. The exposition of economic development from self-sufficient farming to commercial agri­culture and ranching on the one hand and from the mining of precious metals (silver) to the extraction of industrial resources (oil, coal, and copper) on the other, is especially well done. Moreover, this book effectively brings Utah his­torical writing into the twentieth cen­tury. It not only serves as a corrective to the pre-1896 orientation of most Utah histories but also constitutes the best available account of the statehood years; 80 Utah Historical Quarterly the final two chapters offer an incisive assessment of present-day Utah coupled with perceptive projections into the third century. But the most important contributions of the book lie in the realm of interpretation. A review such as this cannot do jus­tice to the rich interpretive texture of Peterson's historical tapestry, but it can spotlight some of the more conspicuous features. Two dominant themes form the warp and weft of the fabric. The one is environmental-the pervasive influ­ence of climate, physiography, and natural resources (mainly water) on human activity in a land of unique geologic features; the other is socio­logical- the indelible imprint made on the political, economic, social, and cul­tural life in the Mormon Zion by a fundamentally theocratic, essentially monolithic, and basically clannish peo­ple over the past 130 years. The major motif of the work is state-in- nation. Peterson consistently-and to better effect than I have seen it done before-views Utah history in the con­text of the national experience, showing Utah's contribution to the larger United States and, as is more often the case, demonstrating the impact of national affairs on Utah. Finally, a series of sub­tle, sometimes implied, long-term analy­ses give unprecedented unity and mean­ing to the mosaic that is Utah history. For example, the book makes it clear that Utah has always been a special ward of the national government and that because of federal control over such things as reclamation projects, mineral exploitation, environmental standards, and defense contracts, Washington, D. C , holds the key to the present and future prosperity of the state. It is obvious, too, that despite the annual glorification of the Days of '47, Utahns have long since abandoned most of the distinctive practices and precepts of the pioneers; from the "maverick" tradition of the early years derived from the individualistic, innovative, dissent­ing, even radical thoughts and deeds of leaders and followers alike has emerged a solid and stolid society marked by con­servatism and conformity. It is also evident that along with the seculariza­tion that undermined the attempt of "a people apart" to live in but not be of the world, it was the coming of the Gentile -and with him railroads, mining, and cultural pluralism-that both put Utah into the mainstream of American his­tory and gave definition to Mormon society; the fullest expression of Mor­monism today is the isolated, rural vil­lages, while the heart of Utah is dy­namic, progressive, prosperous Salt Lake City, the least Mormon place in Mormondom. In short, while there is a "Different World of Utah," the main­stream characteristics of the state are far more significant than its maverick qualities. The most conspicuous (and contro­versial) position of the book is that dealing with the Mormons. Featuring the dominant religious group in the state is essential to Peterson's story, for the Latter-day Saints have always com­manded center stage in the drama of Utah history. (Indeed it is the Mormon heritage that makes Utah the only con­tinental state with a truly unique his­tory.') Peterson's treatment of the Mor­mons is sensitive, judicious, perceptive, and overwhelmingly secular in orienta­tion. His is a difficult job well done, but it might have been even better. The rather matter-of-fact coverage and the reserved, even cautious, tone of chapter two stand in sharp contrast with the easy, free-wheeling, and incisively ana­lytical writing that marks the rest of the book. To my mind he does not emphasize enough-in this chapter or in others- either the awesome power of the Mor­mon church in public affairs or the in­tensity of the deep-seated suspicion, re­sentment, and antagonism that have characterized Mormon-Gentile relations. Book Reviews and Notices 81 More important, there is much informa­tion here-e.g., the detailed accounts of the 1847 migration and early missionary and colonizing ventures-that is not really part of Utah history. Treatment of Mormon history might well have been condensed in favor of an expanded dis­cussion of Mormonism-those attitudes, assumptions, perceptions, and behavior patterns that have had such a profound influence upon every aspect of life in the Beehive State. The author deserves special com­mendation on several counts. First, while writing principally for a general audi­ence assumed to have little or no prior knowledge of the subject, he adheres throughout to the highest standards of scholarship; as Utah demonstrates, aca­demic rigor and popular history are not incompatible. Second, his coverage is unusually comprehensive: the book touches upon virtually every topic and personality of significance in Utah his­tory, and if the treatment is sometimes simple (but never simplistic) or sketchy such is preferable in a book of this kind to selective coverage. Third, this is an honest, even courageous, book. Peterson discusses with candor and evenhanded-ness such emotive matters as polygamy, nativism, the Mountain Meadow Mas­sacre, Indian-white relations, Mormon-dom's "polity of matrimony," and the LDS church's denial of the priesthood to Blacks. This is, in short, first-rate his­tory scrupulously faithful to the record. The major shortcomings of the book are not attributable to the author. The questionable space limitation imposed by the sponsor has produced untoward brevity; important topics, trends, and personalities are unavoidably given short shrift. That still other subjects are treated superficially is a reflection of the state of Utah historiography. Although incorporating much of the author's own research, Utah is primarily a work of synthesis. The quality of the coverage of a given topic reflects in part the nature of extant literature, and the lacunae in Utah historiography are legion, especially in the area of social history and the statehood era. All things considered, Peterson has rendered a masterful job of synthesis and in so doing has provided a suggestive guide to needs and opportunities for future research. Nor is the author responsible for the execrable index. Dozens of important people, places, and things mentioned in the text are not indexed-e.g., Alta, Corinne, Park City, Thomas L. Kane, John M. Bernhisel, and the Deseret News. Partial indexing is even more fre­quent. For example, the index notes mention of the Salt Lake Tribune on pages 167 and 169, but not on pages 73, 9 b HI, 135, and 172; there are four descriptive references to Mercur on pages 111 and 112, but nothing for pages 110 