Book Reviews

The Desert's Past: A Natural Prehistory of the Great Basin.

By DONALD K GRAYSON (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993 xx + 356 pp $44.95.)

Fragmentary clues to the Great Basin's environmental history reveal a past very different from the Great Basin of moder n times. In this elegant book Donald Grayson gathers together many of these clues to build a "natural prehistory," a panoramic account of the last 25,000 years in the Great Basin, its landscapes, and the plants, animals, and people who lived there.

Th e author begins with the first public recognition, by Joh n C. Fremont, of a "Great interior Basin" in North America where rivers and lakes find no outlet to any ocean This hydrographic definition of the Great Basin is but one of several ways scientists distinguish the region: it is also distinctive in physiography (the Basin and Range geologic province), botany (the shrublands and woodlands of the cold Great Basin desert), and anthropology (the homeland of Ute, Paiute, Shoshoni, and Washo peoples).

How did it get to be this way? The answer is by no means obvious Were the reader somehow transported to the Great Basin of 20,000 years ago— a world of lakes and glaciers, forests and elephants—the Great Basin of today probably would be considered an unlikely future. For one thing, no other human s would be surveying the scene Th e reader would, however, share the landscape with some two dozen genera of mammals and birds that are now extinct Grayson gives an excellent background on the first peopling of the Americas at the close of the Pleistocene and on the mammalian bestiary lost to North America at that same time; then he examines how these animals met their fates Grayson has played a prominent role in the debate over the causes of these extinctions, mounting forceful arguments against the hypothesis that the first Americans killed them all off Instead, he suggests, massive climate change resulted in greater aridity, reorganization of biotic communities, and the sweeping extinctions.

Increased aridity is best seen in the histories of glaciers and great Pleistocene lake systems in the Great Basin (chapter 5) Th e degree of biotic reorganization that occurred is best visualized by considering late Pleistocene plant communities (chapter 6) and animal populations (chapter 7).

Compare this Pleistocene setting with the last 10,000 years, the Holocene (chapter 8): the environment got drier and warmer (10,000-7,500 years ago), then drier and warmer still (7,500-4,500 years ago), then slightly cooler and wetter (4,500 years ago to now) Lakes shrank, marshes dwindled, rivers changed course. Ranges of trees and shrubs expanded or withdrew long distances in response to fluctuating climatic constraints Mammals commo n during the Pleistocene became restricted in distribution or died out altogether. The Great Basin reached its generally modern configuration only about 4,500 year ago.

Broad patterns of human occupation during the changing Holocene fit these environmental fluctuations (chapter 9) Most early Holocene occupation is found in wetland settings. Evidence for Middle Holocene occupation is notably scarce, suggesting that the aridity was harsh for human life Th e climatic amelioration about 4,500 years ago allowed increased occupation by people who lived much like native peoples known historically. Whether these people were ancestors of the historic Paiute and Shoshoni is hotly debated; Grayson discusses one hypothesis, the "Numic Expansion," which suggests that Paiute an d Shoshoni peoples spread across the Great Basin within the past 1,000 years, replacing other groups, including the Fremont Culture.

The historic period is covered in two final chapters Th e first gives a demographic analysis of mortality among the ill-fated Donner party, while the second examines the role of livestock and fire in changing the Great Basin environment. As Grayson points out, very little of the Great Basin is truly pristine, and no natural history can neglect human effects on the environment.

Throughout, Grayson summarizes masses of current evidence and analyses, drawing on information from far beyond the Great Basin's confines to explain key concepts or to establish necessary frameworks for understanding Th e result is a clear, engaging account accessible to any interested reader Th e author highlights current problems where interpretations conflict or where the evidence needed to resolve them is lacking: in short, the cutting edge of the science These problems and their means to resolution are presented with such clarity that the effect is galvanizing: you want to march right out, find the necessary clues, and solve them. Easier said than done, of course, but that is both the challenge and the satisfaction of paleoecological research Th e reader will get a feel for both in this excellent volume.

DAVID RHODE Desert Research Institute Reno, Nevada

The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past.

