Book Reviews

Henry William Bigler: Soldier, Gold Miner, Missionary, Chronicler, 1815-1900

By M.Guy Bishop (Logan: Utah State University Press,1998.xiv + 208 pp.Paper, $19.95.)

HENRY WILLIAM BIGLER, like many others, learned about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon from missionaries. Because he believed, he left his comfortable life in West Virginia and followed the Mormons. He obeyed church leaders and joined the Mormon Battalion, served missions in California's gold mines and in Hawaii, and worked in the Salt Lake Endowment House and the St. George temple. His travels delayed marriage until he was forty He then lived happily with his wife until her death; he remarried two years later. Like most Utah Mormons, Bigler was never a polygamist Although he lived in poverty, his life was fulfilling because of his faith.

But in many ways Bigler was unique. He kept brief daybooks that were preserved He confirmed James Marshall's storyof discovering gold atSutter's Mill and provided a date. He corresponded with historian Hubert Howe Bancroft and shared his autobiography. Bigler's writings provide aglimpse into the life of an ordinary Mormon

While Bigler gained some notoriety for his role inthe gold rush, most Mormon and western historians have forgotten him M. Guy Bishop reintroduces this remarkable, ordinary man and recreates Bigler's world Readers see the Mormons inMissouri, Hawaii, and Farmington through the eyes of a believer Bishop masterfully places Bigler's experiences into alarger setting and shows how he was part of the whole When Bigler is silent about events,Bishop fills in the holes with details from primary and secondary sources For example, Bigler rarely kept ajournal about his life as afarmer and occasional schoolteacher in Farmington from 1856-79 Bishop expands Bigler's brief comments to describe life in a rural Utah community.

Bishop's strength is his ability to place Bigler in a setting, but it is also aweakness He often has to imagine Bigler's reactionsto events like the CivilWar; he takes a brief comment about the war and then adds two pages of general Utah history. At times like these, Bishop moves from writing a biography of Bigler to explaining Utah and Mormon history.Bigler is out of the picture.

Bishop also spends pages explaining why Bigler was not a polygamist or why he kept a journal Bishop frequently explains that "perhaps" Bigler felt a certain way While some speculation is interesting, Bishop leaves nothing to the reader's imagination At still other times, he does not provide enough information. He could explain in more detail how Bigler's views of the Mormon Battalion changed from a reluctant march for an unhealthy government to an act of patriotism

Henry William Bigler left a brief but remarkable record of Mormon history. M. Guy Bishop has re-established Bigler as an example of nineteenth-century Mormon life

JESSIE L EMBRY Brigham Young University

Utah's Black Hawk War

ByJohnAlton Peterson (SaltLake City: University of Utah Press,1998.xvi + 432 pp.Cloth,$59.95;paper, $19.95.)

ON SUNDAY,APRIL 9, 1865, the day that Ulysses S Grant and Robert E. Lee met at the Appomattox Courthouse to negotiate an end to the Civil War, another conflict erupted in Manti, Utah, when a Mormon settler named John Lowry grabbed a Ute called Jake Arapeen by the hair and pulled him from his horse While hardly on the scale of the great war that divided the nation, or even of the 1832 Illinois Indian war of the same name, Utah's Black Hawk War was the most extensive and costly Indian war in the state's history Over a period of seven years more than seventy white settlers were killed, many of them horribly mutilated Several thousand head of livestock were captured or destroyed in a series of cleverly executed raids, and dozens of settlements were temporarily abandoned Indian losses included not only the many killed in skirmishes or in brutal reprisals by the whites but also the wholesale removal of the Utes from their traditional homelands in central Utah to the Uintah Reservation, where little if any provision was made for their maintenance The period of the Black Hawk War saw hundreds or perhaps thousands of the Ute people die from the effects of starvation and disease, a catastrophic population decline from which they have never recovered.

