Utah Historical Quarterly Volume XLVI

UHQ 1978 - Volume 46 - no 3 - Book Reviews and Notices

Spokesman for the Kingdom: Early Mormon Journalism and the Deseret News, 1830-1898. By MONTE BURR MCLAWS. (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young University Press, 1977. Xviii+ 254 pp. $9.95.) Nineteenth-century newspapers prac­ticed "personal journalism" to a degree hardly imaginable to contemporary audiences. When a paper changed edi­tors, the tone and outlook of even the largest metropolitan dailies often under­went a radical shift. Libel laws were in their infancy, or as yet unborn, and a frequent response to an editor's slander was a cane or a punch in the nose. Monte McLaws has written a read­able and generally perceptive history of the Deseret News during this period of editorial showdowns and sensational revelations. The LDS paper was atypical for the era. Like most frontier papers its influence on public opinion was im­mense, but particularly so because it was the official organ of the Mormon hier­archy. This institutional connection molded the paper's personality in many ways and minimized the effect of chang­ing editors. News editors rarely sank to the sensational gore and sex of many eastern dailies and the tone of their editorials usually bore an institutional decorum long before other newspapers had switched from vitriol to the pabulum of public policy statements. Much of the paper's unique character also derived from Mormon culture, and McLaws's history of the Deseret News becomes a history of the church's temporal strug­gles and developing theology. Early Mormon journalism spawned in tempestuous waters. McLaws traces the Deseret News's antecedents to the theological wars of the first decades of the nineteenth century. The same reli­gious ferment that set young Joseph Smith to questioning the various local creeds of Palmyra resulted in the found­ing of over 100 sectarian papers in the twenty years prior to 1830. These pub­lications typically had two primary func­tions: first, to explain the sect's doctrine to members and prospective converts (nearly everyone else) and, second, to defend these beliefs from attack. The first Mormon publication, the Evening and Morning Star (1831), established journalistic policies and practices later reflected in the Deseret News. Besides acting as a vehicle for official church pronouncements and a defender of the faith, the Evening and Morning Star noted "Signs of the Times" augering the impending millen­nium and consequently carried a healthy complement of national and interna­tional news (most of it, however, tend­ing to support the Mormons' beliefs). Joseph Smith appointed an official church journalist charged with pro­ducing a periodical and kept the con­duct of the church paper strictly under control. William Cowdery, for example, lost his editor's job for criticizing Joseph Smith's inept handling of the Bank of Kirtland. More than any other influ­ence, however, the Mormon belief that the kingdom of God on earth would not be established by heavenly fiat, but by human effort, shaped the future of the Deseret News. After the Mormon migra­tion to the Great Basin, the newly 320 Utah Historical Quarterly formed weekly was a tool for the Mor­mons in the "building up of the king­dom." The vast majority of western frontier newspapers died with their boots on- usually at the hands of creditors. Mc­Laws makes a good case, however, that Brigham Young considered the Deseret News his most important tool for build­ing the kingdom. Whatever potentially fatal problems threatened the paper's existence. Young was always at hand to make sure the paper survived. When a shortage of newsprint forced repeated cutbacks in the paper's frequency, a paper mill was built and the General Authorities preached "rag sermons" urging Mormon women to contribute their household rags to make paper. Periodic subscription drives by church leaders appealed to the Mormon's sense of duty and served to help alleviate the News's chronic shortages of hard cash to meet its bills. (Employees were frequently paid in trade at church stores.) In a characteristically terse statement, Young pledged his commit­ment to the Deseret ATews's survival, "Profit or no profit, a Church paper will continue to be printed." The Deseret News provided the only topical reading material for Deseret's scattered settlements. Its editorial policy was designed to nurture this fragile web of communities into a cohesive unit. To meet the primary goal of keeping com­munications open between the hierarchy and the membership, the News printed conference reports, sermons, and edi­torial pronouncements from church leaders. As with current Deseret News editors, day-to-day control of the paper's activities was not necessary. Editors were generally chosen from among the leader­ship and shared a common world view and purpose with the General Authori­ties. To help keep Mormon society to­gether the church paper occasionally dis­torted the news. McLaws offers several convincing examples of the suppression of news that might have disturbed the church's delicate equanimity. Informa­tion which evinced the possibility of dis­tracting members from the demands of their theodemocracy earned only an oblique notice or was omitted altogether. Despite the peculiarities of its local coverage, the Deseret News increasingly went to greater and greater efforts to provide its audience with national and international news. Mormons believe strongly in the value of education, and the paper sometimes served as reading material in what must have passed in the early one-room schoolhouses for "social studies." Monte McLaws makes an interesting statement about Mormon news censor­ship: It has been said, however, that a tightly controlled press is a dead press. This may be true when referring to a newspaper in a democracy, but the Deseret News, which operated in a theo-democratic system where vir­tually everything existed for and