Book Notices

Railroad Postcards in the Age of Steam.

By H ROGER GRANT (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1994 xiii + 208. $29.95.)

Historian Roger Grant provides a fascinating introductory essay to this album of more than 150 representative postcards from the well known John Vander Maas collection at the University of Iowa Grant examines the postcard craze that engulfed America in the early twentieth century when, for example, in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 1908, a postal official reported that 667,777,798 postcards had been mailed.

Many postcards touted the natural wonders of a particular area or featured a prominent building—part of the boosterism of the era A significant postcard category included railroads The trains themselves, trestles, and passenger stations were photographed and reproduced on cards. So popular and profitable were the cards that certain views were pirated.

The book will delight railroad buffs, but it will also disappoint The off-white text on which it is printed is not the best kind of paper for reproducing the postcards.

Always Bet on the Butcher: Warren Nelson and Casino Gaming, 1930s-1980s.

By WARREN NELSON, KEN ADAMS, R. T. KING, and GAIL K NELSON (Reno: University of Nevada Oral History Program, 1994 xxii + 219 pp $21.95.)

Based on extensive interviews with its subject, this book provides a biography of a celebrated gambler, Warren Nelson, and an inside look at Nevada's casino gaming industry. Nelson began his gambling career as a young man in Montana After World War II he managed the new Harrah's Club in Reno and in 1962 became a partner in Club Cal-Neva, a highly successful casino The narrative is much more readable than one expects from an oral history account and will surely intrigue anyone interested in the gaming industry.

"Fit Never Fight Fire with My Bare Hands Again ": Recollections of the First Forest Rangers of the Inland Northwest.

Edited by HAL K. ROTHMAN. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994. xi + 275 pp. Cloth, $35.00; paper, $14.95.)

Forest rangers in northern Idaho, western Montana, and eastern Washington in the early twentieth century often worked far from towns, alone on foot or horseback, with little equipment, and with no means of communication They surveyed land, enforced regulations, evaluated homestead claims, inventoried resources, organized timber sales, let grazing permits, fought fires and sought ways to prevent them, and dealt with numerous situations not covered by agency directives.

Hal Rothman, an associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has selected and provided context for informative letters written by early foresters. Literate and perceptive, the writers reveal the challenges they faced in balancing the needs of rural communities with agency regulations and in living their lives in isolation. As one forester wrote: "It got so lonely my dog couldn't stand it He went down to the Kootenai River and howled 'til the ferryman from Gateway came over and took him across to town." Bitter cold and heavy snow in winter were often followed by flames in summer. In 1910 alone 1,700 fires blackened millions of acres and killed 80 fire fighters.

In using the words of those who lived and worked in the inland Northwest at the turn of the century and weaving them together with thoughtful analysis, Rothman has created a valuable social history of the early Forest Service.

Black Saints in a White Church: Contemporary African American Mormons.

By JESSIE L. EMBRY (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994. xv + 270 pp. Paper, $18.95.)

Based on interviews with 224 black Latter-day Saints conducted by the Redd Center at BYU, plus a mail survey that netted some 200 responses, this book tackles tough questions such as—What motivates an African American to join a predominately white church with a past record of excluding blacks from full participation?

Embry carefully sets a context for her work with chapters on "Black Churches in America," "The LDS Church and African Americans," and "The Impact of the LDS 'Negro Policy.'" The individual accounts of these black Latter-day Saints create a new perspective for viewing the complex topic of race relations in America.

The "rubber hits the road" as the interviewees reveal their feelings about and experiences with interracial dating, socializing with white members outside of church settings, acceptance within church organizations, and other topics Whether negative or positive, their candid remarks are skillfully woven by Embry into a rich narrative that sheds light on the continuing struggle of blacks and whites to live together in harmony and with genuine respect for each other.