Book Reviews

Trailing the Pioneers: A Guide to Utah's Emigrant Trails, 1829-1869.

Edited by PETER H. DELAFOSSE. (Logan: Utah State University Press with Utah Crossroads, Oregon-California Trails Association, 1994. xii + 132 pp. Paper, $9.95.)

This excellent volume is modeled after the American Guide Series that was printed in the 1930s and 1940s by the Federal Writer's Project. In the original series various tours along major thoroughfares were described by the view seen from the highways at different points of interest Such motorcar excursions identified landmarks, towns, and historical sites and included anecdotes pertinent to the areas Trailing the Pioneers follows this same pattern in that automobile trips are presented for exploring the Spanish, Bidwell-Bartleson, and pioneer trails and the Hastings Cutoff and Hensley's Salt Lake Cutoff. Each route is examined by an authority who has made notable contributions to chronicling the history of Utah.

The descriptions of each trail and tour are preceded by a short historical perspective, covering the discovery/ opening, purpose, and importance of that roadway to Utah during the years of its use. Each author then presents the automobile trek, explaining to the reader exactly where to start, the direction to travel, the distance, and what can be seen from various points along the way Optional excursions are also described for those who choose to leave the beaten path Other helpful items mentioned include road conditions and the availability of gas, food, and lodging.

The explanations of both the history behind the trails and the vehicle tours themselves are exceptional, especially when accompanied by the descriptive maps and pictures The prevalence of these items not only renders the sites, landmarks, and territory accessible but also makes it easy to see the course of the trails and where they exist in relation to the major highways of today.

One of the primary strengths of Trailing the Pioneers is its use of primary documents and excellent bibliography. The narrative draws extensively from the journals of those that actually traveled the emigrant pathways, which is impressive The bibliography, although it contains only selected material, is annotated and describes the contribution that each source makes to our knowledge of the overland trails traversing Utah Utah State University Press should be complimented for its work on Trailing the Pioneers as it fulfills its purpose to update and document the new information that has been discovered since the printing of Utah: A Guide to the State in 1941 Noting not only changes in landscape but also in scholarship, this guidebook is a ready reference for the status of the commercial and emigrant trails in Utah.

Written for the 1994 convention of the Oregon-California Trails Association in Salt Lake City, this work provides a scholarly contribution to the understanding of the role of Utah's historical trails. It is valuable not only because it makes history accessible to those who might otherwise ignore it but also because it is the only current volume of its kind in print today

JENNIFER RIVERS FRED R GOWANS Brigham Young University

The Road on Which We Came: A History of the Western Shoshone.

By STEVEN J. CRUM (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994 xii + 240 pp $29.95.)

By now most people have reached their conclusions about what is labeled "new western history." It is either viewed as the first inclusive look at the American West or abhorred as a tunnel-visioned, guilt-tripping exercise designed to place all of the blame for the region's problems on white males. Critics feel that the politically correct crowd, while further opening up the region to a different version of scrutiny, has also harmed the process by added new meaning to the phrase "selected bibliography." Some of those who question their methods wonder if indeed their version is "new" and in fact "history." On the other hand, the new westerners emphasize the story of the damage done to the environment and the native inhabitants of the region by the pioneers moving west that they fear has been overlooked. Obviously, what's needed here is balance. Both sides have something important to add to our expanding sense of the trans-Mississippi West, but less contention and more objectivity would enlighten all of us. Indeed, in recent years there has been far too much "divide" and too little "conquer."

A recent publication that has taken a step in the right direction is Steven Crum's book, The Road on Which We Came: A History of the Western Shoshone. This thoroughly researched, evenhanded work relies on solid professional training and is further enhanced by the fact that the author is a Shoshone who is well trained in his craft More important, there is no angry tone in this account Rather than alienating the reader, the author sets him or her at ease For example, he recognizes the current trend to label the original inhabitants of this country as Native Americans, but he also realizes that many people, including those on reservations, commonly use the term Indian, and so he refers to the latter designation throughout the book. In addition, he cites the fact that placing them front and center in a comprehensive story is not really a recent trend but actually something that was initiated a generation ago. Finally, Crum is balanced in his approach to whites When they are clearly helping the Shoshone people, he gives them credit; when not, he appropriately points out their shortcomings.

