Book Reviews

Utah History Encyclopedia.

Edited by ALLAN KENT POWELL. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994. xii +674 pp. $50.00.)

Allan Kent Powell's comprehensive Utah History Encyclopedia has created a new parlor game among the state's historians and buffs called, "How I would've done it."While it is endlessly entertaining to dream up alternate subject headings and organizational schemes—my favorite being separate biographical, geographical, and historical volumes—participants should consider the monumental size of the task.

Utah History Encyclopedia succeeds admirably in creating a single-volume reference to the colorful and complex story of Utah's past and peoples It contains avast amount of information, encompassing the sciences of paleontology, geology, meteorology, statistics, anthropology, and archaeology, and the more subtle arts of economics, biography, and history. Entries summarize the diverse peoples who compose Utah's population, the lives of prominent citizens and political figures, county and community history, the state's main industries and agricultural enterprises, civic and religious organizations, and key events. The 269 contributors represent both professional and amateur historians, including many of Utah's best.

Bythe very nature of such a compilation, the writing is uneven The encyclopedia honors the worst traits of Utah writing—never use a single, accurate adjective if two are available, never utilize a simple word like use if a good two-bit term ishandy, and always make sure the passive voice is used— with religious devotion, but the cumulative effect has a strange charm While a firmer editorial hand would have imposed a more consistent quality, such an approach would eliminate the distinctly Utah voice with which the book finally speaks, evoking surprising rhythms and idioms.

A work of this scope inevitably includes errors of fact Several confused entries make it impossible to sort out who was elected to the U.S Senate in 1896 The Mountain Meadows Massacre occurs in both August and September, and Nevada's Mormon Station was founded in 1850, not 1845 Some sins are worse than others—even the most distinguished historian should expect no mercy for killing off Utah's best chronicler, Dale L. Morgan, twoyears too soon.

Some omissions are perplexing, notably the lack of an entry on either Escalante or Dominguez or their path-breaking exploration of Utah. Separate articles commemorate Danish, Swedish, and Finnish migrants to Utah, but the single entry on Hispanics of Utah focuses narrowly on Mexican immigration. Utah history stalwarts J Cecil Alter and Charles Kelly merit space of their own, while the jury is still out on whether tycoonsJoe Cannon and Jon Huntsman or salesmen Mike Leavitt and Larry Miller will ever rank as historical figures.

If Thomas Cromwell had lived in Utah, he would find his portrait painted without a single wart, probably by an adoring descendant. Many of the state's more colorful characters are unfortunately cleaned up for public inspection—a strong sign that historians rather than grandchildren should handle biographical duties Saying Bill Hickman "executed an enemy spy" during the Utah War is both bad history and imprecise English: governments execute people; fanatics murder them Even the most deserving Utah politicians escape critical comment, and the living receive better treatment than the dead Compare the handling of two of the worst bills in American history The late Reed Smoot's opening kick-off of the Great Depression is described as "the famous if often criticized Smoot-Hawley act," while Jake Garn's magnificently expensive Garn-St Germain Act slips by with only a note that it "significantly restructured the nation's banking laws." Yes, and Custer had a little trouble with Indians at the Little Big Horn.

The book is handsomely designed and well made, but too many typographical errors disrupt the text In the preface, Powell encourages readers to send comments and suggestions to the press or the Historical Society, and the state's historical community would do well to respond to the invitation. The University of Utah Press will soon make history by issuing the encyclopedia in CD-ROM format for use on personal computers.

In view of the accomplishment this book represents, the foregoing criticisms are insignificant. Editor Powell has surely learned that Utah history includes something to offend everyone, but the Utah History Encyclopedia presents the panorama of the state's history as well as any single book ever written While the practice of history is always an exercise in humility, the Utah History Encyclopedia represents a vast amount of work and a great contribution to Utah's heritage.

WILL BAGLEY Salt Lake City

The Oxford History of the American West. Edited by CLYDE A. MILNER II, CAROL A. O'CONNOR, and MARTHA A SANDWEISS (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994 xiv +872 pp $39.95.)