John Alton Peterson has produced the first comprehensive study of this conflict in its historical context. He not only draws on the abundant Mormon sources—including contemporary official communications, speeches, newspaper reports, and a multitude of retrospective accounts—but he also mines the federal territorial, military, and Indian Affairs archives to recover the views of non-Mormon federal officials The paucity of records reflecting the Indian point of view presented a serious obstacle to the author's efforts at an even-handed treatment, but he has done an admirablejob of reconstructing the Ute perspective from contemporary statements as interpreted and recorded by whites and from the surviving oral traditions of the Utes and Paiutes The result is an admirable piece of research, a clearly organized narrative and generally persuasive analysis, and a satisfyingly hefty and thoroughly readable book.

Peterson makes it clear that the Black Hawk War was not an isolated event The 1860s and '70s were a troubled period as western Indians made their last desperate efforts to preserve their traditional way of life Violent conflicts in the surrounding region included the Paiute War in Nevada in 1860, the Bear River Massacre of the Shoshoni in 1863, the forced removal of the Navajo to the Bosque Redondo in 1864, and the Sand Creek Massacre of the Cheyenne and Arapaho in Colorado, also in 1864. However, each of those cases involved federal troops in decisive military actions against native peoples. The Black Hawk War, by contrast, was a protracted struggle between a mobile and wellarmed band of raiders and a poorly trained and poorly equipped local militia whose ineffectual response to the early raids encouraged their continuation.

The author argues that the conflict was the result of an "uneasy triangle" involving the Utes, the Mormons, and the "gentile" government and military officials In most instances in the settlement of the West, native land claims were legally "extinguished" before the widespread occupation of the land by white settlers. In Utah, however, this official action was delayed for several decades because of persistent disputes between Mormon leaders and federal officials over the issues of sovereignty, theocratic government, and polygamy. By the time of the Black Hawk War, more than 100,000 settlers had occupied land still claimed by the Indians and had established numerous towns and villages, introduced domestic livestock, diverted the streams, and fenced and cultivated the land on which the Indians depended for their sustenance. In contrast to the physical separation achieved in other regions by the removal of the Indians to reservations, in Utah, white and Indian communities lived side by side Increasingly cut off from their traditional food sources, the Indians were forced to beg for a living From their point of view, the food and clothing they received from the settlers was nothing more than a modest rent for the use of Indian lands. But for the settlers, in a subsistence economy themselves, the Indian demands represented a burdensome and unjustified tax on already scarce resources. Several unsuccessful efforts were made to persuade the Indians to change their nomadic ways and adopt an agricultural lifestyle. When the Indians resisted, or through hunger or resentment killed the settlers' cattle, they were punished by the Mormon militia, sometimes without much effort to distinguish actual offenders from peaceful Indians This long association made many of the Utes and Mormon settlers personally acquainted, for better or for worse Peterson argues that these personal feelings played a role in the war, with the Ute raiders in some instances deliberately targeting individuals against whom they held a grudge and sparing the property or lives of those who had treated them kindly.

When the Ute raids began, Brigham Young was unwilling to call on the army to punish the offenders, fearing that federal troops would be used to enforce government policies against the Mormons He chose instead to suppress or play down public reports of the conflict and to rely on the unofficial militia, the Nauvoo Legion, and on a "vigilance policy" that consisted of withdrawing settlers from exposed locations, fortifying the remaining settlements, disposing of excess livestock, and guarding the remaining animals so closely as to make raids unprofitable for Black Hawk's warriors.The federal troops, under the command of the virulently anti-Mormon Colonel Patrick E Connor, were equally unwilling to go to the defense of the Mormon settlers, in part because of a widespread belief that the Mormons exercised undue influence over the Indians and planned to use them against the government According to Peterson's analysis,BrighamYoung's policies, when fully enacted, were effective in breaking up Black Hawk's band of raiders in 1867 Sporadic raids continued, however, until 1872, when federal troops finally brought the war to an end by forcing back to the Uintah Reservation a large group of Utes who had traveled to SanpeteValley for a Ghost Dance ceremony