Crum divides his book into seven logical sections focusing on prehistory, early contacts, reservation and nonreservation Shoshone, the New Deal era, the termination period, and recent events up to 1990 It is important that he emphasizes the nonreservation group since they made up twothirds of the tribe It is also significant that a large part of the volume deals with the twentieth century—an era often overlooked by Indian historians. In fact, the longest chapter deals with the shortest period—the 1930s This is proof, once again, thatJohn Collier, in spite of his deficiencies, provided the most dynamic change in policy in the long period of Native Americanfederal government relations Most important, the Shoshone are the main actors in this play. They and not the government agencies, determined their own course of action, approving or rejecting programs and policies as they saw fit.

This reviewer hopes that future works in western history keep on the path that Dr Crum takes Rather than the one-sided view of many earlier histories or the contentious observations of recent accounts, neither of which provide accuracy or objectivity, his work demonstrates how professional history should enlighten and educate its reader In addition, Crum places these events squarely in the context of general American history, and this approach should greatly aid the novice in Shoshone history. Five excellent maps and several photographs should also help The only real problem with the book is the final chapter, which could have been divided into two sections and covered in more detail Still, this should be considered a definitive history of a people who have never before had an all-inclusive account.

Kudos for Crum

JAMES A. VLASICH Southern Utah University

Roots of Chicano Politics, 1600-1940.

By JUAN GOMEZ-QUINONES (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994 xiv + 540 pp Cloth, $40.00; paper, $19.95.)

Juan Gomez-Quinones is a professor of history at UCLA and has previously written a volume on Chicano politics—Reality and Promise, 1940-1990 (UNM Press). That volume described the development of Chicano politics from the period immediately preceding World War II until the 1990s. The present volume provides context by outlining the whole course of Chicano history from its beginnings to that prewar period.

This work is well done and badly needed as it fills a great void in the history of the Mexican-American population; neither Mexican nor United States national histories have adequately treated the development of this population Moreover, it is ambitious, as it attempts in one volume to trace the birth and growth of Chicanos over a period of 350 to 400 years. In this reviewer's opinion, the ambition is realized through the author's close adherence to his purpose. Through the development of three primary themes he accomplishes his aim

The three themes he carefully develops are a reconstruction of the political history of Mexican-Americans in what is now the U.S. Southwest, a look at diversity among MexicanAmericans as it relates to politics, and a look at ethnicity as it relates to Mexican-Americans and the relationship of this ethnicity to politics Since the Mexican-American population is a significant minority, no study of ethnicity would be complete without an appreciation of this group.

In terms of scope, this work begins with a description of the populations that melded to produce the MexicanAmerican This description includes the Native American peoples from the valley of Mexico and the Indian populations of the Southwest. To these, in turn, were added the Spanish conquerors and their retinues Whether they were Peninsulares, Criollos, or African slaves, they all became part of the great amalgam that produced the Mestizo To a large extent, this is a story of the process of Mestizaje. The Mexican-American population was and is distinctly Mestizo The Spanish colonization of the Southwest was accomplished primarily by Mestizos. Only a few Europeans were part of these colonizations and, over the more than two centuries between the colonization of these northern departments of Mexico and the U.S conquest, they were absorbed into the Mestizos.