In a commendable effort to supplant a set of popular western stereotypes—often limited to cowboys and Indians, stage robbers and bandits, gold hunters and silver kings, and similar movie themes—with sound historical interpretation, a group of specialists originally from Yale assembled this volume of contributions by 28 outstanding authors Their project concentrated upon explaining twentiethcentury events based upon earlier cultural origins. They devoted special attention to prehistoric trends and subsequent Indian experience; United States governmental impact upon regional development; exploitation of economic resources; and mobility of population and ethnic settlement in twentieth-century as well as nineteenth-century times Changing eras of interpretation of western history are examined thoroughly All of this is accomplished superbly

Utah specialists will profit more than most from access to this volume because of its Utah origins Historians in Logan, engaged in editing and publishing Western Historical Quarterly at Utah State University, enlarged their operation to prepare this commendable survey of all major aspects of western United States history While refraining from overemphasizing Utah's colorful heritage, they have been especially well equipped to incorporate Utah's experience (along with that of other areas) into a broad regional context Because of long and often bitter nineteenth-century religious, economic, social, and political controversies, their ability to handle such issues impartially commands special significance Their skill, moreover, extends to production of a general modern interpretation of important features of western history

This Oxford history is delineated along national lines, but it incorporates a broader regional context that helps to interpret western experience effectively. Borders are not set too rigidly but are designed to reflect zones of western development With a Mississippi River boundary, coverage includes New Orleans, Saint Louis, and Minneapolis, and it comes within a mile or two of Memphis. Some traditional midwestern territory forms part of this interpretation of western America, but semi-arid plains of states like Kansas and Nebraska join everything farther west. Alaska and Hawaii are admitted, but Guam and Samoa are omitted from this United States presentation Confinement inside national-international boundaries produces some distortion in places, particularly for Pacific Northwest coverage. But such a restriction reduces complexity in explaining many standard western subjects, and Walter Nugent's excellent comparison with a variety of other frontiers (including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina) compensates quite effectively for that arrangement.

Reflecting a century and more of academic consideration, subsequent attention is devoted to various efforts to interpret western development as significant and to assess different approaches to that topic Most other sections have shown less compulsion to elucidate reasons why their history commands national importance Utah readers have special occasion to appreciate an expert analysis by their compatriot, Charles Peterson, of western historical interpretation. Academic leaders from long ago responded to Frederick Jackson Turner (with his theory of frontier significance that often has been misinterpreted) and Herbert E Bolton (who finally provided a unified Spanish, Portuguese, French, and British European context for North and South American frontier history) with respect An extensive literature of reinterpretation shows that a great deal more needs to be done in this field. Many other broader approaches also enhance this volume Art and literature, urban expansion and industrial development, and many other interesting cultural features join with recent academic and popular trends to help explain features that have emerged in a new West Just about anyone interested in broad aspects of western history can profit from its excellent presentation.

MERLE WELLS Idaho State Historical Society Boise, Idaho

West from Fort Bridger: The Pioneering of the Immigrant Trails across Utah, 1846-1850.

Edited and with introductions by J. L. MORGAN Revised BAGLEY and HAROLD SCHINDLER (1951; Logan: Utah State University Press, 1994.xxviii +328 pp. $29.95.)

The decision of the Utah State University Press to reissue the familiar, but scare, West from Fort Bridger on the eve of the sesquicentennial of the opening of the Hastings Cutoff can be deemed a most appropriate way to commemorate a historical event—one certain to be appreciated by trail buff and scholar alike. First published as a book-length study in Utah Historical Quarterly, vol 19 (1951), in an edition of less than a thousand copies, the scholarly "West from Fort Bridger" enjoyed local success and even won the coveted Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History.

The original work was the product of more than a decade of library and field research conducted byJ. Roderic Korns, Charles Kelly, and Dale L Morgan who, over the years, collectively committed their individual ideas to paper and produced volumes of correspondence with each other that (fortunately) is now preserved in Utah archives. Then after years of collaboration Korns died without so much as setting down one chapter of the book that now bears his name. Morgan, on his own initiative and acting in the capacity of editor, assembled Korns's notes; along with Kelly's contributions and the fruit of his own labor (which conservatively amounts to half of the published work), he convinced the editorial board of the Utah State Historical Society to publish the results as a single annual volume of the Quarterly, giving Korns " his chance to go down in history as he so much wanted to do." Thus in a single unselfish act Morgan presented the historical community with an invaluable study and at the same time paid homage to a dear friend by memorializing Korns's lifelong " work with such immortality as print affords."