Edited by D. MICHAEL QUINN. (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992. xx + 310 pp. Paper, $18.95.)

D Michael Quinn has selected fifteen articles from a potential pool of nearly a thousand published items that might be considered in some way revisionist or representative of the new Mormon history Th e essays are by men and women, academics and non-academics, Mormons and non-Mormons, and professional historians and non-historians. Most authors are well known to students of Mormon history Seven authors are past presidents of the Mormon History Association, and another is past editor of the Journal of Mormon History.

Quinn includes as an epilogue B H Roberts's "Justice Will Follow Truth" excerpted from his Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints (1930) as a harbinger of the new Mormon history Roberts held that history should speak truthfully and allow condemnation or justification to fall where it will. Even so, Quinn maintains that the new Mormon history did not take hold until 1950 with the publication of Juanita Brooks's Mountain Meadows Massacre. This book represented several ingredients of the new history, including a willingness to deal with a controversial topic, refusing to conceal "sensitive" evidence, following the evidence where it leads—even to revisionist interpretations contrary to traditional assumptions, adhering to scholarly standards of objectivity, and refusing to cater to public opinion without being condescending, offensive, or didactic.

The selections cover a broad array of subjects from female issues to frontier experiences, demographic studies to internal and external stresses of Mormonism. Studies of Joseph Smith, the Council of Fifty, and polygamy constitute other prominent topics.

Five of the articles first appeared in Dialogue: Afournal of Mormon Thought, three in Sunstone, two in fournal of Mormon History, two in Utah Historical Quarterly, on e in Western Humanities Review, and two as parts of books Stanley S. Ivins's article on polygamy is first chronologically, having appeared in 1956 Four additional articles were published in the 1960s, four in the 1970s, and six in the 1980s, with the last being Kenneth L. Cannon's and Dean L May's articles published in 1983. Non e of these articles will be new to the student of Utah and Mormon history—some have even been subject to later revisionism Th e articles were chosen no t as the last word but because they represent the first reassessment of a particular subject and because they demonstrate the impact of the new Mormon history in the decades since 1950.

The articles also represent the interdisciplinary and cross-cultural nature of new history as well as the new techniques used by new history—be it new American history, new western history, or new Mormon history—to reexamine old topics in new ways and to give greater emphasis to some previously understated subjects such as women, families, minorities, and the common people.

To some more traditional lay readers there may be some controversial or shocking revelations included However, for the student of Mormon history there is nothing that is really new. Rather, the essays represent a nice, thoughtfully selected, orderly historiographic study of four decades of writings in Mormon history.

WAYNE K HINTON Southern Utah University Cedar City

Women of Covenant: The Story of Relief Society.

By JILL MULVAY DERR, JANATH RUSSELL CANNON, and MAUREEN URSENBACH BEECHER (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1992 xiv +54 4 pp $21.00.)

Women of Covenant is a book detailing the history of the Latter-day Saint Relief Society from its inception to the 1992 sesquicentennial year, with chapters chronicling the events that occurred during the tenure of each of the thirteen general presidents Written at the request of Barbara Smith, then general president of the Relief Society, it is an unembarrassed an d unapologetic song of praise for the Mormon women's auxiliary association Assuming their dominant readership to be Mormon, the authors admittedly present a one-sided viewpoint, using language familiar to Mormons and making numerous references to moments of divine inspiration that will perhaps bemuse the non-LDS reader. When, for example, the authors refer to Brigham Young as "a divinely guided entrepreneur with expansive dreams and kingdom-centered ambitions," they make an assumption that a non-Mormon might find presumptuous.