The author develops a strong case that this process of Mestizaje must be well understood if anyone is going to be able to understand the MexicanAmerican population This is the beginning of understanding, but there are other factors to be considered, including the vicissitudes of the frontier, the short Mexican national period, and the North American captivity and subsequent domination/consolidation Of particular concern to the author, and rightly so, is the period following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo This treaty, which provided a basic statement of protection for the civil rights of Mexican-Americans, was negated in significant ways as they had to endure economic pillage and exploitation, social discrimination, cultural suppression, and economic displacement These conditions form the basis for their story from 1848 to the 1990s, augmented by the immigrant stream that has added numbers to the population that was here at the end of the war with Mexico. It is in this milieu that Gomez-Quinones must trace the evolution of Mexican-American political development. This he does carefully and truthfully. Some of his conclusions may be disturbing, but one must remember this is more than an anthology.

The author has been careful to include his conclusions, provide excellent footnotes, and list a good bibliography There is also an index, but one wishes it was more complete.

RICHARD O ULIBARRI Weber State University

Citizens Against the MX: Public Languages in the Nuclear Age.

By MATTHEW GLASS (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993 xxiv + 188 pp $29.95.)

Citizens Against the MX is a sometimes exciting, sometimes unnerving, and sometimes infuriating but often provocative book. The author uses some of the tools of the "new historicism" and the deconstruction of texts to analyze the efforts of several citizens' groups in the Great Basin in the late 1970s and early 1980s to defeat the proposal of the U.S. Air Force to base a new ICBM in the region The Air Force said the new ICBM, called the MX for a time but later named by Ronald Reagan in 1981 the "Peacekeeper" to emphasize its deterrent capability, would ensure the safety of the United States from the Soviet threat Deploying it in the Great Basin made sense, said the Air Force, because of its vast expanse of under-populated and under-used federal lands. The MX project also offered jobs to the region, something that was attractive to many politicians and business leaders. In spite of this, a coalition of divergent interests—principally ranchers, environmentalists, Western Shoshones, and Mormons—organized to oppose the deployment and persuaded the Reagan administration to site the MX elsewhere.

Glass's efforts to analyze this important episode in western and U.S. history is only partly successful His first three chapters describe reasonably well the opposition to the MX in the region. In them he makes good use of interviews with key opponents of the MX and of records from groups organized to battle the Air Force. These are the most useful portions of the book His last three chapters seek to deconstruct the public discourse and analyze the successful opposition of citizens to government initiatives Using especially the theories of Jurgen Habermas, Glass finds that there is a way for citizens to affect the debate over public policy.

At the same time, however, Glass never makes any serious attempt to present either the Air Force perspective on the effort or the positions of other federal agencies, none of which was monolithic and sometimes stood in opposition one to another. Glass tried to explain away this fact in his introduction by commenting that he was unable to contact any Air Force personnel because "if still in service, [they] had taken up subsequent assignments in other parts of the country" (p. xxii). This is an unsatisfactory answer, for virtually all of them could have been reached by telephone simply by obtaining their assignment numbers from Headquarters USAF's personnel office In addition, the author could have benefitted substantially from documentary research at the Air Force Historical Research Center in the Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, where official records are maintained As a result, this is a highly one-sided and far from definitive discussion of the episode.

Indeed, the author even seems to offer conclusions that are not supported by the evidence when dealing with the government's attitude about MX basing One example from p 102 should suffice for what seems to be a pattern that arises every few pages In 1980 Undersecretary of the Air Force Antonia Chayes replied to an anti-MX editorial written by University of Utah law professor Edwin B Firmage in the Salt Lake Tribune with a handwritten note to the paper. Glass uses that note to support something that at least the portions he quoted did not demonstrate. In it Chayes applauded the "positive and stimulating" dialogue the Air Force was engaged in with the citizens of the region. She added, "We are making every effort to consult with the leaders and citizens of the potentially affected areas so as to devise approaches to this vital national undertaking which are compatible with local concerns and values After all, the Air Force's mission in strategic defense, as in all other areas, is to protect our way of life." In the next paragraph Glass concludes on the basis of the discussion of Chayes's note that she attempted "to disqualify Firmage as an authoritative source on the real meaning of U.S. strategic policy" and that it "sounded persuasive because it posited a gap between the knowledge available to citizens and that available to the genuine experts." I do not see how the quoted portions of Chayes's note provide evidence for Glass's conclusion. The full story of the MX basing controversy has yet to be written When it is, Glass's work will be an important reference point for his analysis of the opposition groups and how they planned and accomplished their task. It will also include a reasoned analysis of the position and perspective of the Air Force and other governmental, business, and political interests who played in the controversy. Most important, it will explore the question of technocracy and its place in modern American society, a fasci-nating question that Glass did not consider despite its centrality to the MX fight in the Great Basin.