Compiled from original source material in the form of emigrant journals, diaries, letters, reminiscences, and contemporary maps (gleaned from countless documents discovered in the most obscure places) West from Fort Bridger skillfully traces the origin of travel across the Salt Lake Basin between Jim Bridger's trading post and the headwaters of the Humboldt River during 1845-50 The new route was popularly known as Hastings Cutoff after its promoter Lansford Warren Hastings who had earlier speculated in his Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California (Cincinnati, 1845) that a cutoff to California could be made by passing around Great Salt Lake—a hypothesis borne more of hope than of knowledge Therefore, when John C. Fremont arrived at Sutter's Fort in the late fall of 1845via a route that coincidently took his exploring party around the south end of Great Salt Lake, Hastings apparently felt that he was vindicated. Shortly after hearing the news of Fremont's arrival he appropriated the route for himself, making ambitious plans for its immediate use as the mainstream channel for the California immigration of 1846. Subsequent chapters are devoted to the exposition of eyewitness accounts of those immigrants who had the good fortune or misfortune to heed the sound of Hastings's horn.

The drama unfolds in the spring of 1846 with the dailyjournal of the intrepid frontiersman James Clyman, who, in company with Hastings, traveled eastward from California to Fort Bridger along Fremont's earlier westbound trail—Hastings's envisioned cutoff Successive chapters focus upon the personal experiences of the westbound immigrants who met up with Hastings during the course of the summer and were persuaded by him to deviate from the traditional route, e.g., Edwin Bryant, who, unburdened by wagons, was in the vanguard of the immigration; Heinrich Lienhard, who traveled in company with T. H.Jefferson, the illusive map maker; and James Frazer Reed, the expulsed member of the Donner Party The remaining chapters are devoted to the opening of the variant routes of the Hastings Cutoff, i.e., the Golden Pass Road that breached the Wasatch Mountains on a course south and east of Hastings's route, and a greatly expanded chapter detailing the opening of the Salt Lake Cutoff in the summer of 1848 by Samuel J Hensley, who, subsequent to being mired by heavy rains while crossing the salt flats on the Hastings Cutoff, backtracked and pioneered a new route north around Great Salt Lake—eventually the preferred one.

When compared with the former edition of "West from Fort Bridger," the new work is much the superior; made so by the scholarly research of Will Bagley and Harold Schindler who undertook the task of revising and updating the original printing with the utmost humility and respect for its authors—changing only what needed changing and expanding for clarification rather than for mere embellishment Added has been a new index and recent photographs of salient natural features located along the historic route, as well as documentary material unavailable at the time of the original publication. Updated are changes relative to road designations and place names The new work is a credit to both Korns and Morgan and to the institutions that supported the revision. Its value now enhanced by the meticulous efforts of Bagley and Schindler, West from Fort Bridger continues the reputation earned by its predecessor and belongs in the collection of every serious student of the western trails.

TODD I BERENS California-Nevada Chapter Oregon-California Trails Association Santa Ana, California

Boil My Heart for Me.

By H BAXTER LIEBLER (1969; Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1994 xvii +206 pp Paper, $14.95.)

H. Baxter Liebler's commitment to the Episcopalian priesthood was matched in intensity only by his lifelong fascination for American Indian culture. In 1943, after almost thirty years as a parish priest in Connecticut, the fifty-eight year old cleric combined his two passions in the ultimate mission of his life: the establishment of St Christopher's Mission to the Navajo Indians in the SanJuan desert near Bluff, Utah. The intimate and insightful account of his experiences during the first two decades of the mission's history are told in his delightful autobiography, Boil My Heart for Me (Exposition Press, 1969, republished with a new foreword by Mark Maryboy, preface by Paul Zolbrod, and afterword byJoan Liebler, by the University of Utah Press, 1994).