was used by the Church to obtain certain ends, was very much alive. Even though there was some suppression and shaping of news in the Mormon Kingdom, few felt themselves unjustly coerced. This remarkable assertion implies that because a consensus existed among the Mormons, altering information to fit their peculiar world view was a quasi-defensible practice because few objected to it and it produced a "lively" paper anyway. McLaws takes an uncritical stance towards a policy designed to per­petuate itself. The News was a con­trolled source of information intended to solidify a Mormon consensus-a con­sensus which did not object to the fact that it heard only one view of reality. (A parallel situation exists in the twen­tieth century. The contemporary for­eign press has repeatedly objected to "American consensus journalism" which Book Reviews and Notices 321 they feel paints a distorted picture of world news-particularly in Latin America and Africa.) Mormon news "shaping" had a profound effect on the way Mormons reacted to Gentile criti­cism of the church and was undoubtedly a factor in perpetuating the bitter social conflicts between the two groups. The era of Mormon-Gentile conflict is the most studied and probably the most entertaining period of Deseret News history. Most accounts of the Deseret News tend to deal almost ex­clusively with this era. Fortunately, Mc­Laws does not overemphasize the great editorial mud-slinging battles over polygamy, politics, and the economic control of Utah. News editors, to their credit, rarely descended into the mire to wrestle with their opponents, preferring instead to wait for the "vilifiers to tire themselves out." They struggled bravely for years to stem the tide of public emo­tion running against the church but ultimately failed. As the conflict even­tually reached the point of conflagra­tion, the News began to retaliate in kind, calling the Salt Lake Tribune the organ of the prostitutes, the apolo­gist for the blackguard, and drunkard, the defamer of women, the slanderer of the dead, the cesspool into which the obscenity, blasphemy and prurient gossip of roughs and loafers and smutty-minded men of the baser sort flows naturally. McLaws's closing chapters are not as interesting as the earlier ones. They tend to wander, and the divisions between chapters seem somewhat arbitrary. Al­though the Deseret News underwent a brief change of ownership during the confiscation of church property in the 1890s, it never lost its role as official spokesman for the Mormon church. The amount of religious news printed, however, gradually decreased as the News entered its second fifty years, and it finally grew to become the almost entirely secular journal it is today. DAVID MERRILL Utah State Historical Society 'I'd Rather Be Born Lucky Than Rich": The Autobiography of Robert H. Hinckley. By ROBERT H. HINCKLEY and JOANN JACOBSEN WELLS. Charles Redd Monographs in Western History, no. 7. Xii + 160 pp. Paper, $4.95.) Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young University Press, 1977. Robert Hinckley is a Utah Mormon boy who made good. During the depres­sion, Hinckley was Utah director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Utah Relief Organization, and the Water Conservation and Development Pro­gram. He went on to be western direc­tor of the Works Progress Administra­tion, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, and assistant secretary of commerce, among other New Deal jobs. As a businessman, Hinckley made enough money in autos, airplanes, arms, broadcasting, and other ventures to endow the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and other philanthropies. By any standard, Hinckley's career has been one of remarkable scope and achievement. His book is not so success­ful as his career. He recounts his life largely as a succes­sion of jobs. Each is described, and Hinckley summarizes, often statistically, the accomplishments during his tenure at the agencies he headed. Readers are told little about Hinckley's thoughts or feelings. There are few insights into life among New Dealers or among the big-time lobbyists Hinckley joined when he left government. Ambitious Utah boys or girls who wish to emulate Hinckley's rise will not learn how to do it here. From his experi- 322 Utah Historical Quarterly ence, Hinckley deduces no general prin­ciples. His account provides evidence for neither Horatio Alger nor Niccolo Machiavelli. Hinckley does not recount in detail battles he won or lost, nor does he divulge the tricks of getting up in the world. Though most of Hinckley's life was spent in business, most of his autobi­ography deals with politics. He begins by telling how he distributed campaign handbills at the age of five and ends with a testimony that politics are "most important." The New Deal years are especially prominent, larger in volume and brighter in description than the parts dealing with other periods in Hinckley's life. Hinckley takes obvious and justified pleasure in the record of his achieve­ments as a whole. But most of the memo­ries he seems to cherish for their own sake come from his years as a New- Dealer and those as a Mormon mission­ary. In this book, Hinckley wishes to de­fend the New Deal in particular and politics in general. He asserts that with­out the New Deal, America would have "gone communistic." As for politics, Hinckley says "it can also be honorable." From the middle of World War II until his retirement in 1965, Hinckley was-with interruptions and other in­terests- chief lobbyist for Sperry Com­pany and for the American Broadcast­ing Company. His concerns about poli­tics and the New Deal seem to be those of a man who had to represent govern­ment to big business as well as business to government. Hinckley's concerns and his answers now seem charmingly old fashioned. Politics and the New Deal are trium­phant. It is business, especially big busi­ness, that is now under attack and in need of a defense