Nevertheless, since the purpose of the book is to show the power, courage, nobility, and inherent goodness of the women involved in this organization, its quality should be judge d on how well that goal is met; and on that basis the book is a fine success. It is not, as one might suppose by the title and structure, a treatise on the different personalities of the leaders, although their strengths are mentioned. It is rather a general look at the historical situations faced by the Mormon church and the responsive actions they prompted among the sisterhood of the society Th e book describes in some detail those political and social trends to which the society has had to adjust in order to stay relevant and vital: the struggles of the nascent church in Nauvoo, the pioneer trials in Utah, the fight for statehood and female enfranchisement, the concern over poor medical care and the concomitant infant and mother mortality rates of the twentieth century, the agonies of World War I, the unemployment and forced frugality of the Great Depression, the suffering of World War II, the dissent and dissonance of the sixties, and the worldwide growth of the church in the seventies and eighties. Each of the major policy changes in the history of the Relief Society is explained in light of prevailing social needs at the time, changes that were often prompted by the creative thinking and improvisation of local units where individual needs of women were noted and met.

Perhaps the strongest message in the book is that the success of the Relief Society is due to the dedication of individual members—their vision, determination, influence, obedience, and charity. Abundant quotations showing how women responded to situation after situation with selflessness and generosity are often a source of amazement and sometimes amusement to the reader. It is astonishing, for instance, to read of Gertrude Zippro, a district Relief Society president in a Netherlands mission during World War II, who time and again braved bullets, German troop movements, and bombing raids in order to visit her "sisters" and complete an assignment to help train church leaders in Holland. And it is delightful to read in one report to the society in 1917 that "Tahitian sisters not only made quilts and wove hats (to help raise money for local programs), but also kept enthusiastically busy diving for pearls to increase their funds."

Th e book refers often to the struggles of these "women of covenant" to balance their desire for independence against the requirement of obedience and their desire for unity against inevitable social and cultural diversity, emphasizing that one of the greatest assets of the organization is the ability of women to respond creatively to these types of difficult challenges. It is a panoramic view of a society that for 150 years has worked to use the strength of the female character to improve a world painfully in need of that which women have to offer.

REBECCA VAN DYKE Kaysville, Utah

The Mormons' War on Poverty: A History of LDS Welfare, 1830-1990.

By GARTH L MANGUM and BRUCE D BLUMELL (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1993 xvi + 320 pp $29.95.)

Garth L Mangum, an academic economist, and Bruce D. Blumell, a former researcher in the Historical Department of the LDS church, have produced an insightful, authoritative, readable, and solidly documented account of the Mormons' approach to economic welfare from 1830 to press time in 1991.

They rightly insist on the constancy of LDS economic welfare goals— short-term emergency help, self-reliance, and establishing the millennial ideal of an egalitarian Zion—throughout a history in which the economic status of church members and the means employed to meet those three goals have varied widely.

The authors hold that early attempts to overcome poverty and economic inequality, such as stewardships, consecrations, and cooperatives, were largely symbolic and unrealized The period through 1900, occupying only one-fourth of the book, draws on excellent works already available.

Th e bulk of the narrative covers the present century and makes extensive use of more inaccessible sources Notable in early twentieth-century welfare activities were the church's support of progressive and reformist legislation; the organization of ward Relief Societies as units of the American Red Cross; and the professionalization of the Relief Society's Social Service Department Th e latter offered courses in family welfare, encouraged a core of Mormon women to pursue social work degrees at eastern schools, and, particularly when the depression arrived, worked closely with state and county welfare agencies.

Early in the depression it became clear that the enormity of the nation's economic distress would prevent the church from fully caring for its own Nonetheless, the conservative views of J Reuben Clark, opposed as they were to "the evils of the dole," set the tone of the new Church Welfare Plan inaugurated in 1936. President Clark's philosophical differences with Presiding Bishop Sylvester Q Cannon make vivid reading after half a century Cannon's views eventually prevailed as the church focused on emergency assistance and self-reliance, leaving the weightier demands of the long-term needy to the federal government.

LDS welfare efforts after World War II became bureaucratized and correlated Fast offerings, welfare farms, Deseret Industries, employment centers, rehabilitation, LDS Social Services (adoption, foster care, counseling), disaster relief, and direct church support of soup kitchens and homeless shelters round out the familiar contours of today's welfare activities.

Perhaps the most compelling part of this book deals with burgeoning overseas involvement as the church internationalizes Th e authors list 75 LDS-supported humanitarian service projects, often initiated and managed on the basis of grass-roots contacts, carried out in several dozen countries since 1982. Micro-enterprise development and employment centers have been particularly effective overseas.