Boil My Heart for Me stands along- side the prolific works of San Juan County's Mormon historian emeritus Albert R Lyman as a priceless contribution to the firsthand historical documentation of European-American colonization of southeastern Utah Indeed, it shares a number of qualities with Lyman's writings, notably its clear and unpretentious prose, itsintimate richness of detail, and a tendency to patronize the Indian people and non-believers In contrast to Lyman's writings, in which Indians and non-Mormons are reduced to subordinate background roles, the main actors in Liebler's account are the Episcopal missionaries and theIndians, while the Mormons are almost incidental. In the eyes of this New England Yankee sophisticate, the local Mormons are quaint and colorful country bumpkins, largely irrelevant to the story of the mission. There is only token recognition of Mormonism as a religion, rather than a folk culture, and only the briefest nod to the Mormon view of Bluff as the seat of its SanJuan Mission.

Liebler's mission achieved remarkable success in its effort to convert the Utah Navajos By the 1960s hundreds of Navajos between Aneth and Navajo Mountain had been catechized and baptized into the Episcopal faith, right under the noses of the disgruntled Mormons This success was due mainly to three factors: first, Liebler strived to accommodate traditional Navajo language, philosophy, and symbolism when possible (he even wore his hair long and tied in the traditional Navajo style, thus assuring the Navajos that he would not force students at the mission school to cut their hair, a badge of pride to traditional Navajos); second, he agreed to provide schooling for Navajo children at a time when they were not welcomed in the public schools of San Juan County and few local educational opportunities were available to them; and third, he strived to make limited medical assistance available at a time when the nearest hospital was fifty-miles distant and not freely accessible to Navajo people. In short, he won the confidence and earned the allegiance of many Navajos by showing unusual appreciation for their language and culture and working selflessly to help them obtain educational and medical advantages not readily available to them elsewhere in the area Although he makes no such claims, his efforts may have helped catalyze a number of important sociocultural and political changes that closely followed establishment of the mission, notably full integration of SanJuan County's public schools and medical facilities and the belated resumption of active Latter-day Saint proselytizing of the Navajos almost seventy years after the establishment of the SanJuan Mission.

The new edition of the book benefits from the addition of several new supplemental contributions Mark Maryboy's foreword offers some interesting insights into Liebler's character and the operation of the mission from the point of view of a Navajo who attended the mission school. This perspective is interesting but disappointingly brief Paul Zolbrod's new preface provides a useful 1990s perspective and a brief review of Navajo history as background for the book. Unfortunately, it reads a bit like an obligatory, post-modern apology for Liebler's straightforwardly patronizing (butnowpolitically incorrect) language of the 1960s. The afterword by Joan Liebler (the priest's wife in his old age) helps bring the story to an updated closure by summarizing the recent history of the mission and the remainder of Father Liebler's life.

Boil My Heart for Me is a priceless contribution to San Juan County history, offering a rare and candidly written perspective from a non-Mormon viewpoint. It is also an insightful contribution to the literature on the Utah Navajo, an interesting study of culture contact and change, and an informative study of one approach to ongoing philosophical colonization of Indian minds by Europeans in the American Southwest.

WINSTON HURST Blanding

Prints of the West.

By RON TYLER (Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum Publishing, 1994 x + 197 pp $39.95.)

Prints of the West, byTexas State Historical Association director Ron Tyler, is a wonderful look at the extensive collection of prints at the Library of Congress Professor Tyler has set out to chronicle the history of printmaking throughout the nineteenth century in this country, basing his study on the magnitude and excitement of America's western expansion It is no small coincidence that these two elements—the development/growth of the printmakers art and a visual record and reporting of the new American continent—fit like hand in glove. His thesis that the creation and publication of some of our best prints—etchings, engravings, lithographs, chromolithographs, etc.—by America's printmakers had a significant impact on what we have come to think of as the American West and indeed of the country as a whole is supported with an abundance of full color and black and white reproductions, exhaustive research, and just plain good writing.

Tyler, who also teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, has crafted his book through in-depth themes such as the Great West, Early Artists in the West, the Nobility of Nature, the Discovery of the West: Government Patronage, the Discovery of Western Americans, and the Landscape as Spectacular Each chapter is filled with an abundance of information, always fortified with illustrations, helping the reader to understand clearly the important unions among explorers, government men—agency and bureau directors, surveyors, etc.—artists, and, most significant, those who created prints after originals by the likes of Audubon, Bierstadt, Moran, Catlin, and even Russell and Remington Names like Abert, Thomas Sinclair, Louis Prang, Thaddeus M Fowler, and the Hutchings and Rosenfield Company also fill the pages, adding real meat to Tyler's work.

