Book Reviews

Utah: The Right Place.

By THOMAS G ALEXANDER (Layton, Ut.: Gibbs Smith, Publisher, 1995 487 pp $24.95.)

In this impressive work Tom Alexander has provided us with the most able account of Utah's history yet assembled In his preface Alexander indicated that he wanted to achieve a sense of "integration" while, at the same time, representing the state's "complexity" and "variety." I commenced reading the book seriously doubting that anyone could wed those conflicting objectives. After completing the volume, I was satisfied not only that he succeeded but that more was delivered than promised

Beginning with a chapter-length description of Utah's geology, fauna, flora, and climate, Alexander proceeds chronologically to describe the region's native inhabitants, early EuroAmerican explorers, the coming of the Mormons, and the state's last hundred years of economic and political trial as well as its astonishing cultural achievement. Observing that more than half of Utah's "recoverable" past lies in the twentieth century, the book faithfully reflects this ratio, devoting its last two hundre d or so pages to events since 1896.

Alexander's combing of the past is broadly inclusive, recollecting the experiences of Native Americans, Protestants, Catholics, immigrant minorities and women, and delving into culture and sports. Subjects as diverse as the dangers faced by nineteenth-century laborers in Utah's mines (pp 162-64), the World War II Japanese relocation center at Topaz (pp. 353-56), Utahns' tragic experience with fallout from atomic testing in the Nevada desert (pp 346-47, 367-70), and Frank Layden and the Utah Jazz (pp 441-42, 455) are examples of the immense variety of topics treated in this book. At the same time, issues cutting across the interests of all groups are explored And one of these, for Utahns, has always been the land. Repeatedly, questions of land ownership, land use, and water are shown to have played a major role in the lives of those residing in the Beehive State In the twentieth century, the long struggle over adequate and fair allocation of upper- and lowerbasin waters from the Colorado River has been particularly long lasting and crucial Alexander's account of the controversy (pp 303-7) provides an informative review meaningful to all residents of the American West.

Integration of topics is partially achieved by an opening and ending section in all chapters, knitting their contents to one or more pervasive themes and setting them within their relevant national and international contexts. Particular theses are also developed to achieve integration An example was Utah's nineteenth-century movement from communitarian to individualistic approaches in land and water use—a change that was part of an even larger shift: Utah's assimilation into the dominant American culture Yet another conceptually unifying theme has been the movement from a colony under the domination of the federal government and/o r eastern financial interests to a commonwealth in which most of Utah's capital and management are now generated within the state itself.

An even more pervasive influence in Utah than the land, perhaps, has been Mormonism Alexander devotes most of four long chapters to the rise of the religion, the Saints' migration to the West, and their extended struggle for statehood. Along with crediting the church with important humanitarian and economic contributions, Alexander provides a balanced account of Mormonism's practice of polygamy while unsparingly describing its part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre and church members' sometimes presumptuous policies toward ethnic minorities Indeed, even with the state's diverse cultural flowering in the twentieth century Mormonism is described as a powerful, inclining force in Utah's social and political life Without explicitly saying so, Alexander sketches a Utah of recent decades that, in some ways, displays the power constructions of territorial life a century ago Utah, he says, has nearly become a one-party state (conservative Republican). And the Mormon church has acted as an influential ally in this development. Constituting 72 percent of the state's population, Mormons count 80-90 percent of their state legislators as in the fold (p 419).

There is so much to praise about this book—the clearly labeled subsections within chapters, the wealth of biographical and statistical information, the extensive bibliography, and, very important, Alexander's wonderful phrase-making style—that I hesitate to engage in that disturbing tendency of so many academic reviewers to find something wherein the volume falls short. But surely, so magnificent a production as this, Utah's "Official Centennial History," specially commissioned by the Utah State Historical Society, deserves better illustrations Because all pictorial representations are in black and white some maps are but a confusion of shade and line (see, e.g., those illustrating the geology of Utah and routes of the early fur traders, pp. 12, 60, respectively). The book is so reasonably priced that the additional cost of employing some color in its graphics certainly seems justified Thankfully, the volume is wrapped in an attractive dust jacket featuring a beautifully colored painting by Calvin Fletcher from the Springville Museum of Art.