and 113; about one-half or less of the textual references to George Q. Cannon, George Dern, William Godbe, Thomas Kearns, and Wilford Woodruff are noted. Moreover, the indexing is capricious. Institutions of higher learn­ing are not indexed by name, and there is no listing for churches, religious in­stitutions, or individual denominations. There are, however, single-reference list­ings for the Utah Civic Ballet, money, artists, divorce: high rate of, exodus: crossing the plains, and horse-riding. I mention this conspicuous deficiency be­cause many people who pick up a book of this genre turn first to the index seek­ing information about a particular per­son, locality, or subject. Someone has done an inexcusable disservice to both author and reader. A photographer's essay by Joe Mun-roe, a pictorial portfolio of fifteen photographs that emphasizes the pri­macy of the environment in Utah life, effectively complements the text. How­ever, the commonplace "American Gothic" portrait of a Hurricane farmer and the mundane snapshot of a motor- 82 Utah Historical Quarterly cyclist tearing up the shore of the Great Salt Lake do seem inappropriate; the omission of a recreational scene is in­explicable. There are always nits to pick, and readers will quarrel and quibble about various points of emphasis and inter­pretation along the way. But that is simply to say, as Carl Becker would have it, that every man is his own historian. Although others might have written a different book, none could have written a better one. Make no mistake: Utah is an extraordinary achievement, a work of synthesis as well as original research that has both popular and scholarly dimensions. For persons seeking either an introduction to Utah history or the best one-volume treatment of the sub­ject, this is the right book. LARRY R. GERLACH University of Utah The Story of the Latter-day Saints. By JAMES B. ALLEN and GLEN M. LEONARD. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976. Xi + 722 pp. $9.95.) The idea of a usable past is as old as history itself. The collective memory of the human race has always been selective. We remember what we want to remember-or sometimes what we have to remember. In either case, the present is the father of the past. To say, then, that the Mormons have been re­constructing a past of their own for more than a century is merely to state the obvious, especially since most Latter-day Saints are familiar with one of the great monuments to that tradition, Joseph Fielding Smith's Essentials in Church History. Written in 1921, when the church had barely emerged from nearly a hundred years of persecution, Essentials provided a providential frame­work for that struggle. It was the story of God's people pitted against a wicked and hostile world, a perspective from which it instructed two generations of Mormons in their past. The purpose of Essentials was to increase "faith in the gospel, to build testimony." The Story of the Latter-day Saints was commissioned in the hope of serving "the same needs that Essentials in Church History had provided for so many years." And superficially, at least, it fulfills that hope. Far superior in scholarship to Essentials^ it is neverthe­less an unabashed apologia for Mor­monism. Although its two authors were trained in secular universities, "their interpretation reflects their own orienta­tion as devout believers in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ." A careful read­ing of The Story makes it clear that these are not the kind of obligatory disclaimers of two scholarly wolves in sheep's clothing. To students familiar with the documentary record of church history it is obvious that the authors have emphasized the positive side of the achievement of Mormonism, playing down those issues that they perhaps see as having a potential for raising doubts in the hearts of the faithful or that may present Mormonism and its leaders in an unfavorable light. In my criticism of specific examples of this approach I want to make it clear, however, that I do not want to impose my own secular orientation on the authors. Neither do I wish to chide them for a lack of that overrated com­modity, objectivity. I do not mean, of course, that I encourage blatant bias. At the same time, all good history has a point of view. Indeed, if I am critical of Allen's and Leonard's approach, it is because I believe they could have developed a more clearly defined hypo­thetical perspective. This kind of con­ceptual rigor might have allowed them Book Reviews and Notices 83 to distance themselves more fully from the Essentials in Church History para­digm and develop a framework for the history of Mormonism that would have diminished the need for a defensive pos­ture. As it is, I find the book standing half-way between the old world of Es­sentials and that potentially modern world of hypothetically guided and con­ceptually rigorous scholarship. Their discussion of the first vision is an interesting illustration of this ambiv­alence. It goes without saying that Mormonism stands or falls with this sacred event. Yet, because of its very nature, it is not amenable to historical investigation. The history of the ac­counts of the vision, however, is grist for the historian's mill. Because the church has chosen to canonize in the Pearl of Great Price an edited version of an ac­count Joseph Smith dictated to scribes in the late 1830s, even such an investi­gation is fraught with difficulties. Al­though I doubt that anyone is more con­versant with the textual and historical complexities surrounding the docu­mentation of the vision than Professor Allen, the authors allow their readers barely a glimpse into that fascinating subject. In all fairness, however, they have provided readers familiar with the difficulties an opportunity to read be­tween the lines as they reconstruct Joseph's story with "direct quotations . . . from various accounts" rather than utilizing the official "standard account" as the authors diplomatically put it. If the authors' cautious treatment of this sensitive topic is understandable, their gloves-on approach to the charac­ter of Joseph Smith seems less justifiable. I find it very curious that to this day Mormons have accepted the fallacious logic of their enemies-such as Philastus Ilurlbut's, who thought he could dis­prove Mormonism by making the proph­et appear as a scoundrel-by invest­ing a great deal of time and energy to prove that Joseph and his family were of sound character. It is all very well for us to learn that the Smiths had a solid New England heritage, but this does not tell us very much about the truth or falsehood of Mormonism. Allen and Leonard, to be sure, purport to engage in a candid discussion of Joseph's autobiographical admissions concerning his own frailties. Yet, they base their ac­count on the official, expurgated version published in B. H. Roberts's edition of the History of the Church and the Pearl of Great Price, rather than on the original but potentially more controver­sial version in the church archives. In­deed, it is rather surprising and