There are many underlying themes in Prints of the West and to this reviewer they all add to the fullness of the work. For one, American lithography, even in its infancy, was a unique medium to disseminate images of the new land to a wide number of Americans hungry for a first look. Another, western expansion combined with government support through contracts to artists, map makers, and printers was absolutely crucial to the development and health of the printmaking industry. And another one, it was the artist and the printmaker in no small measure that brought into focus, indeed acceptance, the evolving characters of the West. Through the art of the day Americans came to know the outline of the frontiersman, river boatman, the '49ers our pioneers/settlers, and yes, even the cowboy.

Prints of the West is an important addition to the field of art history and the study of printmakers and the industry in the United States during the nineteenth century This alone makes it very useful currency. More, it augments the burgeoning library of Western Americana and adds a unique and enjoyable mix for everyone to enjoy. It is great reading and great reviewing.

ARLEY CURTZ Bountiful/Davis Art Center

Caroline Lockhart: Her Life and Legacy.

By NECAH STEWART FURMAN (Seattle: University of Washington Press with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, 1994. xxii +221 pp. Cloth, $35.00; paper $18.95.)

It is almost surprising that not more has been written about Caroline Lockhart, as interesting a person as she was. Born a Kansas ranch girl in 1871, Lockhart was educated in the East where she also took her first writing jobs with the Boston Post and the Philadelphia Bulletin. From these first jobs she developed a crucial and successful writing technique: experience what you write about This started with an adventurous dive in the Boston Harbor and would later take her to the New Mexico Territory to experience the West Early in her writing career Lockhart developed a humorous yet always accurate writing style, no matter whom she offended.

Necah Stewart Furman, a historian who has taught at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and the University of Texas at El Paso and has also worked as a corporate historian, has written about Lockhart from her girlhood days in Kansas to her final years in Cody, Wyoming Interwoven with Lockhart's chronology is a discussion of her writing, which Furman places in the western literary genre. We learn about Lockhart the writer and the person through her writing because her writing was her experience Always the journalist, Lockhart reveals herself in interesting newspaper reports, then short stories, and finally in a series of novels Furman enhances the story by adding revealing discussion from Lockhart's diaries which she kept throughout her long life According to Furman, Lockhart's diaries were her "therapeutic outlet for her innermost secrets."

Lockhart quickly recognized the West as a promising writing topic She first visited Cody, Wyoming, in 1904 and saw the town as a creative source In her own words she wanted to use it as a literary laboratory, making the residents subjects for research The results were her first full-length book, Me-Smith, touted as a true western in the mode of Owen Wister, which brought her immediate national recognition The identities of Cody residents were easy to recognize in this picturesque and humorous book.

Cody residents would also be the subjects in her subsequent novels, The Lady Doc, The Full of the Moon, Dude Wrangler, and The Fighting Shepherdess. (The latter was made into a movie.) Lockhart's literary license won her many enemies throughout the years, something that did not seem to bother her Her books have been championed for their contribution to the western genre. She captured the "essence of a passing era, the spirit of a region, and its people." She is also recognized for her astute cultural comparison between the easterner and the westerner.

In addition to her magazine and novel writing, Lockhart continued on and off throughout her life with newspaper work which included writing for the Denver Post and being the owner-editor of the Cody Enterprise. In her older years she was the Cattle Queen of the L Slash Heart, again an experience she used for writing material. Despite the many enemies she made among Cody residents through the years, Lockhart's contribution to the community must be recognized She was the first president of the Cody Stampede Board, a position she held for six years, and she played a prominent role in getting a William F Cody Memorial erected.

This book is about a unique individual who through her talented writing helped preserve what she considered to be the best of an older and more primitive western society. As Furman says, "For the student of western culture, (Lockhart's) novels as a series have a lasting value because of the author's ability to capture the evolutionary process taking place Moreover, the careful reader will find, under the biting characterizations and sometimes wicked humor, traditional moral and intellectual statements of the times."