Apart from this single criticism, Utah: The Right Place is the right volume to read for an understanding of the state's rich heritage in this, its centennial year.

B CARMON HARDY California State University Fullerton

The Mormon Trail: Yesterday and Today.

By WILLIAM E HILL (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1996 xxii + 216 pp Paper, $19.95.)

The main theme of The Mormon Trail: Yesterday and Today is the presentation of drawings, paintings, and early photographs of landmarks and scenes along the trail, together with recent photographs the author has meticulously taken to illustrate those features in their present-day setting. The pictures with captions are so intriguing as to tempt the reader into visiting sections of the trail to see these historical sites.

Pictures alone, however, do not tell a complete story Hill has supplemented his photographic essay with a concise history of the nineteenth-century western expansion. He notes that the Mormon Trail was used extensively not only by the Latter-day Saints on their way to Utah but also by many immigrants going to Oregon and California. He also concludes that the trail experience was unique for the Mormons in that the migration of over twenty years' duration was organized and conducted by a single entity with the purpose of founding a complete and separate religious community With this objective the Mormon Trail was developed with permanent way stations for supply, river ferries for use by Mormon and non-Mormon alike, and its own experienced guide service.

The great western movement began with the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition The author's chronology of pertinent events, from 1803 to 1869 when the transcontinental railroad was completed, summarizes trail development Lansford W Hastings, who had successfully led an immigrant party to Oregon in 1842, did much to spur the later immigration by glowing descriptions of California in his lectures around the Midwest in 1843 and 1844. His The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, published in 1845, proposed a shorter route to California by way of the Great Salt Lake In that same year

John C Fremont camped at the future site of Salt Lake City and from there went west to California He reported "for wagons, the road is decidedly better." Hastings's "shorter route," which a year later became Hastings Cutoff, had been outlined. When Hastings sent the Donner-Reed party down East and Emigration canyons in 1846, the wagon roads later followed by the Mormons starting in 1847 had all been opened. The reproduced collection of pioneer maps with accompanying discussion illustrates what was known of the country and the roads crossing at that time Several maps and guides are known to have been in the hands of the Mormon leaders as they planned their exodus. The author's brief history of the Mormons' prior ordeals provides the reader with enough background to understand how the Mormon migration meshed historically with the development of the West.

In addition to serving as a travel stimulant, a trail guide, or a brief history of western development, the book has an excellent bibliography. Even for those readers well versed in trail history, this well-written and interestingly organized book will capture attention.

RUSH SPEDDEN Utah Westerners Salt Lake City

A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-73: Elizabeth Kane's St. George Journal.

Preface and notes by NORMAN R BOWEN and profile of Elizabeth Kane by MARY KANE BOWEN SOLOMON (Salt Lake City: Tanner Trust Fund, University of Utah Library, 1995 xxx + 184 pp $24.95.)

Elizabeth Kane (Mrs Thomas L.) kept this hitherto unpublished journal in St George during the winter of 1872-73 The Kanes and their two young sons were the personal guests of Brigham Young who had invited the family to travel with his party to Utah's Dixie in the hope that the mild climate would prove beneficial to the health of his (and the Mormons') friend, Major General Thomas Kane Mrs Kane's letters to her father describing the trip south were published in 1873 as Twelve Mormon Homes Visited and republished by the Tanner Trust Fund and the University of Utah Library in 1974. This book completes the story of the Kanes' sojourn with the Mormons at a time of great national agitation over the polygamy issue.

The Kanes were comfortably housed at the Erastus Snow home, then located on the southeast corner of First North and Main Street In her journal, dated St. George, Christmas Day 1872, to Friday March 7 (editorially corrected to February 7), Mrs. Kane offers insights into a wide spectrum of Mormon temporal, spiritual, and social life. She notes that "Mormon meetings for spiritual purposes are invaded by the concerns of their daily lives, as much as their daily lives are by their religion." She marvels at the people's ability to take disappointments bravely, their confidence in "Heavenly Providence."

Mrs Kane describes the geographical setting of Utah's Dixie, the watering system, the gardens, and how irrigation washes out the saleratus and ruins the soil and also "eats away the walls and fences at the point where the stone meets the earth." She fears that "this people is lavishing labor for too trifling a return."