showing that "it can also be honorable." Hinckley got to know many impor­tant people. He knew Presidents Roo­sevelt, Truman, and Johnson, among other denizens of history books. About most of his famous friends, Hinckley seems to remember what others have remembered. He recounts how New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia some­times cried, how Vice-president John Nance Garner served cronies bootleg whiskey to "strike a blow for liberty," and how former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover frequented horse races with his sidekick Clyde Tolson. These stories have been told before. I have met Mr. Hinckley twice. He seems a most affable and pleasant man. And this book reinforces that impression. One would suspect that a career such as Hinckley's would include failures, frus­trations, and unrealized ambitions, too. Hinckley dwells on success rather than failure. He writes very little about people he did not like or about the faults of those he did like. Hinckley's outlook is relentlessly positive. In his long life, Mr. Hinckley has made many contributions, and he may now add this book-a lucid account of the life of a nice, successful man-to that long list. ROD DECKER Deseret News Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies. By DAVIS BITTON. Brigham Young University Press, 1977. Xii + 417 pp. $29.95.) Provo. Ut. We have been told for a long time that perhaps there were no people who better recorded their life experiences in diaries and journals than did the Mor­mons. Not until now did we have much evidence to support the view. Just when the Mormon leadership set about en­couraging their people to keep diaries (presuming such a cause for the num­ber of diaries extant) is not known to Book Reviews and Notices 323 me, though I am aware of Joseph Smith's instructions to the Twelve Apos­tles, February 27, 1835, admonishing that body to keep minutes of all their proceedings. {History of the Church, 2:198-200.) The number of missionary diaries suggests an early encouragement to keep such a record. At any rate, Davis Bitton has created a monumental mile­stone in Mormon historiography in this "largest and most ambitious effort to introduce the corpus of Mormon diaries and autobiographies" (p. v). It is the first of its kind on this scale, overshadow­ing altogether former efforts. Some 2,894 diaries, journals, and autobiographies, available for study, are here listed and described. Born of a desire to furnish his stu­dents in historical method with a list of diaries and autobiographies for sources to be used in writing research papers, the present work comes from the thoroughness of the professor and the assistance of a dozen or so persons who helped bring the enormous task to a happy fruition. Major dependence was on those re­positories closest to home-"the largest and most important collections of Mor­mon materials" (p. v)-the Latter-day Saint church archives, the University of Utah library, the Utah State Histori­cal Society, the Brigham Young Univer­sity library, and the Utah State Univer­sity library. Although personal visits were made to these repositories, inven­tories and published catalogs were relied upon chiefly for the holdings of the Huntington Library, the Coe Collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale Univer­sity, and the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. Other libraries were "examined only superfi­cially" (p. v ). Each entry is made up of the follow­ing elements: name of the author; birth and death dates when obtainable; description of whether the work is a diary, journal, daybook, memoir, remi­niscence, or autobiography: dates covered by the work; form, whether holograph, manuscript, typescript, photocopy, duplication, or published; length in pages or volumes; size; loca­tion (where at least one copy may be found) ; and an annotation or abstract giving a brief description of the human action in time and space. The annotations or abstracts of the diari-es are extremely useful. Although the Guide is uneven in quality and ap­propriateness, the reader will find him­self expressing appreciation for every­thing that is included. The fundamental events in church history come through clearly. Topical essays also appear. The general experience and the unique per­sonal experience come through. Alto­gether these descriptions are most valu­able and furnish the basis for an ex­tensive index. The index is particularly valuable and helpful. Indexed are the names of per­sons mentioned in the annotations, places (cities, states, provinces, coun­tries) missions, institutions (academies to ZCMI), and topics (from Arts and Artists to World's Fairs). There are nearly nine hundred subject entries, with the number of references varying from one to over three hundred (Overland T r a i l ) . A comparison of this writer's check­lists of diaries in important libraries sug­gests that the compiler did very well by way of inclusiveness. This is not to say that all Mormon diaries once or now in these libraries are included in the Guide. Nor is the Guide a union list. It was deemed sufficient to find the holo­graph, or microfilm copy, or typescript, or printed version of the diary. Here is a guide to the personal records of the great and the lowly, the leaders and the people who made "the desert blossom," who accomplished the estab­lishment of civilized life in the Moun­tain West, who effected their vision of the kingdom of God. It would seem that everyone is here: church presidents, apostles and other leaders, mountain 324 Utah Historical Quarterly men, governors, but mainly the rank and file of Mormon pioneers. Only a few characteristics will disturb the more critical scholar. The Guide "does not attempt . . . to evaluate the usefulness and authenticity of the indi­vidual works" (p. vi), nor does it con­cern itself with provenance. The useful­ness of a work is beyond the scope of a guide, but authenticity and provenance are