Black Hawk himself remains as a rather shadowy figure, notwithstanding Peterson's efforts to flesh out a biography. Even his name is uncertain Black Hawk was a name given him by the whites. Peterson chooses from several possibilities the name Antonga, although he acknowledges that it too is not a Ute name

In an attempt to develop a motive for Black Hawk's hostility to the Mormon settlers, the author traces a pre-1865 history that is necessarily conjectural at some key points He suggests, on rather scanty evidence, that Antonga-Black Hawk may have been involved in the March 1849 Battle Creek fight, the first violent confrontation between the Utes and the Mormon settlers On better evidence, he places Antonga as an ally of the Mormons in the bloody battle at Fort Utah in February 1850 Antonga was living in the fort when the heads of several dozen decapitated Utes were brought in, ostensibly for scientific study Peterson suggests that this experience may have transformed Black Hawk from a "friendly Indian" who had cooperated with the settlers to an implacable enemy who would await his chance for vengeance fifteen years later.

It seems clear, as Peterson claims,that Black Hawk was an intelligent and capable leader, impelled to action by the distress of his people and clever at exploiting political divisions among the whites. He used his tactical skills and knowledge of the terrain to stage lightning raids on the central Utah valleys, raids that were almost invariably successful while he remained in command. Operating from a winter hideout in the Dolores River region of western Colorado, he sold his captured livestock through white middlemen and replenished his forces with Navajos, Paiutes, and Jicarilla Apaches as well as Utes. His one critical tactical error was the Scipio raid of June 10, 1866, which required the raiders to drive the livestock more than thirty miles through the valleys before they reached the safety of the mountains. Intercepted by a militia detachment at Gravelly Ford on the Sevier River, Black Hawk was forced into a rare pitched battle.While he still escaped with the captured stock, Black Hawk suffered a serious wound that impaired his later activities and eventually contributed to his death four years later

In a gesture perhaps symbolic of his refusal to accept reservation life, the dying warrior made his way with a few friends to his birthplace near Spring Lake and there died on September 26, 1870, and was buried on a mountainside The grave was pillaged in 1917, and Black Hawk's remains were put on display for several decades before being re-interred with appropriate Ute ceremonies in a Spring Lake park on May 4,1996

EDWARD A GEARY Brigham Young University

Lee's Ferry: From Mormon Crossing to National Park By P.T Reilly

Edited byRobert H.Webb with contributions by Richard D.Quartaroli (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1999.xviii + 542 pp.Cloth,$39.95;paper,$21.95.)

MOST READERS ARE AWARE that the name Lee's Ferry refers not only to the ferry itself but also to the location on the Colorado River in northern Arizona about twenty miles south of the Utah border. Here at the cliff-bound mouth of the Paria River was the vital river crossing point for all travelers from 1871 until 1928 The first ferryman, John D Lee, wanted to name it "Lonely Dell,"supposedly because his eighteenth wife, Emma, had called it by that name Mormon officials who set up the ferry to provide a corridor for emigration into Arizona Territory wanted to call it the "Pahreah Crossing," but the notoriety ofJohn D. Lee— eventually executed by firing squad in 1877 for his leadership in the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre—led everyone to call it "Lee's Ferry."

To understand this book, it helps to know something about P.T. Reilly and how the book came to be written. Throughout most of his adult life, Reilly was known to be an opinionated, compulsive cynic,particularly about anything having to do with Colorado River history Perhaps his attitudes were formed in the 1950s, when he worked as a river boatman and heard expedition leader Norm Nevills relate stories of river history transformed into fictional tall tales.At any rate, Reilly became obsessed with learning—and eventually disseminating—the absolute truth, backed up by documentation and interviews