The Mormon Indian missionary/ interpreter system interests her, and she discusses the Indian unrest during the Prophet Wovoka phenomenon She abhors the practice of polygamy but is impressed with "women's independence compared to Eastern harems." After enjoying the sisters' hospitality for several weeks she confesses: "When I first came here I thought somewhat contemptuously there are plenty of ignorant English women led astray, but I meet no educated English ladies These are women sufficiently educated to have studied their Bibles " When the St George party returned to Salt Lake, the Kanes spent a "week or so" at the Lion House, a step, she said, "which I took as a public testimony . . . that my opinion of the Mormon women had so changed during the winter that I was willing to eat salt with them." And though she knew that it would probably be more interesting for her to describe the Lion House household than any other in Utah, she says: "I am the only 'Gentile woman' to whom every door within the walls was set freely open, and who was invited to the most familiar intercourse with Brigham Young's wives and children. Yet that very fact seals my lips. I was not there as a newspaper correspondent, but as the wife of an honored and trusted friend of the head of the household I met non e but good and kindly women there, as in the other Utah homes where I became familiar."

The preface, notes, and profile put the lives of the Kanes into historical context and illuminate the personal relationship between Kane and Brigham Young. The whole has the emotional impact of a novel This beautifully crafted book should indeed prove to be an important addition to the library of the student of Utah, the Mormons, and the West.

Dorothy Mortensen Salt Lake City

A World We Thought We Knew: Readings in Utah History.

Edited by JOHN S MCCORMICK and JOHN R SILLITO (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995 x + 491 pp Cloth $65.00; paper, $24.95.)

This commemorative volume, edited by two well-known Utah historians, comprises thirty rather uneven selections treating issues ranging from Mormon-Indian relations to Salt Lake City prostitution in the late nineteenth-century, from the election to local office of scores of Socialists between 1900 and 1920 to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, from environmental history to the growth of a new urban West.

Unfortunately, the selections are not new, and so one wonders about the validity of this volume All but one of the articles selected have appeared in magazines, journals, or books, some of them as long ago as the 1970s, with the great majority having appeared in Utah Historical Quarterly. In organizing the selections into one volume, the editors said they were trying to "illustrate the expanding boundaries of Utah's history, and contribute toward building a more complete understanding of the state's past."

There may be differing opinions from the readers of this volume as to whether the editors succeeded in their goal, but this reviewer finds it ground already plowed. In fact, the essay toward the end, "Suggestions for Further Reading," includes many more interesting and more appropriate articles than the ones chosen for this volume, even though it is an incomplete list

For a volume designed to tell some of the more salient facets of Utah's past, there are many subjects here that are of only superficial interest. Indeed, the entire selection of essays could be easily dismissed as marginal and unlikely to appeal to the interests of a general reading public.

At least eight of the authors chosen for this volume read like an inside list of historians who have either worked for the Utah State Historical Society or published books under its banner. blacks in early Utah. There are essays on the fur trade, prostitution, and the seagull, but virtually nothing about the importance of the Mormons in Utah's history Although the volume professes to place special interest on the twentieth-century, there is only a single essay about twentieth-century politics— Ernest Wilkinson's unsuccessful race for the U.S Senate in 1964 Strangely, there is nothing at all about the really important politicians in twentieth-century Utah, such as Governor J Bracken Lee, who stands out above all other political figures, or Calvin Rampton and Scott Matheson, who presided over a Democratic dynasty that endured for twenty years.

Clearly, Wilkinson, who raised many hackles in a lengthy tenure as president of Brigham Young University, had almost no political career at all, and therefore rates only an asterisk in Utah's political history.

In a collection made up mostly of academic articles, there are a few that seem glaringly out of place—such as reminiscences and puff pieces from the now defunct Utah Holiday Magazine. If the editors wanted to go in a less scholarly direction, they could have balanced their approach by including any number of better or more representative feature stories about Utah life and politics from the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune. But do they want academic analysis, or do they want journalistic descriptions and impressions? The decision should have been made prior to publication.

There are only two essays that make an important enough contribution to Utah's history to in fact justify the price of the book—Robert Goldberg's fine essay on "Building Zions: A Conceptual.

Reclaiming the Arid West: The Career of Francis G. Newlands.