ANTONETTE CHAMBERS NOBLE Cora, Wyoming

From Prospect to Prosperity: Wildcatting in Arabia and the Rockies.

By PAUL T. WALTON (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1994 xvi + 325 pp Cloth, $39.95; paper, $19.95.)

In his book on the decade of the fifties, David Halberstam notes: "In 1950 the British made some 50 million pounds, in taxes alone, on the oil, while the Iranian government managed to take only a third of that in profits. Clearly, the times were changing, though . . . and the American oil companies worked out a new relationship with the Saudis which gave the Saudis 50 percent of the profits from their own oil fields." This event, the opening of the Middle Eastern oil fields to western exploitation, could indeed be said to be one of the defining economic events of the twentieth century, since so much of our later history—America's explosive economic growth in the fifties, the Arab oil embargo, the stagnation of the American oil industrv, the Persian Gulf War—revolves around those incredibly productive fields in those incredibly hostile lands.

One of the major agents of the change that Halberstam speaks of was Paul T Walton, who was responsible for negotiating on behalf of American oilman J Paul Getty an agreement with the Saudi government that gave the Saudis world-shaking power and "madeJ Paul Getty the richest man in the world." Clearly Paul T. Walton was at the center of a historic event, and just as clearly he recognizes and acknowledges that fact in his engaging if confusing autobiography. From Prospect to Prosperity is organized into four sections, and fully the first third of the book is devoted to a detailed account of the complex—not to say Byzantine—negotiations leading up to the signing of the agreement with King Ibn-Saud. The details include portions of Walton'sjournal, copies of memoranda sent toJ. Paul Getty, and finally a copy of the agreement itself After wading through the journal entries—including descriptions of treatments for Walton's attacks of dysentery—interoffice memos, and the technical agreement, I felt that I knew everything I ever wanted to know about the opening of the Saudi oil fields.

The next section of the bookjumps back to before World War II when Walton made his first trip to the Middle East to work as an oil geologist in 1938 After only a few months in the field, however, Walton contracted rheumatic fever and almost died before an "induced-fever" treatment consisting of injections of boiled goat's milk brought him back from the brink. Walton returned to the field but found himself tiring easily, due to heart damage from the fevers, and on the advice of colleagues returned to Utah in the summer of 1939, as he thought, to die His observations of a world on the brink of war as he traveled through Europe on his way home are highlights of the book. Reinvigorated by returning to the Rocky Mountains, Walton, instead of passing away, obtained advanced degrees from the University of Utah and MIT and went to work for J. Paul Getty in 1942, which is "where this yarn about Saudi Arabia began and now ends."

The third section of the book is entitled "Wildcatting" and covers Walton's life from when he left Getty shortly after the Saudi agreement was signed through the 1960s This section deals with Utah oil and gas development, the uranium boom in Utah in the 1950s, and Walton's adventures in Libya in the 1960s. This is the only part of the book that touches on the development of the oil industry in Utah, which is unfortunate, given the paucity of research into this important aspect of Utah's history One could wish for more on this, but Walton obviously felt that his career in the Middle East, and his hunting, sporting, and ranching activities, covered in the final section, "Grizzlies, Chiselers, and Polo Ponies," were more important, and it is, after all, his book.

Given the fact that I grew up in the oil fields of the Intermountain West and spent a great deal of time working in the "patch," as it is called, in the Uinta Basin, there seemed little here about Utah oil and gas development that I did not already know, save for some of his business arrangements. Others without the same experience might find more in this section, but the limited amount of information about Utah's oil and gas industry is one of the book's failings The book is interesting and entertaining in places but leaves the reader curiously unsatisfied. The muddled organization has something to do with it; it starts in 1949,jumps in the next section to 1938, leaps in the third section to 1950, and in the final section darts back to Walton's early childhood Walton obviously arranged the description of the events in his autobiography in their order of importance to him Despite a few minor failings, however, and—to this reviewer—a disappointing lack of information about Utah oil and gas development, Walton is an engaging writer with a good eye for personalities, events, and details, and that makes From Prospect to Prosperity worth reading.

ROY WEBB University of Utah