The entire history of the Colorado River was too much for anyone to tackle, so Reilly settled on researching the river's most historic point—the place that author FrankWaters had termed the "42nd and Broadway of the Colorado Plateau": Lee's Ferry Reilly studied river history from 1947 until his death in 1996, but he worked intensively on Lee's Ferry history from 1965 to 1985, investigating every lead, interviewing everyone concerned, checking all available records, no matter how obscure, and finally producing a two-volume manuscript that ran to over 1,000 pages. Reportedly, several publishers turned down the book as being too long and containing unsupported conclusions Fortunately, John Alley of Utah State University Press gambled that it could be edited into a fine book dealing with Utah and Arizona history. To perform the editing, Alley contracted with Robert Webb, a hydrologist and Colorado River historian living in Tucson. Therefore, Webb can take much of the credit for turning the Reilly manuscript in the direction of a readable text by grouping paragraphs about the same subject together and by eliminating or toning down poorly supported conclusions. About 25 percent of Reilly's manuscript was eliminated

To keep the book to a manageable length, Reilly tacitly assumed that readers will have a basic knowledge of Mormon and southern Utah history and of the workings of the LDS hierarchy, particularly during the 19th century For example, the Mountain Meadows Massacre and the trials ofJohn D. Lee, although important to Lee's Ferry history,arejust briefly mentioned

Most attention is devoted to four individuals who built ferryboats, hacked out roads and trails across ridges, hung cables across the river, ferried thousands of travelers across the river, built cabins and farmhouses, tried to mine valuable minerals, built dams on the Paria River, and irrigated a farm to support growing families. These were Warren E Johnson, James S Emett, Charles H Spencer, and Leo Weaver. Of these four,Johnson and Emett, their wives, and their immediate families, lacking electric power and plumbing and forced to use only horsepower or their own manual labor, suffered great hardships. Charlie Spencer spent most of his time promoting the use of other people's money, even though his mining schemes were doomed to failure. Also doomed to failure was Leo and Hazel Weaver's mismanaged attempt to operate a dude ranch during the 1930s.

This book is, of course, much more complicated than the mere accounts of these four men and their families at Lee's Ferry. In fact, the very complexity of the history, involving literally hundreds of people, makes this book a difficult read. Reilly tried to adhere to a strict chronological order, regardless of the resulting choppy jumps from subject to subject, with some stories being split through chapters and some across chapters Webb recognized this choppiness and did much to eliminate it, but some of the problem remains

Reillys barrage of facts, however accurate, tends to obscure the inherent drama in many of the stories He almost never uses emotional quotes from original eyewitnesses His use of humor is so rare as to be almost undetectable. Also, one could question some of his flatly positive statements, such as "All structures built by John D. Lee have been destroyed," and "The Charles H. Spencer steamboat was too under-powered to ever go upstream."

Reillys most caustic criticism is directed at the National Park Service, the agency that took over Lee's Ferry in 1958 as part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Of course, in 1974 the federal government did pay far too much for the ranch, giving speculators a huge windfall profit But Reilly also casts several other verbal stones at NPS development—for example:"The most egregious item, cost-wise, was the construction of a new rest room north of the boat ramp." The building may have been expensive, but to most present-day visitors that restroom is the most vital and appreciated feature of the Lee's Ferry landscape

Included in the book are fairly good endnotes (although footnotes would have been much preferred) The lack of good understandable maps as well as photographs showing the topography around Lee's Ferry are the most glaring omissions.

For some unknown reason, the book lacks a concluding chapter —or even a concluding paragraph The final sentences in the book discuss the expensive NPS restroom in 1974—and the text suddenly ends. No mention is made of development or events in the 1980s and 1990s Editor Webb feels that Reilly wrote a final chapter but that it has mysteriously disappeared

Although the book is somewhat tedious to read, a persistent reader, learning of the succession of Lee's Ferry tragedies and of the valiant struggles that inhabitants made to live in an inhospitable environment, will come away with a feeling of sadness and, certainly, of respect for the men, women, and children who called Lee's Ferry home In summary, the book is a treasure of documented facts and short stories, many of them undisclosed before, a reference book well worth inclusion in any library concerned with either Colorado River history or with the history of early travel between Utah and Arizona

W L RUSHO Salt Lake City

Mormon Democrat: The Religious and Political Memoirs of James Henry Moyle

Editedby GeneA.Sessions (SaltLakeCity:Signature Books,1998.xxxvi + 379 pp.$85.00.)