By WILLIAM D. ROWLEY. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996 xvi + 199 pp $27.50.)

William Rowley and the editors at Indiana University Press are to be commended for the inclusion of Francis G. Newlands in their successful series of publications on the American West in the twentieth century Rowley's account re-examines Newlands's personal and political career in ways that illuminate the subtle and unique interplay between national and regional histories In the process, Rowley explodes not only the myths surrounding Newlands's wealth, racial ideas, and progressive policies but also familiar assumptions concerning the Far West.

Most historians are familiar with Newlands's contributions, as a Nevada congressman and senator, toward the passage of the Water Reclamation Act of 1902 and its significance to western development. However, corporate influence and "rotten boroughs" purchased by affluent developers shroud the conventional understanding of western politics and progressive policies. But Rowley's treatment of Newlands's life unveils a more subtle and sophisticated politician, and hence political milieu, than previously assumed For example, while Francis Newlands was an heir to the tremendous wealth of William Sharon, and often used his financial advantages to sway elections in his favor, he was also a leading proponen t of limiting campaign expenditures in the hope of establishing "real democracy" in his state (p. 156). Similarly, Newlands's devoted crusade for intensified irrigation and other internal improvements also served two masters Rowley keenly concludes that when Newlands "talked about appealing to the rule of the people and spoke of the higher ideals of social achievement many detected a discomforting strain of sincerity in his words" (p 91) Rowley shows how the broad support for federal oversight of western land and water, corporate regulation, and even Newlands's overt racism are properly understood only within the context of this unique blend of regional Progressivism.

Rowley writes in a clear and engaging manner, his research is exhaustive, and his conclusions are well reasoned and persuasive Furthermore, he seamlessly integrates his subject into the larger narrative of both the West and the nation. Put simply, this is an excellent book by which to introduce students to the distinctive evolution of the postwar West. Newlands's early legal career in San Francisco, his life within Sharon's vast empire, and his struggles to come to terms with his potential political career make for an engaging story that should keep the interest of all but the most reluctant undergraduate readers. The second half of the book, dealing with Newlands's public life in Nevada from 1889 to his death in 1917, brings this same excitement to the leading political questions of the day: irrigated agriculture, the "Silver Issue," third party and fusion movements, and tariff reform, to name only a few.

Francis Newlands was much more than a paradoxical representative of the West's ruling elite Throug h his career, Rowley demonstrates the vital link between western development and the direction of the Progressive movement and cautions those who would try to understand this era without first acknowledging these unique regional qualities.

DAVID BLANKE Rosary College River Forest, Illinois

Grand Canyon, a Century of Change:Rephotography of the 1889-1890 Stanton Expedition.

By ROBERT H WEBB (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996 xx + 290 pp Cloth, $60.00; paper, $26.95.)

Robert Brewster Stanton is one of the most important figures in Colorado River history. Appointed chief engineer of the Denver, Colorado Canyon, and Pacific Railroad, he directed a survey of the Colorado River canyons with the goal of demonstrating the feasibility of building a water-level railroad from Grand Junction to the Pacific Ocean. The survey began in 1889 and ended abruptly in Marble Canyon with the drowning of three crew members. Returning to Glen Canyon later that year, Stanton completed the survey the following year at Yuma.

Stanton relied on photography to documen t canyon features He was among the first to use rolled film which was more compact than the earlier bulky glass plates Although the railroad project was a failure because of Stanton's inability to secure financial backing, the survey must be counted a success for the 2,200 photographs that were taken of the river canyons and which are now preserved in the National Archives Robert Webb, a USGS hydrologist, rephotographed the 445 Stanton images of Marble and Grand canyons, matching each original view, and converted the Stanton photographs into a base data file for determining topographic and vegetative changes during the past century.

Opening with a summary account of the Stanton survey and the science and art of rephotography, the bulk of the text is devoted to descriptions of the changes in the plant life, animal habitat, rapids, and sandbars that have taken place in the Grand Canyon during the past century Forty-five dual StantonWebb photographs illustrate these changes. The level of detail captured in the Stanton and Webb photographs is remarkable. This detail and the author's interpretive skill give the reader a better understanding of the ever-changing world of the Grand Canyon than any coffee table book devoted to color photography of the canyon country.