discon­certing that in all too many instances the authors seem to have relied on second­ary accounts rather than on the pri­mary documents housed in the very building where they work. Other sensitive issues on which the authors are less than candid-although they do not pretend to be anything else -are the relationship between Mor­monism and Freemasonry, the Moun­tain Meadow Massacre, and the "Negro question." The treatment of the latter is particularly bland and is implicitly dis­missed as one of a number of "passing questions" of the 1960s and 1970s. Do the authors know something here the rest of us do not? Although one of the stated reasons for the publication of the Story was the acquisition of "much new material . . . by the Church Archives dealing with the events of Church history," in some sensitive areas Mormon scholars are already burdened with more facts than they find advisable to handle. For this reason I am inclined to disagree with those historians who regard the current publication program of the historical department as premature and who would much prefer to see a scholarly edition of the papers of Joseph Smith and his successors conducted along the same principles of critical scholarship that distinguishes the monumental edi- 84 Utah Historical Quarterly tions of the Jefferson Papers, the Adams Papers, and those of a half-dozen other distinguished Americans. It would merely increase the tension between un­comfortable facts and the need to ex­plain them. And yet, what may be a tough nut to crack for Utah Mormons may be less of a problem for those in Tokyo or Rio or Munich, for the simple reason that many of the church's historical dilemmas are a result of its stormy rela­tionship with the United States and American culture. As a world religion, Mormonism could afford to be much less defensive about that relationship. Although the authors pay lip service to the idea that Mormonism was an anti-pluralistic religion in a pluralistic Ameri­can environment, they fall short of docu­menting the central fact that plural mar­riage, economic communitarianism, and the political kingdom of God established the new religion as an alternative to the presumed deficiencies of capitalistic, individualistic, competitive nineteenth-century American society. By proposing a complete reorganization of human life, of society, economics, and politics, Mormonism stood in opposition to what has been called the "denominational contract" of the Protestant churches whose goals, even as their institutions grew larger and larger, "encompassed ever narrower portions of life." That is, of course, precisely the position from which twentieth-century Mormonism has retreated, having entered into its own "denominational contract." For Allen and Leonard, who are "im­pressed with the dynamics of change within the Church," such a metamor­phosis presents no great interpretive dif­ficulties, especially since these earlier manifestations of Mormonism are im­plicitly dismissed as being unessential "to certain central religious truths." (By definition, these are those truths that have survived.) The authors clinch their point by arguing that the early Saints were motivated primarily by religious rather than political, social, and eco­nomic impulses. This interpretation of Mormonism solves a number of knotty historical problems, such as how to deal with the secular activities of Joseph Smith. In their discussion of the Kirt­land debacle, the authors observe that "some of Joseph Smith's closest associ­ates failed to separate his roles as proph­et and religious leader from his activ­ities in the temporal world." From a modern Mormon perspective perhaps they should have. As the authors tell us, "His failure in business had nothing to do with the integrity of his religious experiences. Other honest men failed, too, and so did much of the economy of western America in 1837." Such an exegesis rests on the assumption that it is possible to separate religious from economic and political motivations in early Mormonism. But what made early Mormonism so distinctive is that all its concerns were religious in the larger sense. Its world view was holistic, of one piece. Such a perspective might have stood the authors in good stead in their at­tempt to explain Mormon-Gentile con­flict. As it is, their search for an alter­native interpretation to that of Essen­tials ("the influence of the devil and his servants will be used against the King­dom of God") raises questions of logic and perspective. Take their discussion of the Missouri difficulties. They begin with an accurate description of Joseph's grand design for Zion: "The ideal, ac­cording to Joseph Smith, was to fill this city, then another one next to it, and so on as needed to 'fill up the world in these last days.' Independence, Missouri, would be the Center Place." That such plans, however peaceful their intention, would arouse the anxieties of the Gen­tiles, seems a reasonable assumption. Yet, in discussing "the feelings of the Missourians," the authors call them "misplaced," implying that the Gentiles Book Reviews and Notices 85 merely misunderstood the intentions of the Saints. In their attempt to be fair to both sides, the authors at times also chide the Saints-however gently-for failing to understand their adversaries. This approach is congenial with our modern ecumenical age of accommoda­tion and goodwill. Having been led to believe that most of our problems are problems of communication, we have been taken in by Henrietta Huxley's aphorism that "to understand all is to forgive all." As a result, the authors have reduced Mormon-Gentile conflict to a catalog of "misunderstandings." In my opinion, this is a misreading of the nature of the controversy. We have here a contest between two diametrically opposed world views and social systems. As a result, no amount of goodwill on either side could have mitigated con­flict. Indeed, it is possible to argue that "misunderstandings" helped to ease ten­sion in more than one instance. How would the Gentiles have responded had they truly understood the nature of plural marriage, of economic coopera­tion, of the political kingdom of God? A strong case can be made that nineteenth-century Mormons were persecuted pre­cisely to the degree to which they were understood, while twentieth-century Mormonism is tolerated to the degree to which it has conformed to the es­sential cultural norms of American so­ciety. That kind of message would be deeply disturbing to many Mormons who cannot yet be expected to take their history "cold," as it were. This may well be one reason why the authors have played it safe. Yet, although the book should not offend the majority of Latter-day Saints, it nevertheless has great potential for teaching them about a past somewhat different from that presented in Essentials. Perhaps the most important lesson Mormons can learn from The Story of the Latter-day Saints is that history- yes, even Mormon history-operates in space and time. Taking advantage of important recent scholarship, the au­thors show that Mormonism arose