THROUGHOUT A LONG AND DISTINGUISHED career, James Henry Moyle harbored "two religions by his own count, Mormonism and the Democratic party" (xiv). For several years before his death in 1946 he produced voluminous materials to tell his story An early biographical effort was never completed, however, and Gordon B. Hinckley's James Henry Moyle: The Story of a Distinguished American and an Honored Churchman (1951) received only limited circulation before going out of print. Then the late Leonard Arrington, while serving as LDS Church Historian, encouraged Professor Gene Sessions to take on the project, an effort that resulted in the original version of Mormon Democrat, published in limited edition by the Historical Department of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1975 The present volume is a skillfully edited and updated second edition of that work, published by Signature Books as part of its Significant Mormon Diaries series Moyle was, after all, a force to be reckoned with as the Democratic party's unsuccessful candidate for governor of Utah and for United States Senator, as longtime Democratic national committeeman, and asAssistant Secretary of theTreasury in the Wilson administration He was called back into service as Commissioner of Customs during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, a position that he held well past his eightieth birthday.

Moyle's own words are on these pages The most persistent theme in his reminiscences is his exasperation with the decision of some of the highest leaders in the LDS church in the mid-1890s to embrace the Republican party and encourage the faithful to do the same. He regarded this action as absolutely incompatible with the constitutional principle of separation of church and state and as particularly odious because it represented ingratitude toward the Democratic party that he loved and which, in his view, had been historically much friendlier to Mormons than the Republicans had been His anger was directed in the early period toward Apostle-Senator Reed Smoot and even President Joseph F. Smith and in the 1930s and early '40s atJ Reuben Clark—and his style was often brusque. Yet time and again Moyle voices his abiding faith in the trueness of the church itself and its divine inspiration.

Fascinating sub-themes emerge: class conflict and family preference within Mormondom, a perilous mission field in the southern U. S. in the late nineteenth century, and the tendency in the same time period to tolerate less-than-rigorous adherence to the Word ofWisdom. Readers will also find countless summary judgments of political and ecclesiastical leaders, their abilities, and their character.

The way a book is regarded inevitably depends on who is doing the regarding Some pious Mormons (particularly ifthey are also Republicans) may regard Moyle's pointed criticism of the church's leadership and his repeated assertion that even church presidents have been fallible human beings as tantamount to heresy Non-Mormons may think Moyle was dreadfully naive ever to imagine that the conservative leadership of a conservative church would observe a strict separation of church and state when it had within its power the ability to influence (some would say "dictate") public policy Those in between may marvel at Moyle's ability to embrace with such fervor, over a long period of time, two often adversarial allegiances (His sincere friendship with Heber J. Grant provides a touching example.)

Whatever their perspective, serious students of Mormon history or Utah politics will find much of interest in this occasionally repetitive memoir, and the fifty-three-page "Biographical Appendix," which provides valuable material on virtually every figure prominently mentioned in the text, is a bonus prize It is good to have Sessionssbook and Moyle's life more easily available.

F ALAN COOMBS University of Utah

People of the West Desert: Finding Common Ground

By Craig Denton (Logan:Utah State University Press,1999 xvii + 203pp Cloth,$44.95;paper,$24.95.)

WITH THIS VOLUME, author and photographer Craig Denton creates a documentary view of some of the people that live in one of the least-populated and understood regions of the United States Denton begins by defining the "West Desert" as a place of geographic boundaries, but also a mindset, a metaphor. The place is the Great Basin, from western Utah to eastern Nevada. It is a basin-and-range environment, harsh and dry,an unforgiving place, in which the casual visitor finds it difficult to believe anyone would willingly live The metaphor is what Denton calls "a geography of the soul," a place where people of many diverse backgrounds and experiences come together to find a commonality in the land All the groups and individuals described in the volume share at least one common attitude: they embrace the isolation of the desert and hope to remain in their homes, away from urban centers and the problems that go along with them.