not, especially when it takes so little effort to determine these. (In most cases it is answered immediately upon exami­nation.) And if "A handful may even be outright forgeries" (p. vi), that hand­ful should have been excluded or proven authentic. No fault of the compiler, it is regretted that the holdings of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers are excluded by their policy, hence it is also impossible to prove the accuracy of DUP publica­tion of personal records. The call num­bers associated with HDC (Historical Department of the Church) are incor­rect now, having been changed during the course of the final preparation of the manuscript for the Guide. Professor Bitton has devoted years to this project and it will stand as a lasting memorial to his dedication. It is one of the most significant reference tools now available for Mormon studies, in­dispensable also for Utah studies, and valuable for the study of western America. It should be at the elbow of every serious student of these fields. S. GEORGE ELLSWORTH Utah State University The Early Temples of the Mormons: 7 in the American West. By LAUREL B. York Press, 1978. X + 218 pp. $15.00.) Laurel B. Andrew's Hie Early Tem­ples of the Mormons represents the first published volume to consider the archi­tectural origins of nineteenth-century Mormon temples. She attempts through stylistic analysis, photographs, and lucid style of writing to establish an American provenance for these early buildings. Her selection of photographs and illustrations are effectively arranged to elucidate the text and enhance her style analysis. This, combined with the editor­ship, graphics, and innovative layout by the State University of New York Press, forms a most attractive book. Her text is centered on the four Utah temples (Salt Lake St. George, Logan, and Manti). Of the four, Salt Lake receives singular attention because of its design influence on the other three and the accumulation of design advances of the prototype Kirtland and Nauvoo temples. To circumstantiate an Ameri­can architectural origin for the pivotal Salt Lake Temple, she begins with the period of conceptualization and need for 'he Architecture of the Millennial Kingdom ANDREW. (Albany: State University of New a temple within Mormonism before its solidification with the Kirtland Temple. Then, through peripheral documenta­tion and style analysis, she concludes an American origin for the Kirtland Tem­ple. She is correct in this assumption and therefore continues this line of reason­ing with the Nauvoo and the Utah tem­ples to confirm an American provenance. Unfortunately, she is in error to per­sist in the reliance on secondary inter­pretive sources, peripheral documenta­tion, and stylistic analysis. This was ade­quate for the study of the Kirtland Temple; but there are numerous pri­mary documents that support a non- American origin for the Nauvoo and the early Utah temples. As is evident from the text, its footnotes and bibliography, Andrew spent little actual time in re­searching these documents that were available to her in the public and pri­vate archives of Utah. Her apparent success in using secondary sources with the Kirtland Temple rather than a lensfthv archives search has led her to Book Reviews and Notices 325 conclude in chapter one that no signif­icant study on the early Mormon tem­ples existed prior to her own book. Since 1972, alone, a number of pointed articles/lectures, a thesis, and a new doctoral investigation have appeared, which discredit her thesis. In general, her own scholarship has shown little advancement over her initial article on this topic that was published in the March 1971 Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and her 1973 doctoral dissertation (University of Michigan) from which this book was edited. Her premise for an American prove­nance is based on two factors. The first is the Mormon contact with Freemasonry in the early years of Nauvoo. Her argu­ment of a close interrelationship be­tween Mormonism and Freemasonry at Nauvoo is convincing, but she fails to elaborate on the contradictory evidence. Her dependence, as a source, on Robert Flanders's Nauvoo, Kingdom on the Mississippi and Fawn Brodie's contro­versial No Man Knows My History is explanation enough for the bias of her conclusion. It is important to realize that Brigham Young, the one responsible for the basic designs for the early Utah temples, was only marginally interested in Masonry. Documentation is clear on this point. For her to assume that Young would have visited the Masonic tem­ples of Boston and Philadelphia while on a visit to these cities in 1843 is an error. Had she consulted his daybook as she suggests by the bibliography, she would not have made this assumption. Further, she fails to describe the condi­tion of the Philadelphia Masonic Tem­ple at the time of his supposed visit. As the result of two disastrous fires, the first in 1818 and again in 1819, the temple was reduced to a hulk with the conspicuous absence of its Wrenish tower and spire. The Masons themselves had abandoned the structure in 1837. Her errors related to the Masonic connection seem to multiply. She claims that Young was in Boston in 1845 as head of that mission when, in reality, he was neither there at that time nor occupied that position. To link the symbols found on the Salt Lake Tem­ple to those of Masonry is fallacious. Truman O. Angell, Sr., architect of the temple, denied a similar allegation. He stated that they were the product of Young's intense investigation of the scriptural texts available to him and his interest in astronomy. Her assump­tion of a Masonic influence is tenuous at best. Her second premise, and most crucial oversight, is her pronouncement of an American provenance for the Nauvoo and the Utah temples. Had she sought further documentation on the lives of William Weeks, T. O. Angell, Sr., William Ward, and Brigham Young himself, she would not have persisted