The authors detect competing priorities for LDS membership as opportunities for international welfare service increase, yet they rightly extrapolate from the historical record that proselyting and temple-related activities will never be curtailed to provide more resources for purely secular well-being.

There is a nice symmetry in the thought that the efforts of Latter-day Saints for a century and a half to better themselves economically have borne fruit rich enough to permit a growing engagement with the needs of members and nonmembers throughout the world. The Mormons' War on Poverty reliably documents and interprets that maturation.

MARCELLUS S SNOW University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu

Health and Medicine among the Latter-day Saints: Science, Sense, and Scripture.

By LESTER E BUSH, JR (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1993 xvi + 234 pp $24.95.)

Th e complete title of this book gives the impression that the text will be disjointed and scattershot. Indeed, the book can be looked upon as a collection of individual essays But they do tie together and, considering the complexity of Mormon doctrine and history, this is really a tidy volume. Health in the title is to be taken broadly as human well-being in all its aspects and medicine as all measures taken to attain (or regain) that wellbeing.

The book is part of a series called Health/Medicine and the Faith Traditions, sponsored by the Park Ridge Center of the Lutheran General Health System Many worldwide faiths, both Christian and non-Christian, have contributed to this series Each contributor was asked to comment on ten themes: dying, passage, well-being, healing, suffering, madness, sexuality, caring, dignity, and morality In the book's eight chapters all of these subjects are thoroughly discussed and related to the doctrines and activities of the Mormon church. Still more, there is an explanation of how the church has adapted to new knowledge and new circumstances It has not been trapped by a doctrine of complete infallibility.

A prominent theme in this work is the transition of Mormon philosophy in certain matters of health care A chapter entitled "Healing," concerned with the relationship of the church and the medical profession, could have as a secondary title "From Contempt to Hearty Cooperation." In the early days, under the leadership of Joseph Smith, reliance was placed on faith-healing, herbal medicine, and "mild foods." Physicians, aside from their service in surgical matters, were looked upon as "ignoramuses " (Brigham Young's word) who "puked, purged, blistered, and bled" their patients and dosed them with potentially dangerous drugs, such as the mercury-containing calomel. As medical science developed, physicians became more readily accepted For example, Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the church, learned that a medicine containing quinine controlled his relapses of malaria where faith-healing, herbs, and "mild foods" had failed. Since the 1880s the church has endorsed and strongly supported scientific medicine, although faith-healing is still an important adjunct.

The author, himself a Mormon, is a physician and a well-respected scholar and writer on the subject of Mormonism. H e has prepared a clearly written, well-thought-out volume. It is not large but packed with information and requires careful reading and reflection.

Th e author has taken an evenhanded approach—as one critic put it, "not promoting an ideology or over-pushing a thesis." A tremendous amount of documentary work has been done; for the chapter on healing alone there are 145 references and notes Primary sources are often quoted, and they add interesting and sometimes perplexing detail. In the Word of Wisdom there is the advice to eat meat sparingly; why, in practice, is this down-played? Is tobacco really good for bruises? Why is beer not acceptable, since barley is recommended for "mild drinks"? (It was my grandfather, Anthon H. Lund, along with fellow apostle Matthias Cowley who touted the special virtues of Danish beer, mentioned in the text.) In discussing these and other more controversial subjects, such as faith-healing and casting out of devils, the author documents the incidents carefully, putting them in the perspective of history and science, but his presentation is wisely more documentary than judgmental.

There are many anecdotes, some of them quite amusing. For example, Brigham Young, when criticized for diverting City Creek water through his hog-pen, pointed out that if he, himself, was drinking the water, why should any on e else complain. Another example concerns the oil used in the ritual of anointing and laying on of hands. It was thought by many to have healing powers in itself and was rubbed over ailing parts of the body or even taken internally Ideally it was pure olive oil, but there were substitutes O n one occasion a worthy. Saint questioned the virtue of an oil being used, saying, "it was miserable stuff, possibly a good deal of Chicago lard—or something worse."