ROGER D LAUNIUS NASA ChiefHistorian Washington, D. C.

History of Idaho.

By LEONARD J ARRINGTON 2 vols. (Moscow and Boise: University of Idaho Press and Idaho State Historical Society. 1994.xxx +961 pp. $45.00.)

Along with parades and fireworks, Idaho in 1990 celebrated its statehood centennial by commissioning a native son to write its history A well-known regional historian born and raised in a Mormon farm community near Twin Falls, Leonard Arrington combines professional expertise with personal experience in this wide-ranging survey.Jointly sponsored by the Idaho State Historical Society and the University of Idaho Press and funded by a special act of the Idaho State Legislature, this handsomely bound and cased set is a tightly woven historical tapestry of people, places, and events.

Both history and reference guide, this work benefits from the author's professional training and maturity as a senior scholar with many years of teaching experience Drawing upon the voluminous publications of state historian Merle Wells and other specialists and incorporating his own extensive work on Idaho economic history, the author follows a familiar American story adapted to meet harsh local conditions: how Idahoans met the challenge of free enterprise by converting what early travelers considered a sagebrush wasteland into a productive agricultural empire.

As might be expected, Arrington is at his best in describing Idaho's economic development He exposes the dichotomy of Idaho's individualist ethic and its dependence on federal aid in developing its three biggest industries: agriculture, mining, and forestry He also makes apparent the ironic contradiction between the strident anti-Mormonism of Idaho's nineteenth-century political leadership and the essential contribution that Mormon immigrants made in the development of towns and farms in the Upper Snake River Basin.

In a broad summary chapter, perhaps his best interpretive effort, Arrington concludes with an appropriate centennial theme: unification after 100 years of desultory development A century of road-building and other improvements have diminished the physical barriers that once divided Idaho In the author's view, the state has also integrated psychologically by developing a regional identity, with Salt Lake City and Spokane at last giving way to Boise as Idaho's dominant commercial and political power.

Writing with both grace and tact, the author is careful to provide a balanced perspective. His view of the Bear Creek Massacre, for instance, the largest Indian slaughter in U.S. military annals, is equalized first by acknowledging modern criticism for the indiscriminate killing of women and children and then by noting the contemporary praise for what was once considered "proper punishment" for marauding Indians. His coverage of the Coeur d'Alene mining troubles in 1892 and 1899 and the subsequent events leading to the Steunenberg assassination and the later trials is short and devoid of finger-pointing. However, the author often downplays or sidesteps controversial issues. He mentions the emerging environmental movement of the 1960s but does not develop the subject other than to say that the issues were "complicated." The section on Japanese-American relocation glosses over the rampant racism that characterized Idaho's reaction to Pearl Harbor and notes the "blessing in disguise" by which relocation forced internees out of cultural isolation. Other racial issues are dismissed with a vague generalization: "As elsewhere, some prejudice and discrimination existed" (vol. 2, p. 289).

Designed for general audiences and students, the narrative studiously avoids technical jargon While the writing style is clear, it is also occasionally simplistic It is not very enlightening, for example, to learn that 312pound fur trader David Mackenzie was "a large man," or that "gold is very heavy," or that women leaders "have helped to make Idaho a better place to live." The statement that some hardrock miners were frustrated by "sulphurets" (i.e., sulfides) is unfathomable without a brief explanation of the difference between freemilling and refractory ores. Speaking of Chinese miners, the term "tong" is not synonymous with "company." Describing Southern treatment by Congressional Radicals as "far more severe" than U.S postwar treatment of Germany and Japan seems antiquated in view of recent Reconstruction historiography.

