Book Notices

Exploring the Fremont

By DAVID B. MADSEN. (Salt Lake City: Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah, 1989 xiv-f 70 pp Paper, $12.00.)

Produced as an exhibit catalog, Exploring the Fremont is handsomely designed and printed and, mor e important, provides an excellent introduction to these enigmatic people who lived in the eastern Great Basin and western Colorado Plateau country from about A.D. 650 to 1250. State archaeologist David B Madsen does a fine jo b of presenting the Fremont people to a lay audience. Th e text gives readers a lot of information about but no final answers to the Fremont; we learn muc h about them, but they remain hauntingly illusive Th e illustrations of artifacts and sites add to our understanding. Anyone interested in Utah's prehistoric peoples will want this book; it is muc h mor e than an exhibit catalog.

Lehi: Portraits of a Utah Town

By RICHARD S VAN WAGONER (Lehi: Lehi City Corporation, 1990 x -I- 469 pp $35.00.)

Many town histories in Utah were published in the 1940s as projects of local camps of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Although these compilations remain useful as repositories of information not readily available elsewhere, they are dated. Most of them emphasize the pioneer settlement period and provide little or no context for or interpretation of events.

In the 1980s many new town histories appeared, and the 1990s began auspiciously for local history with this volume Richard Van Wagoner's history of Lehi looks at the broad sweep ofth e city's history from Paleo-Indian times to the latest plans of the city council in a well-written opening section that gives readers an overview of Lehi history Th e author places events in this Utah Valley community in the larger context of state, national, and even international events such as the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, packing a lot of historical data into a highly readable format.

Subsequent sections treat such topics as municipal government, religion, commerce, industry, entertainment, etc., but with a difference. Van Wagoner uses the topical approach to history skillfully H e draws his information from a wide range of sources (appropriately documented) and, again, sets the building of a store or a brickyard into a broader, often interpretive context As a result, the accounts are informative and engaging, full of facts and figures, people and places, and intriguing details such as neighbors might exchange over a backyard fence.

The book is beautifully printed and bound, a reflection ofthe author's and publisher's care Both Van Wagoner and Lehi City should be proud of this excellent community history It could serve as a model for other aspiring town historians.

In Search of the Golden West: The Tourist in Western America.

By EARL POMEROY (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990. xxii -I- 233 pp. Paper, $9.95.)

When Alfred A Knopf published the original edition of Pomero's study of western tourism in 1957, the book stood almost alone in that field. Since then, no doubt in response to the headlong outdoor recreation boom and related concerns about the environment, a considerable number of other studies have joined it Pomero's book still holds its own, and we are fortunate to have it back in print in a convenient paperback format Not the least of this edition's virtues is a new ten-page introduction in which Pomeroy tells how and why he originally wrote the book and surveys subsequent historiography.

Prevailing over Time: Ethnic Adjustment on the Kansas Prairies, 1875-1925.

By D AIDAN MCQUILLAN. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990. xx + 292 pp. $37.50.)

This significant book examines ethnic adjustment on the Kansas Irontier during the period 1875-1925 Th e study involves three ethnic groups that arrived in central Kansas at about the same time—French Canadians, Swedes, ftnd Mennonites of German descent, most of whom came to Kansas from southern Russia Recognizing the traditional elements of ethnicity: language, religion, race, culture, and a sense of territorial identification, Prevailing Over Time focuses on a sixth element—value system—arguing that "by examining the farm decisions of immigrant groups m the American Midwest over the first fifty years of settlement, it is possible to monitor adaptations in the priorities of each group as it adjusted to the opportunities of American life" (p. 10).

Under this broad thesis, the author covers such themes as the social, economic, and farming experience before the groups reached Kansas; the process of establishing and sustaining ethnic communities; economic successes; adaptation to a new geographical environment; and farming decisions that reflected both the geographical adaptation and ethnic values of each group.

Wigioam Evenings: Sioux Folk Tales Retold

By CHARLES A. EASTMAN and ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990 xii-l-253 pp Paper, $7.95.)

These allegories, a composite, condensed sampling of tribal lore, represent "th e distilled conclusions of generations. . .of Plains society and point to the essence of what it is to be a decent, thoughtful, respectable human " The collection was originally published in 1909.