within a social, intellectual, and cultural environment. A striking example is their discussion of "Christian Primitivism," a loosely structured movement that looked to the "restoration of the ancient order of things" and that prepared many seekers-among them Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, Eliza R. Snow, and John Taylor-for the message of Joseph Smith. Another example is the Word of Wisdom. Although the authors accept Joseph Smith's inference that these di­etary rules came to him by way of revela­tion, they also inform their readers that questions regarding diet may well have been raised in the prophet's mind by contemporary American temperance movements. They effectively sum up their perspective by writing that "revela­tion, Mormons believe, usually comes in response to present needs and specific problems, and much of Joseph Smith's new revelation reflected the contem­porary search for a harmonious world view that would reconcile otherworld-liness and materialism. He thus provided answers to questions that also prompted other religious leaders and philosophers to suggest new world views." One of the most important of these was Thomas Dick, whose Philosophy of a Future State appeared in a second edition in 1830. According to Allen and Leonard, this Christian materialist "projected an eternally progressing afterlife" that had "striking parallels with the Prophet's revelations of the early 1830s on the degrees of glory and the eternal nature of the elements." They are careful, of course, to distinguish between "parallels" and "influence." Still, their candid ap­proach here is refreshing. Equally refreshing is their recognition that Mormonism evolved. No doubt some Mormon readers may be surprised and perhaps even dismayed to learn that the Word of Wisdom "had been 86 Utah Historical Quarterly stressed more firmly in some periods than others, usually during times of spiritual reform, but until President Grant's administration it was not com­pulsory for advancement in the priest­hood or entrance to the temples. Some Church leaders had urged this, and many local leaders had required it, and in the early 1930s it became a standard requirement for church advancement and temple recommends." Some readers may be even more surprised to learn that contemporary c h u r c h organization, especially that of priesthood quorums and auxiliaries, has not been what it is today from time immemorial. These are but a few of numerous in­stances in which the authors apply a his­torical approach to questions of faith and doctrine. Furthermore, they are not above pointing to occasional mistakes and blunders, such as the enthusiasm of some mission presidents in the 1960s "for making records" and encouraging "young missionaries to baptize people before they were truly converted" or the razing of historic church structures for the sake of efficiency and "progress." Given the immensity of the topic this is a rather short book. Yet, it is sur­prising how much information the authors have managed to cram into 638 pages of copiously (but sometimes less than attractively) illustrated text. For readers of a scholarly bent a bibliog­raphy of largely secondary works com­prising sixty-two pages opens up a realm of Mormon studies only hinted at in the text. To me this impressive scholarly tool alone is worth the price of admission. It also suggests that if the authors have avoided discussion of certain controver­sial subjects, it is not from ignorance but from choice. In spite of my reservations, I wish to emphasize that given the dilemma imposed upon the authors by the nature of their assignment, their achievement deserves more than just faint praise. Although committed Latter-day Saints, they were foredoomed to earn the dis­approval of the Mormon antiintellec-tuals, while as professional historians they could not possibly hope for the un­qualified approval of their academic peers. The Story of the Latter-day Saints, of course, is not addressed to either group. It should be gratifying to the authors that their work has already become a best-seller among Mormons, indicating that it is filling a real need, thus making it unnecessary for me to admonish readers to go out and buy the book. KLAUS J. HANSEN Queen's University Kingston, Ontario Woods Cross: Patterns and Profiles of a Ci and GEORGIA WEBER. (Woods Cross, Ut. Paper, $5.00.) Woods Cross is one of several histories of Davis County communities produced for the American Bicentennial com­memoration, reflecting an increased his­torical interest on the part of local writers and residents, as well as the con­viction of town councils that a com­munity history would be a meaningful contribution to the Bicentennial obser­vance. Other Davis County Bicentennial ty. By ARLENE H. EAKLE, ADELIA BAIRD, Woods Cross City Council, 1976. 60 pp. efforts are Leslie T. Foy's The City Bountiful, Mary Ellen Smoot's and Marilyn Sheriff's The City In-Between (Centerville), Margaret Steed Hess's My Farmington, and Carol I. Collett's Kays-ville, Our Town. These works largely follow the traditional format of local histories: a narrative and/or topical sec­tions dealing with the community past, many old pictures, and a long biographi- Book Reviews and Notices 87 cal section. A second volume of Woods Cross history, to be published in 1978, will possibly be more along these tradi­tional lines. The present volume is very different from the typical local history. More a magazine than a book, it was produced as a sort of community awareness proj­ect, designed to appeal principally to the current residents of Woods Cross and to develop in them a sense of be­longing, since many are newcomers. A very creative attempt has been made to attract the attention of all residents, not just old-timers proud of pioneer an­cestors' contributions to the town, by designing each page of this history as a separate unit built around events and people connected with a particular street in the community. In most cases half of each page is taken up by a current diagram of the street showing heads of households. The rest of the page is filled with photos and documents but mainly with a short sketch, frequently anecdotal, of some aspect of the community's past or pres­ent. Old-time themes include the legend regarding how Woods Cross was named, the reason the community layout differs from the typical Mormon village pat­tern, water problems of all sorts, plural marriage, the initial emphasis on com­munity self-sufficiency and the later shift to commercial agriculture and stock raising, pioneer homes, and the contributions of women. More contem­porary subjects also appear, such as the police force, the high incidence of multi­ple births on one of the streets, the development of the community park, the oil refineries surrounding the com­munity, and the building of Woods Cross High School. This is local history in small doses, hopefully made appealing by relating the stories told to the reader's own neighborhood or to his acquaintances in the community. One does learn a good deal about life in Woods Cross and the