The volume begins by describing the land and its unique characteristics The common characteristic throughout the West Desert is aridity. It is this lack of water that dictates the locations of the communities described and keeps the vast open areas free of human occupation Water is everything in the West Desert; for those who have enough, a good life is possible For those with too little water, life there can be tenuous.

Denton then describes some of the communities in the West Desert. The "first" people, Gosiutes and Paiutes, tenaciously hold on to the remnants of their land, culture, and past by living where they have always lived The "old west" people include ranching families that have survived on the fringes of the springs and mountain streams for generations and continue the struggle to make a living and provide for their families. Sheep-ranchers continue their annual cycle of moving sheep from high meadows to desert bottoms Prospectors still pick through the abandoned mines and search out possible new strikes.

The "new west" people include government employees who patrol and protect the public lands and their resources for all citizens; urban expatriates who, through PC and modem, bring their work and lifestyles to isolated towns and regions and forever change the face of these communities; and fundamentalists and dreamers, environmental and religious, who come to remake the world the way they wish it to be and to remain independent of government edict and public outrage.

The book provides a sympathetic look at the people who make the West Desert their home. The people and communities are portrayed on their own terms with little critical review. Denton gives voice to the uniqueness of the individuals and provides a medium for them to express their issues and concerns In the process, he uncovers some interesting details of desert life, thanks to the willingness of people to speak with him and share their stories and their overall acceptance of each other's idiosyncratic beliefs and opinions A weakness with the volume, one the author readily acknowledges, is the lack of the polygamist point of view Polygamist inclusion was not possible because of the unwillingness of that community to be involved.

The book is an important look at modern life in a remote region of the United States Directed toward the popular reader and not the academic historian, the writing is sometimes too formal.The photographs complement the text. Anyone interested in the history of culture of the Great Basin will find People of the West Desert interesting and informative

DENNIS R DEFA Salt Lake City, Utah

Women and Nature: Saving the "Wild" West

By Glenda Riley (Lincoln:University ofNebraska Press,1999 xxx + 279 pp Cloth,$60.00;paper,$24.95.)

AS PART OF THE WOMEN IN THE WEST series this volume examines generations of women who have revered nature, explored their relationships with it, and pursued methods to preserve it. Focusing her study on the trans-Mississippi West because it "attracted an enormous share of environmentalists' attention" (xvi), Riley has a dual purpose with this book. Not only does she chronicle the women conservationists, many of whom have been omitted or slighted in the male-dominated historiography of environmental studies, but she also calls for additional research

Many women environmentalists and conservationists have been ignored or lack a full-length biographical study Also, there has been a dearth of studies related to gender differences, and this demands more scholarly analysis

The text is divided into ten chapters, a conclusion, extensive documentation, and a photo section. The opening chapter furnishes historical background and points out that women were forerunners in the conservation movement. Chapter two examines the English influence on environmental thought and activities Chapters three through eight concentrate on the development of the conservation movement from the early 1870s through the early 1940s Each chapter considers a distinct category of women: scientists, nature writers, visual image-makers, club women, athletes, and tourists The final two chapters examine the expansion of women's environmentalism since the 1940s, including ecofeminism

Alice Eastwood, a botanist; Mary Hunter Austin, writer; Florence Yoch, landscape architect; Julia Anna Archibald Holmes, climber; and Margaret Long, traveler, arejust a few of the women who studied, visited, and wrote about the West The obstacles they faced were many and varied. For example, clothing: dictates of the time required that women remain and appear feminine Women adapted and redesigned their outfits, readily accepted new fashions such as bloomers, and later began wearing men's pants Finding acceptable clothing for mountain climbing, hiking, and riding side-saddle were challenges conquered by these women Study, travel, and adventure were more important than the expected "women's place."

These women's activities proved that they were not frail creatures nor were they frightened by the outdoors They could tour on their own, ride horseback across mountains like Isabella Bird, and collect plant and animal specimens that formed the basis of museum collections; and most of all, these women inspired others to seek their own western adventures.