I grew up in Salt Lake City early in this century (born in 1907) and was interested in changes that have occurred in my lifetime. Th e most notable were the acceptance of blacks into the priesthood (championed by Bush in earlier writings), the more liberal views about birth control, the stricter enforcement of the Word of Wisdom (always a valuable word of advice but now virtually a mandate), and, what may seem to be a trivial matter, restyling of the garments worn by worthy Saints as a token of their temple covenants and endowments. Originally, they covered the body from ankle to neck to wrist as modestly as possible, but we learn that several modifications have been made, even a two-piece model.

Although marriage is discussed and there is a frank discussion of sexuality, there is n o discussion of divorce Certainly it occurs among the Latter-day Saints How is it accomplished and, considering the concept of marriage for "time and eternity," what problems arise?

This is an important book. It will stand on my shelf as a key reference to the history, practices, and directives of the Mormon church in matters of health care It has a certain similarity to Thomas G. Alexander's fine study, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930, and some of the subjects overlap; but mostly the range of subjects differs and the sweep of history is broader.

HERBERT Z LUND, JR Greensboro,North Carolina

The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull.

By ROBERT M. UTLEY. (New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993 xviii + 413 pp $25.00.)

Robert M. Utley's most recent book is a welcome addition to Stanley Vestal's (nom de plume of Walter Stanley Campbell) Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux: A Biography (new edition, 1957). In his foreword to the earlier work Raymond J DeMallie wrote, "Campbell's narrative thus presents very much of a subjective, insider's perspective, not a detached, objective analysis" of Sitting Bull and the Sioux Th e historian's wish for objectivity to recount events of the past accurately is accomplished by Utley's book on Sitting Bull.

He does what Campbell did not do, that is, write a scholarly documented account with ample footnotes and bibliography It is true that he utilizes Campbell's voluminous research (bibliography published as New Sources of Indian History by Stanley Vestal, 1934), but to that material he skillfully adds the latest research to broaden and validate conclusions about Sitting Bull and his people. Detailed descriptions of incidents in Sitting Bull's life vary somewhat from those given by Campbell but are nonetheless essentially the same

A commo n thread woven through Utley's book is that Sitting Bull and many of his associates epitomized the "four cardinal virtues of Lakota men": bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom Accounts of incidents in their lives where these virtues were developed or utilized make the book exciting and insightful reading.

Numerous accounts are given where the Sioux displayed the "capacity to endure physical pain and discomfort" and showed "dignity and reserve in emotional situations," thereby revealing their fortitude. Sitting Bull's reputation for wisdom, which grew out of his mastery of the other three virtues, resulted in respect for him by friend and foe alike His wisdom came from "experience of age and maturity" and from "the power and insight gained through an active and fruitful spiritual life." He was regarded by his peers as an all-around leader: a fearless military inspiration in battle, a compassionate father figure in time of need, a spiritual prophet visionary when appropriate, and a statesman negotiator in dealing with his adversaries.

Utley clearly contrasts the treatment of Native Americans in the United States with that of those living in Canada His vehicle for this is to trace Canadian dealings with Sitting Bull's band when it fled the United States after the battle of the Little Big Horn It seems that Canada's policy was much more enlightened than that of the United States government.

Of special interest to Great Basin readers is the narrative of Sitting Bull's adoption of Frank (Ephraim) Grouard, reported to be the son of a Mormon missionary and his Polynesian wife. Grouard's early years were spent in the family of Addison Pratt in Beaver, Utah Th e Indians captured him in Montana while he was carrying mail, and he became a member of Sitting Bull's family. During the few years he lived with them he became a advisor to the Hunkpapa Sioux, helping to bridge the gap between their culture and that of the white man.

Another Great Basin connection deals with furor over the inception of the Ghost Dance in the 1890s when a Paiute holy man name d Wowoka, residing in Nevada, claimed to be the Indian Messiah. It was the Ghost Dance movement that directly led to Sitting Bull's death and the subsequent battle at Wounded Knee.

The Lance and the Shield is a gripping story that belongs in the library of those whose passion is military and Native American history.

DON R MATHIS Carmichael, California