factors which have shaped the com­munity. The historical training of Ms. Eakle, who appears to be the principal author, is evident in the selection of subject matter and in the careful atten­tion to historical context. The snatches of Woods Cross history presented in this volume whet the appetite for the fuller account of town life promised in volume 2. The present work does have some limitations. Its principal value may be as a community scrapbook and a booster for the longer forthcoming work. Because of space limitations the his­torical sketches are often full of "inside" information not readily accessible to any but the long-time Woods Cross resident. The authors at times go beyond inform­ing the community to educating them in basic historical methods, such as the use of population pyramids, how to rec­ognize Greek Revival architecture, and the analysis of photographs as historical documents. These portions are not well integrated into the work and would be better handled in a community history workshop. And the book would have been improved by the services of a good copy editor. Still, it is a needed re­minder that there is more than one way to present the history of a town. GORDON IRVING Historical Department Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Mormon Manuscripts to 1846: A Guide to the Holdings of the Harold B. Lee Library. Compiled by HYRUM L. ANDRUS and RICHARD E. BENNETT. (Provo, Ut.: Harold B. Lee Library, 1977. X x + 2 3 1 pp. $4.95.) Through long hours in the archives, manuscript sources useful in writing the historians acquaint themselves with the history of the LDS church. Family his- 88 Utah Historical Quarterly torians and casual researchers seldom take the time, however, and thus these valuable materials remain unknown to them. Now two archivists at Brigham Young University have produced a guide to early Mormon history sources at the university's library. This volume, in process for several years, is published as a paperback. It has a nice appear­ance, contains appropriate photographs, and makes an important contribution to finding aids on Mormonism. In the book, Andrus and Bennett identify 591 separate collections con­taining manuscripts for the period up to 1846. They fully identify each collection with a main entry, title, format, and size. Especially valuable is the abstract of the contents of each collection. For biographical entries they add some genealogical information. Persons work­ing on family histories will find this last information useful. The guide identifies a large number of biographies and auto­biographies, most of them short, but nevertheless they are important. For most collections the editors offer a short content note or abstract. For collections they judged more important they have written longer descriptions as, for example, in the collections of Joseph Smith and Newel K. Whitney where in some instances they have described every item. Researchers using this guide will appreciate this extra information where it is given. Many archivists will take issue with this arbitrariness and wonder why the guide was not more balanced in its coverage. Archivists will argue that detail below the collection level should have been reserved for registers and calendars, not included in a general guide. This guide has other problems. For one thing, many of the entries de­scribe microfilm or other copies where the original is not at BYU. In their introduction, the compilers have identi­fied the institutions from which the library has obtained copies, but the guide itself does not locate specific collections. Such information could have been added without distracting from the existing format, and it would have expanded the guide's usefulness for researchers. Some of the items are apparently mis-catalogued. The result will be to mis­lead users. One example is item 96, legal cases involving the trustees-in-trust of the LDS church in Nauvoo. These have been catalogued under the full name of the church, even though it appears that they are Hancock County records. An annoyance is the decision to list mate­rials produced by departments and general offices of the church under the full name of the church and not even include the name of the originating office. A more accurate and more useful designation would have been also to use the name of the respective department or office. This last problem is reflected in the index, where, for example, the minutes of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo appear under the full name of the church rather than under Relief Society. The index itself does little more than repeat main entries already alphabeti­cally arranged in the guide. There are only a few subject categories, and some of these are of little use in finding items. Consistency is lacking in two impor­tant features of the guide. One of these is the use of two different types of sizings -items and boxes-for large collections. The normal way is to use linear feet with large collections and items when smaller than one foot. Another incon­sistency is the failure to locate the full given name for all authors. Too fre­quently the editors have used a middle initial where research would have pro­vided the name: Almon W. Babbitt in­stead of Almon Whiting Babbitt, for example. Despite its shortcomings, Mormon Manuscripts to 1846 is worth the rea- Book Reviews and Notices 89 sonable purchase price for students, family historians, and scholars interested in early Mormon history. Additional guides to manuscript holdings in Utah and Mormon history are sorely needed. It is only to be hoped that future volumes will more closely follow ac­cepted archival standards. RONALD G. WATT Historical Department Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints From Quaker to Latter-day Saint: Bishop Edwin D. Woolley. By LEONARD J. AR-RINGTON. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1976. Xiv + 592 pp. $6.95.) When a private family organization commissions a historian to produce a biography of a revered ancestor, one usually suspects the objectivity of the interpretation. It is not easy to please all the emotionally involved family members and still maintain historical integrity. Under the adroit hand of Dr. Leonard Arlington, however, this par­ticular biography should come as close as humanly possible to achieving both these ends. Indeed, this particular vol­ume will probably become a model for family biographies to come and rightly so. Described as a "middle-wagon man" in the caravan of Mormon history, Edwin Dilworth Woolley epitomizes the stalwart frontier bishop and supporter of the faith that made the visions of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young be­come a reality. The term "middle-wagon man" should by no means intimate that Edwin Woolley was simply an average member of the Mormon founding and pioneer movements. An aggressive and successful entrepreneur, he had consider­able influence over early economic devel­opments and policies of the church. As a bishop he also played a very significant role in the early development of church