in this assumption. Both Weeks and Angell had access to Peter Nicholson's volumes on architecture. The documented pres­ence of these manuals indicates a direct English source. This potential English origin for, specifically, the Salt Lake Temple is reinforced by the presence of Ward as Angell's architectural assistant. The young Ward received his architec­tural training in the Gothic Revival School as an apprenticed architect in his native England prior to his joining Mormonism and his departure for Nauvoo and then Utah. It was he who was responsible for having the windows of the temple recessed and not the in­fluence of the Boston Masonic Temple as implied by Andrew. The most important evidence for an English architectural provenance for the Salt Lake Temple is found in Young's daybook. The source for the six tower/ spire configuration as sketched on an office slate by him for Angell and Ward came from his exposure to an apprecia­tion of the grandeur of English architec­ture that he experienced while on an extended mission to that country in 1840. It seems strange that Andrew would see 326 Utah Historical Quarterly parallels between a medieval cathedral and the Salt Lake Temple in terms of a compendium of theological belief and not discern an English or European source. Young and those who accom­panied him to England recorded in detail their visits to Worchester Cathe­dral. (This is in marked contrast to the conspicuous absence of such recorded data from their travels in America.) His purchased architectural guidebooks to these various monuments, along with a structural model, would return with him to form the basis of his design concept. Finally, why would he send his architect, T. O. Angell, Sr., to England and France in 1856 to specifically learn from the "works of the ancients" to improve upon the design of the Salt Lake Tem­ple had he been able to gain the same from a visit to the eastern United States? Important exceptions could be made to many aspects of Andrew's interpreta­tion of Mormon doctrine, particularly millennialism and its relationship to the overall symbolism of the Salt Lake Tem­ple and to nineteenth- and twentieth-century Mormon perspective. As it is, her lack of research into primary docu­mentation has led to a book based on misconceptions and faulty conclusions. This makes it a book of questionable worth to the serious and well-informed scholar on Mormons and their architec­ture. MARK HAMILTON Brigham Young University Hamlin Garland's Observations on the American Indian, 1895^-1905. Compiled and edited by LONNIE E. UNDERHILL and DANIEL F. LITTLEFIELD, JR. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1976. X + 214 pp. $9.95.) John Collier's Crusade for Indian Reform, 1920-1954. By KENNETH R. PHILP. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1977. Xvi + 304 pp. $12.50.) Here are two books about two men with similar views concerning the plight of the American Indian. They were similar in their belief in cultural plural­ism which fostered their sympathy for the Indian, and they shared a rare understanding of his problems. This in­terest was sparked by their reaction to the philosophies of social Darwinism and their disillusionment with the "dis­ruptive forces unleashed by the indus­trial revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century." However, they chose to react in entirely different ways. In the first book, Underhill and Little­field have edited the essays and original field notes of the American novelist Hamlin Garland. These are Garland's observations of Indian life that he made while traveling throughout Indian coun­try at the turn of the century. Included are introductory remarks about Gar­land's background and how he became interested in the Indians; prefacing each essay are historical notes about the tribes he visited. The main purpose of this work is to bring to the attention of the public Garland's firsthand observations during a period of transition when the American Indians were on the verge of being assimilated into American society on terms dictated by the white man. There is more to this collection of essays than mere observations. Garland's writings reflect unusual insight which is atypical of its time because it is sympa­thetic and it advocates cultural plural­ism. Garland believed that the Indian must be understood as a member of a certain race and situated in a particular environment. He viewed the process of acculturation as the reduction of the Indian to the lowest social denominator, the poor white. He did not support the Book Reviews and Notices 327 idea that the Indian should be civilized at the expense of losing his rich native culture. Unfortunately, Garland was only an enlightened bystander. He did very little to change the conditions under which he found the Indian, and he did not publish his views very widely. What is more unfortunate is that the Indian reservations were not main-traveled roads. The editors, in giving us Garland's in­teresting account, have contributed to the limited literature of an important period of transition when the predomi­nant attitude toward the Indian was that of integration and acculturation. The essays add another dimension to the historical studies of this period, mainly because they were written by a talented and conscientious writer who had def­inite views and enlightened social values. It is an example of a point of view which went against the grain of contemporary thought. It is also a view-that gave support to and was adopted by active social reformers like John Collier. The second volume is Philp's assess­ment of John Collier, the commissioner of Indian Affairs during the New Deal, and his crusade for Indian reform from 1920 to 1954. This study is not only a critical look at the politics of Indian re­form, but, more interestingly, it is an examination of the philosophies of a man who did more to influence Indian policies than any other man of his time. It is also a