Book Review

Reflections of a Mormon Historian: Leonard J Arrington on the New Mormon

History Essays by Leonard J Arrington, edited by Reid L. Neilson and Ronald W Walker (Nor man: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2006. 360 pp Cloth, $36.95.)

NEARLY A DECADE after his death comes another book of Leonard Arrington essays. Offered fondly and optimistically by editors Reid Neilson and Ronald Walker Reflections of a Mormon Historian is composed mainly of Arrington articles; two previously unpublished, and twelve that have done earlier service An extraordinary collection of photos is offered along with a “chronology” of Arrington’s life borrowed from the Arrington Papers Register at Utah State University Library Joining the editor s in the prefatory material are Susan Arrington Madsen whose “foreword” is brief but intimate, and David Whittaker. The latter’s “Arrington Bibliography” runs to thirty-five pages, and lists approximately fifty-eight books, monographs and pamphlets, three hundred for ty-three ar ticles and chapter s in books, as well as forty-nine reviews, and eighty addresses and duplicated paper s. A quick glance at the articles suggests that a large portion of them are on Mormon topics but that quite a number of important titles are in economic, agricultural, and state and regional history; other fields upon which Arrington’s reputation rested. The book and monograph titles appear to be about equally divided between Mormon history and his other interests. Here, however, the more important titles fall in the religious history category, yet, considering the peculiarities of Mormon culture, Arrington’s approach might simultaneously be considered to have been secular if not indeed general history as suggested by Dale Morgan’s comment in a 1959 review that Great Basin Kingdom went a f air piece “on the road toward being a ‘general history’” of Utah.

The editors’ input also includes Walker’s nostalgic salute, “Mormonism’s ‘Happy Warrior.'" This essay summarizes Arrington's role in jump-starting the New Mormon History movement, a professionalized and vastly invigorated Mormon interest in historical scholarship, and the LDS church's experiment with professionalized history in the 1970s and 1980s. It also notes the rise of a modest critique of Arrington's work within the movement. The editors' "preface" focuses on the New Mormon History elements of Arrington's career and notes his "determination" to substitute a "middle way" for the defensive institutionalism of much previous Mormon history. They also note a “less parochial…[more] intercultural spirit” in the cur rent development of “Mormon Studies prog rams” and “conferences,” and in mounting interest at “prestigious presses” which lead them to offer these essays because they address the "how" of Mormon history and especially because they are “prologue” to “challenges” inherent in this broadening approach. (16-17)

Like the title, the organization of Arrington’s essays reflects the editors’ primary interest in Mormon studies. They arrange them in three parts: (1) biography, allowing Arrington to reflect on his development as a historian; (2) essays on the for matting and meaning of professionalized Mormon history; (3) Mormon historiography’s need for sweeping generalization, biography, and intellectual tradition. While these directions hold the essays on the New-Mormon-History-track the careful reader will be moved by their autobiographical aspects. Appearing again and again is Arrington the regionalist, the economist, and the state historian (particularly for Utah and Idaho). And gratefully, there in full force also is the affable organization man whose work was often superlative, but not always; pulling together, pointing, advocate of the record turned to written word.

As one reviews this book for readers of the Utah Historical Quarterly one is especially aware of Arrington’s role in the seismic re-organization of history’s professional structure that came as result of World War II and the G.I. Bill’s impact. More than any other scholar in the Intermountain West he was part of the process that changed the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, (in place since the turn-of the-twentieth-century-decades), into the Organization of American Historians on the one hand and on the other created the Western History Association of which Arrington was one of the earliest presidents. He was also a prime mover in the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, the Agricultural History Association, of which he was also president, and particularly active in the Utah and Idaho state historical societies, both of which were revitalized during his time. His role was paramount in getting journals up and running in both the Mormon History Association and the Western History Association and no man’s list of friends was larger nor more widely spread.

For years his colorful ties and happy banter were standard fare as he talked from table to table while chairs filled at the Utah State historical Society's annual banquets. Long before he joined Ray Billington, Howard Lamar, and Martin Ridge to organize the Western History Association or with Davis Bitton, Ron Walker and Eugene England breathed life into the New Mormon History the Utah Historical Quarterly was his outlet and the Utah State Historical Society his launching pad. Indeed, for a time its directors, preservation officers, historic site committee member s and at least two editors were people he helped bring over from academia and the Chairman of the Board of State History, Milton Abrams, was his close friend and ally at Utah State University.

CHARLES S. PETERSON St. George

Reclaiming Diné History: The Legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita

Jennifer Nez Denetdale (Tucson: The University of Ar zona Press, 2007. xiv + 241 pp Cloth, $45.00; paper, $19.95.)