auxiliary organizations, most notably the YMMIA and YWMIA, the Sun­day School, and Primaiy. He was a "middle-wagon man" because he rep­resented the hard-working bishops who provide the backbone of the LDS church's administrative organization but was never called upon by the prophet to become one of its General Authorities. The book was written with a much broader audience in mind than the Woolley family, and although it gives considerable insight into Edwin Woolley, the man, it perhaps succeeds even better in presenting a picture of the milieu of nineteenth-century Utah. As mentioned, considerable attention is given to the development of the state's economic base and men like Brigham Young, Joseph Heywood, Edward Hunter, etc., with whom Edwin Woolley worked. Also treated with some new insights are the Utah War, and the "Big Move," when the Saints left their homes in Salt Lake City and moved to Utah County as federal troops moved into the valley. The general Mormon audi­ence will find the book containing nu­merous fascinating "tidbits" concerning changes that have occurred over the years in various church traditions, such as: the convention to nominate Joseph Smith for president (p. 123), the use of prayer circles (p. 289), the sacra­ment (p. 329), the role of the ward teachers (pp. 332-337), the strongly worded preaching that used to flavor the meetings (p. 349), the Godbeite con­troversy (pp. 433, 443), etc. The title of the work could perhaps have been better chosen in that Woolley's Quaker background does not seem to determine a separate Mormon development distinct from that of those pioneers with Presbyterian, Baptist, or Roman Catholic heritage-but this is of little consequence. As always, the high point of any of Dr. Arrington's books is the quality of scholarship that so con- 90 Utah Historical Quarterly fidently provides the reader with greater insight into Mormon heritage through newly discovered and interpreted orig­inal diaries, letters, and documents. The best of Arrington's recent biog­raphies on early Latter-day Saint pioneers, this work likewise shows his expert training as historian, economist, and writer. It is through works such as this that the color and perspective are added to the tapestry of historical development. I only hope that more such works are vet to come. DELMONT R. OSWALD Utah Endowment for the Humanities Carvalho: Artist-Photographer-Adventurer-Patriot; Portrait of a Forgotten American. By JOAN STURHAHN. (Merrick, N.Y.: Richwood Publishing Co., 1976. Xx + 226 pp. $22.50.) This work on Solomon Nunes Car­valho is on a subject whose time has come. The Bicentennial celebration, along the way, brought to light the cul­ture of the early republic; and, in the country generally today research in the American West is mounting. Carvalho merits a not undistinguished place in early western art. And his journal of Fremont's fifth expedition is invaluable, and perhaps unique, as a portrayal of the more remote areas of the Rocky Mountain West as they were a hundred and twenty years ago. (Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West, New York, 1857.) Ms. Sturhahn's book is a biography of Solomon Nunes Carvalho and a his­tory of his family as matrix, providing all the known facts and probabilities. Portraits and self-portraits-both da­guerreotypes and paintings-are closely related to the text. Researching about Carvalho since 1969, she has discovered, she says, a new body of his paintings and photos, along with written sources of information about "this versatile man." The book proceeds largely as com­mentary, piece by piece. The author sees the artist as a Renaissance man: artist in the two media, scientific observer of flora and fauna and mineral resources (see his observations made on the road to and in U t a h ) , adventurer, writer, inventor, and man of business. In his later years, when he could no longer do art, he promoted his inven­tion "An Entirely New Steam Super­heating System by Hot Water Circula­tion Under Pressure." It was awarded the Medal of Excellence by the Ameri­can Institute in New York. In the Jew­ish community, he was founder, builder, spokesman, educator; a friend and ally of Rabbi Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia, the shepherd of American Jewry in the middle nineteenth century, both striving to keep Orthodox Judaism healthy. The Hebrew Benevolent Society was close to his heart in Los Angeles as in Charleston. He played chess as a mem­ber of the Baltimore Chess Club. In short, he was a restless person of the nineteenth century, American-individ­ual, progressive, communal-Jewish, fam­ily oriented, perfect in integrity. Carvalho lived from April 27, 1815, to May 2, 1894. He worked as artist from 1834-35 until the late 1860s, about thirty years. He was quite alone as a Jewish artist in his day. He painted not only in Charleston but also in Balti­more, Philadelphia, California and, of course, Utah. We get a whole chapter on Charleston, Carvalho's native city, in which facts are swept together to create the impression of a classically lovely city bustling with painters and daguerreo-tvpists. celebrities of the day, several of whom are still remembered, like Thomas Sully, S. F. B. Morse, and Washington Book Reviews and Notices 91 Allston, to explain how young Solomon Nunes might have got started, because who his teacher was is uncertain. The several self-portraits gathered in this book show Carvalho tall and hand­some, gentle, looking like a Romantic poet or a learned young rabbi. In later years he is a large man, imposing, still handsome and alive, with a flowing, gray beard. Always, the intelligent eyes. Confident, efficient. Fie could have been taken for the dean of a Talmudic col­lege. If, in a western reference, Carvalho's claim to fame rests peculiarly on his ex­periences during the soul-trying winter in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah when he served as the artist and daguerreotypist for Fremont's fifth expedition and on the royal vacation that followed in Salt Lake City and the idyllic return journey to Parowan and on to San Bernardino, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and finally home, Ms. Stur-hahn keeps this activity in proportion. In her survey of Incidents, she cares less to recapture the horrors and courage of the trek than to take note of the times and places when, and the conditions under which, Carvalho daguerreotyped and sketched. But she is attracted to the Emersonian-transcendentalist (and one should add, Psalmodic) hymns to the grandeurs and sublimities of the moun­tain landscape and to his fond thoughts for his family. Of the illustrations in black and white and in color which she has gathered for her book (hers is the only one so far to show any of Carvalho's work in color), the only paintings of western interest whose whereabouts we know are the portraits of Brigham Young and Chief Wakara-both fortunately are shown in color-and John C. Fremont, the "Sketch of a Dead Child," "Entrance to Chochotope Pass" and "Rio Grande River." The fate of the three hundred