Book Notices

Sister Saints. Edited by VICKY BURGESS- OLSON. (Provo, Ut.: Brigham Young University Press, 1978. Xiv + 494 pp. Paper, $7.95.)

This collection contains essays on twenty-four women who made important contributions to early Utah history. Introduced with a survey of Mormon history, the collection includes both the expected essays on the grandes dames of the LDS church, such as Eliza R. Snow, Susa Young Gates, and Emmeline B. Wells, as well as some interesting accounts of lesser-known female educators, politicians, doctors, and writers. The authors of the essays, mostly Mormon women like their subjects, focus on the forces surrounding the women, their impact on Utah, and their feelings on polygamy, Mormonism, and womanhood. The essays, only a few of which have been published previously, as well as the accompanying biographical notes on the authors, will be useful to those interested in the strengths and impact of Utah women.

A Blend of the Two. By BEN M. ROE. (Salt Lake City: Friends of the University of Utah Library, 1978. Xv + 131 pp. $6.00.)

An interesting perspective on Utah history with its span of sixty-five years in the life of an immigrant Jewish merchant in Mormon Zion. Mr. Roe traces his life from childhood in a small Russian town, to immigration to the United States, through World War I, and the depression years. He built a successful clothing business in twenty years, then retired to a busy life of community, social, and religious activities. The final chapter of the volume gives brief, perceptive descriptions of Mr. Roe's friends —including well-known personalities.

Country Miles Are Longer than City Miles: The Story of the Only Truly American Artcrafts. By CRAIG EVAN ROYCE. (Pasadena, Calif.: Ward Ritchie Press, 1976. 125 pp. $12.50.)

A series of essays on Appalachian artisans involved in crafting everything from quilts to dulcimers, this book is more concerned with the personalities of the craftsmen than the actual craft procedures. Although the emphasis is not local, this book could be a model and an incentive for developing research on Utah artisans.

American Midwives, 1860 to the Present. By JUDY BARRETT LITOFF. Contributions in Medical History, no. 1. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978. Xii + 197 pp. $15.95.)

Women and Men Midwives: Medicine and Morality in Early America. By

JANE B. DONEGAN. Contributions in Medical History, no. 2. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978. Viii + 316 pp. $17.95.)

These two books deal with the history of midwifery in America during different periods and the decline of midwifery's popularity in the face of pressure from medical doctors. Women and Men Midwives examines the midwife's status, duties, and skills from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries and the development of the "man midwives" who eventually overshadowed female midwives in deliveries. American Midwives, traces the decline of midwifery as an institution and recounts how childbirth was transformed in most American minds from a natural event to an infirmity requiring a doctor's care.

Taken by the Wind: The Vanishing Architecture of the West. By RONALD WOODALL and T. H. WATKINS. (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1977. $29.95.)

This book consists of 431 color photographs of old fisheries, schools, wagons, churches, locomotives, canneries, barns, and ghost towns throughout western Canada and the United States. Utah is represented by photographs of the Union Pacific Depot, the City Hall and the Silver King Coalition Mine building in Park City, and scenes from Heber City, Harrisburg, and Rockport.

Buildings Reborn: New Uses, Places. By BARBARA LEE DIAMONSTEIN. (New York: Harper & Row, 1978. 255 pp. Paper, $10.00.)

Black-and-white photographs and illustrations document the adaptive use of historic buildings.