discussion of his successes as a social reformer and the reasons for his failures. Beginning with Collier's days as a social worker in New York City in the early twenties, Philp traces the philoso­phies which developed into the policies Collier advocated during his term as commissioner of Indian Affairs. Like Garland, Collier felt betrayed by a so­ciety which was rapidly moving away from traditional values and toward greater materialism. In his disillusion­ment he traveled to the Southwest to find the Pueblos living the life that Collier found desirable. Realizing that there was a threat to this life-style, Collier began his crusade to save their way of life. His target was the Bureau of Indian Affairs. He launched a cam­paign to reform the Indian service and change the Indian policies. The defeat of the Bursum bill was his first victory. After that there was no stopping him, and he began to attack other issues like the leasing of Indian lands, the misuse of tribal funds, and the threat to Indian oil, water, and mineral rights. In his effort to reform the Indian service prior to 1932, Collier not only laid the founda­tion for his own administration but fore­shadowed his success as social reformer. Collier continued to experience suc­cess with the passage of the Indian Re­organization Act of 1934 and insured his place in history. But all was not well. Several Indian groups and tribes were not all that cooperative in implementing his programs and policies. Congress was less willing to support him. Philp offers several interpretations for this growing lack of cooperation and why Collier's brand of progressivism was no longer viable under changing conditions brought on by World War II and the new juxtaposition of Indian politics. Philp has written a well-researched volume that will undoubtedly encourage the further study of Indian policies prior to 1934. This book has filled in a neglected area in the study of federal Indian policies from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. It synthesizes and clarifies Indian policies of the 1920s and creates a continuity which is badly needed. Another important contribution is the critical look at Collier's philosophies and his methods of attaining his goals and how they led to successes and failures. Philp attempts to remain as ob­jective as possible and includes a look at Collier's career after he left his post, which rounds out his study. This per­sonal history of Collier's career provides 328 Utah Historical Quarterly a greater understanding of his crusade and the Indian New Deal. These two books are welcome addi­tions to the ever-growing literature on the American Indian reform movements. Garland's Observations is particularlv interesting for the insififhts of the novel­ist, and Collier's Crusade is valuable be­cause of its contribution to the study of federal Indian policies and the career of Collier. VERONICA TILLER University of Utah The Zunis of Cibola. By C. GREGORY CRAMPTON. (Salt Lake City University of Utah Press, 1977. Xiv+201 pp. $15.00.) The history of Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico-which, like other south­western pueblos, is noted for centuries of continuous habitation-has been long and often dramatic. It was at Zuni that the Spanish made first contact with Pueblo people, first through Este-van, the Moorish slave who was killed at the pueblo, and later by Coronado, who arrived in 1540 while searching for the mythical seven cities of Cibola. The Zunis unsuccessfully resisted Coronado and on several other occasions opposed Spaniards and fled to Towayalane, a nearby mesa that provided a place of refuge for periods of as long as twelve years. Despite both violent and passive resistance, the Spanish presence in the Southwest influenced even distant Zuni, bringing changes in political institutions, religion, and the economy. Virtually all phases of life were affected, and one major result was the concentration from six villages to one. American soldiers, missionaries, Indian agents, and settlers also influenced Zuni life. C. Gregory Crampton of the Univer­sity of Utah has sought to present an out­line of Zuni history from precontact days to the present. In some 120 pages of text accompanied by a fine collection of photographs Crampton sketches the history of Zuni, relations with other tribes, particularly the Navajos with whom they had intermittent conflict, and with Spain and the United States. Because of its size, relative isolation, and distinctive cultural features Zuni attracted the interest of anthropologists; and scholars such as Frank Cushing in­fluenced their history. However, the volume of anthropological literature has not been matched by historical scholar­ship. Much of the published historical material about Zuni deals with the period before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and there are numerous segments of the Spanish and American periods for which substantial documentary evidence is lack­ing. Therefore, Crampton faced a num­ber of problems in researching this topic. It is fortunate that as director of the Doris Duke program in American In­dian oral history, Crampton and his staff had the opportunity to cooperate with Zuni efforts to record Zuni tradi­tions and history. The utilization of Zuni oral history is a significant contribution, when accompanied by careful use of published material. It is also true, however, that because of the limited size of the volume and the author's goal of providing a modern outline of Zuni history that substantial gaps in our knowledge of Zuni's past remain. Some of these can never be filled because of the absence of information. Others, particularly for the recent period, await further research. One hopes, however, that future scholars will follow Crampton's example and com­bine research in written documents with the collection of oral or written records from the Zuni people. RICHARD N. ELLIS University of New Mexico Book Reviews and