We do not completely understand all of the factors that contribute to longterm change in the Grand Canyon, but we now appreciate the important role played by catastrophic events such as the formation of rapids by cloudburst-generated, side canyon debris flows and the rearrangement of debris by periodic river floods. If Stanton's railroad had been built, the Colorado River canyons would have changed dramatically, although the railroad would not have been as desUuctive as the obliteration of Glen Canyon by Glen Canyon Dam. Indeed, the closing of the Glen Canyon Dam floodgates in 1963, which eliminated periodic river floods and replaced silt-laden water with clear water, is a catastrophic event that will affect the Grand Canyon for centuries to come.

Yet even though river flows have been modified in Glen and Grand canyons in historic times, the Grand Canyon continues to be profoundly affected by natural phenomen a and is constantly changing on a geologic, not a human, time-scale. The Stanton and Webb photographs provide a series of comparative snapshots of the Grand Canyon along the continuum of time They constitute a valuable analytical tool today and will serve as benchmarks for future scientists.

The book includes detailed endnotes, excellent maps and diagrams, and a useful index It is an important contribution to the literature of the Grand Canyon and will be of interest to the specialist and the general reader. The author and the publisher are to be commended for a volume that belongs in every Colorado River collection.

Peter h. DeLafosse Salt Lake City

Paths of Life: American Indians of the Southwest and Northern Mexico.

Edited by THOMAS E. SHERIDAN and NANCY PAREZO (Tucson: 1996. xxxvi + 298 pp Cloth, $45.00; paper, $17.95.)

In 1993 and 1995 the Arizona State Museum presented a two-part exhibit titled "Paths of Life," a celebration of American Indians past and present Rather than staging another ethnological display, the curators intended to express the dynamism, cultural vitality, and interconnectedness of Indians of the Southwest and norther n Mexico through artifacts, graphics, printed words, and contemporary voices—to dispel stereotypes of Indians as peoples without history, as peoples who resisted change and disappeared.

Paths of Life moves beyond a standard exhibit catalogue to present more detailed ethnohistorical information on ten tribes—Navajo, Yaqui, Western Apaches, Pais (Havasupais, Hualapais, Yavapais), O'odha m (Pima and Tohono O'odham) , Tarahumara, Southern Paiute, Seri, Colorado River Yumans, and Hopi Each chapter begins with native origin accounts and includes some basic ethnography, contact history, and a survey of contemporary issues While brief, these are nice straightforward summaries of complex tribal histories. All but three are written exclusively by exhibit curators/editors Sheridan or Parezo, so there is a continuity of themes and styles lacking in other edited collections. Sidebars within the text explore specialized topics, much like exhibit display text.

Taking their theoretical cue from anthropologist Edward Spicer, Sheridan and Parezo emphasize the "persistence of ethnic identity in the face of constant change" (xxv). This ethnohistorical perspective allows the editors to explore how tribes defined and redefined themselves over time in response to changing natural and huma n environments, how they endured the pervasive reality of change by embracing and making it their own. The chapters highlight different cultural themes or values that helped each group endure, revealing the different paths native peoples took in dealing with the common problems of land and subsistence displacement, political and religious imperialism, and the decimation and rebirth of their populations The Navajo chapter is organized around their incorporation of sheep and reproduction of Navajo ways of relating to each other and living off the land in a changed world The Yaqui chapter focuses on the fusion of UtoAztecan and Catholic rituals to create a uniquely Yaqui religion and identity Mountains define the Western Apache response, water the O'odham, war and intermarriage the Yumans, while isolation and hopivotskwani—define the Hopi "path of life." The text leaves no doubt that native peoples were actors rather than passive victims, innovators rather than foils of progress, and that they continue to be so today.

Paths ofLife is a handsome book with numerou s illustrations and photographs, including color inserts. It is geared to general readers and will introduce them to more sophisticated ways of understanding native peoples, past and present This is its real contribution. While the title claims to cover the Southwest, the book focuses only on Arizona tribes—a function of exhibition decisions and museum limitations Those looking for a larger readable survey of southwestern Indians with more photographs and contemporary information can consult Stephen Trimble's The People: Indians of the American Southwest (1993).

DAVID RICH LEWIS Utah State University