or so daguerreotypes Carvalho made on the trek with Fremont was tragic. At a place about a hundred miles before Parowan, the colonel ordered the daguerreotyping apparatus, and plates, with all other bulk to be buried deep in the snow, for survival's sake. Ms. Sturhahn infers from a statement of the colonel's that he retrieved the plates; but eventually, it appears, they were destroyed in a fire at the Fremonts' home. So all that re­mains of that mostly hellish labor is the daguerreotype entitled "Indian Village." However, keen on the scent, Ms. Stur­hahn has traced three engravings in Fremont's Memoirs to daguerreotypes by Carvalho. She is hopeful of uncover­ing more. With her competence, she very likely will. Ms. Sturhahn is an able analyst of pictorial composition, handling of ele­ments, and palette. She demonstrates an accurate perception of the fundamental likenesses between different-appearing pictures. She is a reliable sleuth in search of Carvalho. The two paintings that have survived from the "travel and adventure"-the portraits of Brigham Young and Chief Wakara (but Carvalho painted numer­ous Mormon personalities and Indian chiefs) and the sketch of the dead child, of course, were done when the troubles were over. The "Sketch of a Dead Child," spon­taneous, felicitous, inexpressibly, deeply felt, utterly simple, may be Carvalho's most universally appealing piece. He was temperamentally good with chil­dren, as shown by the several portraits of living children in the book. His now famous portrait of Lincoln, for whom, although a patriotic Southerner, he had loving respect, is a notably artistic al­legorical tribute. It came to light in 1952. In 1971 the portrait of Brigham Y'oung was discovered in the uncata-logued art collection of the LDS church. Discerning fundamental similarities to other portraits by Carvalho, Ms. Stur­hahn decided that this one also was his. 92 Utah Historical Quarterly Although others doubted her attribution, the initials S.N.C. emerged in the lower right corner after cleaning. Strong, pro­found, spiritual, Carvalho's conception of this complex man should be com­pared with the impressive, different con­ception seen in the sculptured bust fea­tured on the cover of this magazine for summer 1977. Carvalho's powerful por­trait of Chief Wakara was featured here on the cover of the spring 1971 issue. It is the lone Carvalho owned by the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of Ameri­can History and Art in Tulsa. Other splendid portraits shown are those of Isaac Leeser, the greatest American Jew of his time, and the Baltimore chess player, George Murray Gile. Ms. Sturhahn says that "the identi­fication of unknown paintings in the collection of the LDS church is con­tinuing and is also being carried on thoughout the state of Utah." She is confident of more finds. She relates Carvalho's landscape painting to a con­temporaneous mood in this country and Europe. But she is sure that Carvalho, as a true American, although attentive to the European movement, would not follow foreign models. She believes him independent, too, when, about to give up art in the late 1860s, he was trem­bling on the verge of French Impression­ism, with his scientific-esthetic attention to light as a component of the palette and preference for painting in the open air. She is looking at "Fisherman at the Edge of a Stream" (1867). Avant-garde, also, for Carvalho was the painting of his wife Sarah, in its brilliant color re­minding one of Van Gogh (ca. 1856). This was one of a wide range of pictures in both media which Carvalho did of his family-his cultured, old Sephardic family of the South-antebellum, mainly. By the way, the subjects of Carvalho's art were, with very few ex­ceptions, persons and scenes that he directly knew. Sadly missing are three or four landscape pictures remembering the Far West, painted in the early 1860s, including one of the Grand Canyon, painted four or five years before Bier-stadt's. Carvalho's landscapes have a visual quality which speaks of the future of America in terms of the benign emptiness of the waiting land. Ms. Stur-hahn's appreciation of landscape paint­ing- imaginative and analytical-is genuinely painterly. She keeps her eye on the sensuous object. She does not admire uncritically. Her analysis is easy for the reader to follow; she doesn't in-tellectualize. Of course, there is never anything in a Carvalho picture to offend anyone. Ms. Sturhahn's style is no particular style, but it is adequate. The proof­reading and editing could have been more careful. All the necessary aids are present, except an index. The typog­raphy is easy on the eyes. The most im­portant plates are full page. The book, as a whole, although the sequence is chronological and every chapter coheres around a single subject, is not clean­limbed, seems loose-girt. The author evidently worked hard; she provides a generous abundance of information. The effort was a labor of love. The writing even feels touched with affection, which, at times, warms into emotion, as if this woman were writing a memoir of a hero in the family. The author's avowed purpose is to bring Solomon Nunes Carvalho back as somebody worth knowing in the proces­sion of American art, and known in relation to his entire background. He presents a special western angle and a special Jewish angle, as we have seen. "As the only extended narrative of Western American adventure in the mid-nineteenth century written by a Jew," wrote Rabbi Bertram Korn in his centenary edition of Incidents, "it is of first-rate importance for those who desire to understand the variegated role of the Jew in America." Variegated with the dimension of physical endur- Book Reviews and Notices 93 ance. Variegated, by the book under review, with the vista of Jews making American art as early as the early re­public. There were Jewish pioneers other than the general storekeepers, who were pioneers, too. Ms. Sturhahn's affirmative judgment on Carvalho's por­traits and landscapes in her conclusion is proper. Certainly, his best portraits and landscapes constitute a surprise package of quality, which merits being studied in the company of Sully, Allston, Cole. This is an indispensable book in this context. However, when more of Carvalho's works will have re-presented themselves, a Harry Abrams kind of monograph will be in order. LOUIS C. ZUCKER Salt Lake City The Coloradans. By ROBERT G. ATHEARN. Press, 1976. Viii + 430 pp. $15.00.) As might have been anticipated, Colorado's centennial year of statehood inspired the publication of several books re-creating the state's history. Robert Athearn, the University of Colorado's noted western historian, contributed this book. While it is a history emphasizing the state's developers and development, it is by no means exclusively a textbook detailing the events long accepted as comprising the history of the Centennial State. The book's thesis is not unusual. It relates the development of Colorado's high plains and Rocky Mountain society and economy from the days of the mining rush on into the 1970s as others have previously done. This framework -the gold strikes, the rush to the Rockies, the spawning and growth of Denver, Indian troubles, railroad build­ing, politics, the evolution of social amenities, and so on-is depicted suffi­ciently to provide the backdrop for the integration of vignettes pertaining to aspects of the state's history that other authors and editors have necessarily limited in, or omitted from, their ac­counts. The book includes numerous and diverse moments in the lives and works of lesser known Coloradans who contributed to the state's romance and growth. Some readers might consider the events so profusely injected into the narrative to be modest or insignificant; collectively they add up to history. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico These historical glimpses, too numer­ous to count, vary widely. They include familiar scenes such as those pertaining to the Black community, the Jews in early Denver, the appearance of women who softened the harshness of pioneer­ing, the early theatre, journalism, churches, and so it goes. To sample a later period, the decade or so after World War I, one chapter summarizes the nativism of the American Legion, the Klan, threats of gangsterism and bootleggers; glances at "suitcase" farm­ing; then shifts over to relating the origins of the Big Thompson River proj­ect and the Colorado River compact and from there to petroleum and shale, road construction, tourism; and ends with the efforts to bring air service to Denver. The last chapter, concerning the 1970s, focuses on housing-tract developers, "beatniks," environmental concerns over the Rocky Flats plant of the Atomic Energy Commission and Project Rulison, the Eisenhower Tunnel through the Rockies, the land boom in Summit County west of the tunnel and Aspen, the state's Land Use Commis­sion, the voters' rejection of the Win­ter Olympics, Larimer Square's renewal, shale development again, and the politics of the Democrats currently in office. Blending all of these elements of The Coloradans was doubtless an extraordi­nary literary challenge. Athearn's tech- 94 Utah Historical Quarterly nique was to insert extended comments from his own knowledge and writing experience between substantial segments. For the history he relied on familiar sources and accounts; most noteworthy, he made frequent use of graduate theses mostly completed at the Univer­sity of Colorado. In sum, the book, handsomely produced by the publisher, should be useful as a complement to a textbook for courses in Colorado his­tory. It will also entertain Colorado his­tory buffs. CHARLES J. BAYARD Colorado State University Fort Collins Photographs of the Southwest. By ANSEL ADAMS. (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1976. Xxxvii + 109 pp. $32.50.) A compilation of Ansel Adams's photographs from 1928 to 1968 taken in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah, this volume also contains a complementary essay by Lawrence Clark Powell. The photo­graphs of scenic magnificence, which through the eye of another photog­rapher might be considered trite, be­come transposed by Adams's camera into artworks beyond the natural beauty encompassed. The photographs of peo­ple and other forms are noteworthy for their composition. The pictures contain a broad range of scenes taken in Utah, from those of Bryce Canyon to the Salt Flats. American Indian Policy in Crisis: Chris­tian Reformers and the Indian, 1865- 1900. By FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1976. Xii + 456 pp. $15.00.) An account of United States Indian policy, 1865-1900, focusing on the Christian humanitarians and philan­thropists as the driving force in the "re­form" of Indian affairs. The Bison in Art: A Graphic Chronicle of the American Bison. By LARRY BARSNESS. (Fort Worth, Tex.: North­land Press and Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1977. Viii + 142 pp. Paper, $14.50.) This fascinating and thorough nar­rative of the buffalo in American history makes good use of both words and pic­tures. A well-rounded account of the bison's place in American life, the book contains everything from elements of folklore to breeding practices. Bonanza Victorian: Architecture and Society in Colorado Mining Towns. By C. ERIC STOEHR. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1975. Xiii + 173 pp. $11.95.) A survey of nineteenth-century Colo­rado mining towns, through the medium Book Reviews and Notices 95 of architecture, using recent photographs as illustration. The book sets the scene with sketches of Colorado's mining his­tory, town organization, and influences on its architectural styles; it then pro­ceeds with a discussion of residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial architecture. The Cheyenne and Arapaho Ordeal: Reservation and Agency Life in the Indian Territory, 1875-1907. By DON­ALD J. BERTHRONG. (Norman: Uni­versity of Oklahoma Press, 1976. Xv 4-402 pp. $12.50.) An account of reservation life and its effects on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians of western Oklahoma written by a history professor who is an authority on the Southern Cheyennes. Ghost Towns of Idaho. By DONALD C. MILLER. (Boulder, Colo.: Pruett Pub­lishing Company, 1976. Ix + 102 pp. $15.95.) A brief historical survey of the aban­doned mining towns of Idaho arranged in alphabetical order by county and illustrated by numerous photographs from the Idaho Historical Society along with those taken by the photographer-author. A Guide to Manuscript Collections. Compiled by ELLEN ARGUIMBAU and edited by J O H N A. BRENNAN. (Boul­der: University of Colorado Library, 1977. Xii 4-112 pp. Paper.) A guide to the western history manu­scripts of the University of Colorado libraries as of July 1976 listed alphabeti­cally and containing general data about the contents along with an outline of the material. There is also a subject and name index to the manuscripts. This Is Our Land. Volume 1. By VAL J. MCCLELLAN. (New York: Vantage Press, Inc., 1977. Xvi + 902 pp. $12.50.) The story of the White River Mas­sacre of 1879 near Meeker, Colorado- an Indian uprising fought between northern Ute Indians and federal sol­diers- as told by a white man who grew up on a Ute Indian reservation. Volume 1 deals with the men and events leading to the massacre. Hear that Lonesome Whistle Blow: Railroads in the West. By D EE BROWN. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977. Vii 4- 311 pp. $12.95.) The story of American railroads in the nineteenth century, this book con­tains a discussion of the train's passage through Utah: its accommodations and passenger comments. Guide to the James Moyle Oral History Program. (Salt Lake City: Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1977. Computer outprint microfiche, $5.00.) Since 1972 the LDS Historical De­partment has sponsored an oral history program to help document the twenti­eth- century history of the Mormon church and people. This guide consists of a register of processed interviews in shelf list order, an index of subjects, and a listing of the interviews.