Notices 329 Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District with Atlas. By CLARENCE E. DUTTON. (1882; reprint ed., Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1977. Xxii+ 264 pp. $175.00.) As a source of scientific data on the Grand Canyon District, Clarence E. Dutton's masteipiece, first published in 1882, is still significant to students of its geology and topography. His is a nine­teenth- century perspective with bold hypotheses cautiously presented to ex­plain the history and meaning of this most unusual physical phenomenon. While some of the geologic details have been superseded and many hypotheses challenged and refined by later scientists, Dutton's work still pro­vides the reader with a panoramic per­spective of this broad area and brings some order to the visual chaos most of us see there. He does this by showing each section's relationship to each other section and by explaining each forma­tion's reason for being and how it helps in revealing the geologic history of the district. Only the scholar well traveled in the area could have comprehended these relationships and then only after he had studiously attempted to interpret them. Dutton's work is one of several survey milestones produced by the United States government during the second half of the last century. Still, it would be difficult to justify reprinting volume 2 of his report with atlas on the basis of a need for its scientific information alone. Other sources can be duplicated too easily. However, Dutton's is a work of art as well. In an unusually literary style he tells the reader how to see and how to experience the Grand Canyon district. In this he is aided by two remarkable artists, Thomas Moran with his idealized interpretations and W. H. Holmes with his careful scientific illustrations. In addition Jack Hillers provides some excellent photography. Together they produced a biography of the Grand Canyon area with senses and soul, almost. Through their eyes we sense their nineteenth-century optimism with its ideas of unity and coherence in the uni­verse. Nevertheless, Dutton recognized the tenuousness of their conclusions. He ends his book with these words: "In the Plateau Country Nature has, in some respects, been more communicative than in other regions, and has answered many questions far more fully and gra­ciously. But here, as elsewhere, whenever we interrogate her about time other than relative, her lips are sternly closed, and her face becomes as the face of the Sphinx" (p. 260). Wallace Stegner in a brief introduc­tion gives the work a historical context. And quite correctly observes that ". . . Dutton's works . . . have survived their specialty and their period, perhaps be­cause art ages less swiftly than sci­ence . . ." (p. viii). The original edition of 3,000 copies has long been a collector's item, almost completely unavailable for purchase. The publisher has again given us a beautiful limited edition (1,500 copies), which no doubt will have strong appeal to those who can afford it. MELVIN T. SMITH Utah State Historical Society Story of the Great American West. Edited by EDWARD S. BARNARD. (Plea-santville, N.Y.: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1977. 384 pp. $14.95.) A history of the West offers little new to readers in terms of subject matter. Nor does such a broad interest allow for analytic interpretation or in-depth study. But a different slant can furnish rich, original material and provide new-perspectives, which is what this volume does in admirable fashion. The historic narrative supplied is ac­curate and adequate as background. Treatment of such sensitive topics as Indians, Mormons, and Blacks is quite fair. The strength of the book, however, lies in its ability to provide that elusive slice-of-life that histories should, but seldom do, furnish. The history of the West does, indeed, come alive with graphic descriptions of such things as the Kentucky rifle and how to load it; a log cabin and how it was built; the prairie schooner America's first mobile home. Reconstruction of such things as a fort, a Hopi pueblo, a prairie town, among many others, gives pictorial and written information in minute detail. Firsthand quotations, anecdotes, car­toons, and newspaper accounts written at the time, all add to the lifelike quality. The special consultants, an impres­sive list of whom is given at the begin­ning of the book, deserve special men­tion for their extensive research. The pic­ture editor is to be congratulated on the quality, varied selection, and unusual content of the illustrations. As an ex­ample, the Mormon section contains a page from a Mormon primer, dated 1868, and a $3 bill issued by Deseret before Utah became a state. For the price of $14.95 these 384 pages bursting with vitality and color are well worth it for almost every reader. Looking Far West: The Search for the American West in History, Myth, and Literature. Edited by FRANK BERGON and ZEESE PAPANIKOLAS. (New York: New American Library, 1978. Xx + 476 pp. Paper, $2.50.) This splendid gathering of materials exposes the full richness of the Ameri­can West as place and people, reality and dream. No region of America, not even the South, evokes so many different images. Professors Bergon and Papanik­olas have succeeded in illuminating these images through more than two hundred selected writings that range from poetry and fiction to diaries and reminiscences. The authors of the selec­tions represent the great diversity of views: Cabeza de Vaca, Chief Joseph, Longfellow, Fremont, Father Kino, Twain, Wilford Woodruff, John Wesley, Powell, Frederick Jackson Turner, Owen Wister, Steinbeck, Stegner, and many more. The general introduction and the brief introductions to each section of the anthology are perceptive. The Journey Home. By EDWARD ABBEY. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977. Xiv + 242 pp. $9.95.) As befits someone whose literary idols include Rabelais and Celine, Edward Abbey's latest nonfiction book is a rol­licking, word-intoxicated, beer-sotten haymaker thrown at land developers, Book Reviews and Notices 331 book reviewers, rock concert fans, Smokey the Bear, javelina hunters, and the "sober-sided middle-class gangsters -Mormons from Utah, Baptists from Oklahoma, Presbyterians from Pennsyl­vania, Roman Catholics from New- Jersey, Jews from Texas" who run Las Vegas. There's something here to rouse the ire of everyone, but what can one expect from an author who depicts him­self as a turkey vulture, certainly not America's most cuddly animal. Most perplexing about Abbey is the curious logic of his aesthetics. Fie advocates removing highway billboards on the one hand, yet condones leaving empty beers cans in their place. Nevertheless, Abbey's prose alone is worth the price of admission (especially in paperback at $4.95). Witness his evocation of the timberline regions in the charming alliteration and rhythm of "the taiga, the tundra, and the tarn." Special gratitude is due Abbey for giving us this 1946 logbook entry of Scotty Beaton, a National Park Service fire watcher: "High Buchanan the ranger came with a Paper to have me Pledge I wouldn't overthrow the gov­ernment that never entered my mind in the fifty-five years I been in this coun­try." Scotty's name and words belong on the dedicatory page of the most com­prehensive history of loyalty oaths in America. Barns, Sheds, and Outbuildings. Edited by BYRON D. HALSTED. (Brattleboro, Vt.: The Stephen Greene Press, 1977. $6.95.) The original edition of this manual was registered with the Library of Con­gress in 1881. The author is unknown; most of the work was done by the listed editor. The volume offers designs and plans, with accompanying illustration, for a wide variety of farm or country structures. Digging in the Southwest. By ANN AXTELL MORRIS. (Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1978. Xvi+ 301 pp. $5.95.) Professional and serious amateur archaeologists interested in current southwestern research will find little of use in the reprint of this 1933 work, since it is primarily a chatty narrative of "what it's like being married to an archaeologist." Morris does make a good presentation of how an archaeologist goes about his work: e.g., the endless note-taking and photography. She also deals with the fanciful notions of Vikings in western America, the lost island of Atlantis, and the mythical land of Mu. The book might, therefore, be profitable reading for those w4iose only contacts with archaeology have been Eric Von Danni-ken, Thor Heyerdahl, or the Sunken- Treasureship - of - the - Conquistadors School of Archaeology. Flickering Memories. By BONNIE THOMPSON. (Salt Lake City: Prin­ters, Inc., 1977. Ix + 148 pp. $6.50.) The second volume of folklore of the Bear Lake Valley taken from personal interviews, family manuscripts, and other sources, this book is annotated and con­tains a bibliography. Indian Life: Transforming an Ameri­can Myth. Edited by WILLIAM W. SAVAGE, JR. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1977, Xii + 286 pp. $9.95.) Not just another book about Indians, this volume focuses on images of Indians developed by whites to justify their im­perialism, romanticize the West, and attract more whites to it. The book, giving representative white views of the American Indian from the 1880s to the early 1900s, is authored by an assis­tant professor of history who specializes in the American West. 332 Utah Historical Quarterly The Indians and Their Captives. Edited and compiled by JAMES LEVERNIER and HENNIG COHEN. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1977. Xxx + 291 pp. $17.50.) An interesting aspect of Indian-white relations, this collection of narratives about Indian captivity is told from the perspectives of: a conquistador, an adventurer, religious missionaries, im­perialists, the media, and those with artistic imagination. In the Deserts of This Earth. By U W E GEORGE. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977. 309 pp. $14.95.) A German naturalist's account of the different terrains and many life forms found on the world's deserts, including those of Utah. The author, who spent sixteen years researching and exploring deserts, has illustrated the book with his own photographs. The King Danced in the Marketplace. By FRANCES GILLMOR. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1977. Xvi+ 271 pp. Paper, $10.00.) A reprint of a book originally pub­lished by the University of Arizona Press in 1964, this is the biography of Motec-zuma (more, commonly Montezuma in English), great-grandfather to the Moteczuma ruling in Mexico when the Spaniards arrived. A Motif Index for Lost Mines and Treasures Applied to Redaction of Arizona Legends and to Lost Aline and Treasure Legends Exterior to Arizona. By BYRD HOWELL GRANGER. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press. 1977. 277 pp. $14.50.) Although this is an index of a highly specialized folklore collection, the book may also be seen as a tool to simplify and accelerate analyses of all types of folklore. By breaking such tales into ele­ments, they may ultimately be fed into a computer, and in moments an accurate listing of legends around the world con­taining identical motifs may be obtained. Preserving Your Past. By JANICE T. DIXON and DORA D. FLACK. (Garden Citv, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977. 334 pp. $8.95.) All about writing a diary, autobiog­raphy, or family history including sec­tions on research, organization, and nar­ration. Spencer W. Kimball, Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat­ter- day Saints. By EDWARD L. KIM­BALL and ANDREW E. KIMBALL, JR. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, Inc., 1977.X+ 538 pp. $8.50.) This very readable biography of Presi­dent Kimball was written by a son and grandson, using many primary materials. The book is rich in incident, including some that deal with rather sensitive subjects.