BY DEFINITION, the word “reclaim” means to restore, tur n from error, or take back. Jennifer Denetdale proclaims, “as the first Diné with a Ph.D in history” (xi), that her mission is to “critiqu[e] works that refuse to acknowledge the colonial nature in which we continue to live and then advanc[e] studies that privilege Diné worldview” for the betterment of Navajo communities and a true restoration of their history.(45) In this book, a result of her doctoral studies, she has two objectives: “I intend to examine existing histories that focus on Manuelito [her great, great, great grandfather] and pay little attention to Juanita [Manuelito’s wife] in order to demonstrate that much of what has been written about Navajos by non-Navajos reflects American biases ” and “second[ly] to demonstrate that Navajos perceive their own past differently” because of a cultural belief system based on oral tradition.(7) This “anti-colonial” theme, constantly restated throughout, is the axe being g round. The question then becomes how shar p the blade and what is going to be chopped.

The bulk of the book’s content is actually a review of the literature surrounding who should write about Native people. The author provides an exhaustive array of author s who feel that one has to be a native (not necessarily from the same culture) to be successful. While “Western cultural constructions have served to keep structures of inequalities and injustices entrenched....Native scholars have declared our intellectual endeavors should support Native sovereignty ”(14,18) An historian walks a fine line when writing history for contemporary political purposes. The underlying assumption is “genetic determinism” or the idea that one has to be of a certain race or a Native-of-some-type in order to really understand. Consequently, non-Native historians have missed the canoe and are flounder ng in the waters of misunderstanding. There are a few clinging to the side that meet Denetdale’s approval, but none are totally on board. The reason: they do not come from an oral tradition; therefore, they can’t “get it.” No mention is made of ethnohistory, which has been in full bloom for more than thirty years, during which scholar s from all walks of life have been extremely fruitful in combining culture and history for clarity of understanding. To recognize this is to remove one of the straw men.

There are other straw men neatly hewed by the ax. Who is going to argue with the idea that there should be more Native scholar s writing about their culture or that under standing a people’s religious teachings and cultural metaphor s advances interpretation of historical events or that history written in the past has not been as culturally sensitive as it is today or that the U.S. government has been less than stellar in its treatment of Native Americans? These are all handy targets that illustrate Wester n wr iting has “been projects of imper ialism,” but it also ignores the tremendous contribution provided by the evil “colonials.”

How big this contribution has been is found in the book’s endnotes and bibliography. By my calculation, only 15 percent of her sources are by or from Native Americans and many of those references were collected by non-Natives The two chapter s that come closest to the author’s stated objectives are the biographical account of Manuelito and the stories about Juanita The Manuelito chapter has 122 endnotes, six of which cite a Navajo source, and half of these are contemporary interviews Nineteen endnotes are from original documents, most of which are cited from secondary sources; almost the entire chapter is based on secondary sources

There are two problems with this. The most obvious is that an historian needs to go to or iinal sources to deter mine what happened. There is little of that here, but it does not need to be that way One six volume series cited, Through White Men’s Eyes by J Lee Correll, is a vast collection of primary source documents sur rounding the Long Walk period (1860s) with frequent mention of Manuelito. No substantive use was made of it to tell an original story or new interpretation. Instead, there is a rehashing of events from secondary sources (the "colonial" view), even though scholars already criticized some of these sources for significant inaccuracy. There is nothing “Navajo” about her render ing of these events. One might argue that only the written white view now exists, but there are a number of books based on testimony given by Navajo people about their, or their family’s, experience during that time. If the Navajo view is the only valid possibility—then these sources should have been used.

The chapter about Juanita raises different problems. Here, the author attempts to integrate family oral tradition “to rewrite our histories in ways that more accurately reflect our experiences, especially under colonialism.”(129) Again, out of sixty-three endnotes, five are oral interviews coming from four family members. They provide small snippets of family recollections about Juanita, which quickly pushes the author to other topics or personal reflection. Of history, there is little An already published short account of the Navajo creation story is a brief foray by the author to use traditional narrative materials. Remember, her stated purpose is to provide new insight, showing how some aspect of Navajo history relates to this type of teaching. There is some discussion about the role of women as defined in this nar rative, but considering that Navajo culture is matrilineal, it is all too short and general. An endnote explains that the author chose to use an already existing account to maintain privacy, which is fine, but if her intent is to explain Navajo thought and interpret historic events from an oral tradition, then she is going to have to say something new somewhere. The level of the Navajo creation story presented here is well known, discussed openly by tribal members, and found extensively in reservation school curriculum.