Despite some limitations, this is a prodigious effort to incorporate two centuries of development into a single narrative history. All the noteworthy events are here, and most of the notable personalities. The publishers also deserve applause for an attractive layout, with helpful illustrations at the end of each chapter, and a text font that is easy on the eye.

H LIMBAUGH University of the Pacific Stockton, California

Adventures on the Western Frontier: Major General John Gibbon.

+Edited by ALAN and MAUREEN GAFF. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. xvi + 256 pp. $24.95.)

This work consists of ten selections written byJohn Gibbon about his service with the U.S. Army in the West during the last half of the 1800s. Eight of the articles have been previously published in five different periodicals. Additional works by him have been published but are not included in this compilation. The articles develop three themes related to Gibbon's life: Military families moving west to Camp Floyd, Utah Territory; the grandeur of the pristine West; and military-Indian affairs related to the Sioux and Nez Perce wars and their aftermath.

Adventures on the Western Frontier begins with Gibbon's previously unpublished letters which describe his overland trip accompanying families posted to Camp Floyd in 1860 Unfortunately, letters written about the journey from Fort Bridger to Camp Floyd have been lost They would have been of great interest to readers in Utah had they been included His letters tell of little-known details of routine followed by civilians and soldiers as they moved together—yet apart, across the plains.

Gibbon took Nicholas Biddle's journal of Lewis and Clark's expedition with him to Utah It was his constant companion in his subsequent movements about Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming He frequently referred to that expedition, the route it followed, the adventure it was Whether exploring, hunting and fishing, or pursuing Sioux and Nez Perce, Gibbon referenced Lewis and Clark in the same area he was passing through.

The descriptive prose Gibbon used painted word pictures of the West worthy of a travel brochure designed to lure tourists there. He wrote of rushing crystal clear streams, invigorating mountain air, and the wonders of Yellowstone's geysers and the fragile formations deposited by their eruptions. He described catching trout with mouths "large enough to take in your hand."

Gibbon never let the exigencies of the military campaign interfere with his sportsman's quest for fish and game. In the midst of chasing Sitting Bull he hunted buffalo Tracking the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph he frequently cast his fly upon the water to reel in the prize offered so abundantly in streams of Idaho and Montana Grouse, venison, antelope, buffalo, fish of all varieties, and berries were all sought as the soldiers under Gibbon moved through the field. Being a trooper with him had certain fringe benefits not enjoyed by those under the command of others in locations distant from the West.

His account of the actions of his command along with Crook, Terry, and Custer in the Sioux War of 1876 is straightforward military reporting. It is valuable in that it is a narrative by one of the principal leaders of the campaign who was privy to the plans and orders of the same His account of the rescue of Reno's survivors, the burial details, and the withdrawal from the Little Big Horn to pursue the Sioux is fascinating.

Matters of control, small insignificant things to soldiers of that time but of great interest to readers of our day, are explained For example, he tells how pack animals were trained to respond to the bell The lead mule carried the bell; others dutifully followed When morning round-up came, he wrote, "it is only necessary to sound it [bell] to assemble every mule belonging to that particular train."

In reflection, Gibbon was one of those experienced Indian fighters who expressed dismay that the U.S. government could be so provocative and inhumane to Indians. He had been wounded by Nez Perce at the Battle of Big Hole, yet he later became a fast friend of their Chief Joseph after their futile flight toward Canada in 1877 His comments on war, weaponry, and training of soldiers are thoughtful.

The editors of Adventures on the Western Frontier have demonstrated once again that well-written primary sources such as Gibbon's experiences, skillfully compiled, are as interesting and possibly more fascinating than later historical interpretation To one who has had a life-long passion for field work in appreciating history, this book has ignited the flame to march again where Gibbon had such vivid experiences.

DON R MATHIS Carmichael, California