Riley contends that the inclusion of women, including women of color, in the history of the environmental movement presents a holistic view and forms a more complete story As societies' caregivers,women perceive nature in a distinct manner and offer more nurturing views of preserving the earth, its natural features, and its native peoples than do most men Women described nature and pictured it in feminine terms and thus offered and developed alternative ways of viewing the landscape and making environmental decisions.

This is an exceptionally well-organized, well-researched, wellwritten book—another coup for Glenda Riley,who has made significant contributions to the advancement of women's history. In the future, environmental histories will confirm that the late nineteenth-century political humorist Josh Billings was correct when he declared,"Wimmin is everywhere."

PATRICIA ANN OWENS Wabash Valley College ML Carmel, Illinois

The American Frontier: Pioneers, Settlers, and Cowboys, 1800-1899

ByWilliam C Davis (Norman: University ofOklahoma Press,1999 256 pp Paper,$19.95.)

THIS IS A LAVISHLY ILLUSTRATED one-volume overview of the nineteenth-century West that retells the familiar stories of western settlement Originally published in 1992 by Salamander Books of London, England, the current large-format paperback edition is a product of the University of Oklahoma Press The American Frontier is not the typical fare expected from scholarly publishers It is a beautiful trade book that delights the eye but offers little that is new or challenging

For many years, author William C Davis was editor and publisher of Civil War Times Illustrated, a popular history magazine, and the glossy, highly illustrated approach in this book is drawn from that experience With its 280 historical photographs, artists' renderings of typical western characters, and color displays of "Old West" artifacts from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Davis's volume is reminiscent of the well-known Time-Life series.The very readable text, which is organized thematically in eight chapters, is also more typical of magazine writing than scholarly literature There is a smattering of endnotes in each chapter for those who care about sources

Though the title of this work is The American Frontier and it professes to cover the entire nineteenth century, there is nothing here about the trans-Appalachian West that was arguably the "frontier" in the early 1800s.The book is,instead, about the transMississippi West Its emphasis, as described in the jacket notes, is on the "land and people...people prepared to fight hostile elements to create a place for themselves" and on the Indians whose land was usurped While more inclusive in terms of gender, race, and ethnicity than older western history books, this is still an "old school" approach hearkening back to Frederick Jackson Turner.

Within the eight chapters are the oft-told stories of western settlement. One finds Lewis and Clark, the mountain men, the Texans, the Mormons, the Indian wars, the Gold Rush, cowboys, lawmen, desperadoes, and more The "Frontier Community" chapter is a rewarding addition that provides some interesting social history content The stories are well-told, but there is not a great deal of analysis or interpretation.

This is a popular history of the American West. As a popular history, one would hope that it would take the best current scholarship and present it in a readable form for a general audience Unfortunately, Davis has largely ignored the vast additions to the literature that have come from the "new western history" movement One searches his references in vain for books and articles by the likes of Richard White,Julie Roy Jeffrey, or Richard Maxwell Brown.While the high priests of this movement can at times be a bit tiresome, one cannot ignore their important contributions. The West they have given us is not only more inclusive but is also far more complex and intellectually challenging

The book also suffers from the lack of a strong introductory essay A good overview at the beginning would have helped to put the thematic chapters into context and show the connectedness of their stories As the book stands,it is difficult for the reader to link major events and grasp a complete picture of the western past It seems that the book was made to be picked up and enjoyed in small doses rather than read from beginning to end. Indeed, the text appears to be of secondary importance to the graphic material.

While visually stunning, The American Frontier does not measure up to another popular western history book now on the market, The West: An Illustrated History, by Geoffrey Ward A companion to the PBS documentary series of the same name, this book uses extensive quotations to personalize the stories of the West, is based on current scholarship, and contains essays by outstanding modern scholars Its chronological approach makes for a more coherent telling of the western saga. Buy The American Frontier for its wonderful illustrations and displays of"Old West" material culture For an eloquent and thought-provoking rendition of the western past, buy The West while it still remains on the bargain rack.

MICHAEL W.JOHNSON Utah State University