A final observation; in an attempt to be a pro-Navajo activist who will throw off the oppressive yoke of colonial rule, Denetdale abandons good ethnohistorical practices. To borrow a metaphor from a different arena, her writing of history is like “playing tennis without a net.” Unwilling to use much of any original written or oral sources, the author ends up either critiquing other scholar s’ writing or presenting history as she would like it to have been. Take for example, the issue of Manuelito talking about education as a ladder. This is so well known, it has become a clichè in several forms - the song "Go My Son" with its obligatory sign language, the Manuelito Scholarships offered by the tribe, and the glossy brochures that promote education through the picture of a ladder—as examples. The author does a very good job of explaining all of the second and third hand accounts of this utterance, but then points out that “no written document testifies to its authenticity ”(82) Still, it works to promote education, and Manuelito was very much in favor of that. Should the metaphor, however, be per petuated? Ask Mason Weems about George Washington and the cherry tree. Where does this leave us? Denetdale’s perception of history and the Navajo people lies at the center of how she chooses to por tray them. To her, they are a down-trodden people held captive by the colonial, capitalist system that has created 150 years of enslavement. The white man has created a series of symbols that he refuses to let go and sees Navajo traditional dress and culture as a reaffirmation of these stereotypes. I feel differently I see Navajo people as anything but down trodden. They certainly have their share of issues, some of which do come from the capitalist system of the dominant society. But they are hardly passive and heavily exploited. I see them now, as well as in the past, charting their own course and being successful at it. Their future is bright and very much in their own hands. Thus, perhaps this is the ultimate straw man—to rewrite (reclaim)a people’s history that can stand on its own merits right beside its oral tradition.

ROBERT S. MCPHERSON College of Easter n Utah/San Juan Campus

Religion, Politics, and Sugar; The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907-1921

By Matthew C Godfrey (Logan: Utah State University Press, 2007. vi + 226 pp Cloth, $34.95.)

RELIGION, POLITICS, AND MONEY sounds like the critical elements of Dan Brown’s next best selling novel. But in this new book, Matthew Godfrey uses these themes to tell the fascinating and important story of a sugar beet company in the Mountain West. It is a story of a young religion headquartered in the harsh environment of the Intermountain West trying to help its relatively poor people improve their economic circumstances It is a story of a government slowly shifting from a philosophy of laissez-faire (which really meant support for business over labor and consumer) to a philosophy of regulatory capitalism. And finally it is a story of money of profits, of market forces and of a church’s involvement in both.

The story Matthew Godfrey tells is essentially this: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter–day Saints (Mormons), having settled in the Great Basin of Utah in 1847 but having spread into other mountain states, is the dominant ecclesiastical organization of the region. In the eyes of its critics it is also much more than that—it is the dominant organization in the region regardless of the field. Not content in providing only religious direction, the church is desirous of helping improve the economic circumstances of its people as well. In doing so, the church becomes involved in establishing and helping grow the sugar beet industry After all, it could provide a cash crop for farmers, jobs for others in the processing plants, and improve the self-sufficiency of its members all at the same time

With these goals in mind, the church helped organize and finance fledgling sugar companies. It then became a major stockholder in the consolidation of several small sugar beet companies into the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company in 1907. Church president Joseph F Smith became the new corporation’s first president. This close relationship continued for most of the corporation’s history Heber J Grant, who succeeded Smith as church president also served as company president. Following Grant’s death in 1945, George Albert Smith became church president and president of the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company. In turn, David O. McKay succeeded Smith in the same two positions as well. Furthermore, Charles Nibley, a self-made millionaire, and Presiding Bishop of the church served as vice president and general manager for many year s until his death in 1931.

The church’s deep involvement in the local economy and private enterprise was not new. Brigham Young successfully promoted cooperatives through out Mormon Country in the nineteenth century. But in the twentieth century American attitudes toward large and powerful corporations were changing Big business and monopolies were under attack by intellectuals, farmer organizations, labor, and social activists. At this time, many industries such as railroads, oil, steel, and sugar were dominated by a few companies Enormous pressure was placed on government to break up or at least regulate the corporations controlling these powerful industries The national government responded to the pressure. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890), Clayton Anti-Trust Act (1914) and the Federal Trade Commission (1914) were all federal actions to either dismantle or regulate the monopolies

After months of investigation and hearings, the Federal Trade Commission filed suit charging the Mormon church with such unfair trade practices as working against the creation of other sugar beet enterprises that would compete with Utah-Idaho, and setting sugar prices so high as to “gouge” its own people

However, the book is more than a story of this lawsuit Godfrey provides a fascinating and f air-minded story of how the Mormon church and the national government clashed over religion, profits, markets, and power during the Progressive Era. The book is an enjoyable read and provides an excellent analysis of major trends sweeping across the American landscape in the early twentieth century.

MICHAEL CHRISTENSEN South Jordan

Bags to Riches: The Story of I. .J Wagner

By Don Gale (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2007. xx + 202 pp Cloth, $25.95.)

FROM RECYCLING used burlap bags, bottles, batteries, barrels, and bootleg stills—no, not their s—to buying, selling and investing in real estate and businesses, Isador Wagner took his family's bag company from early twentieth-century poverty to postwar prosperity In the doing, until his death in 2003 at age eighty-nine, this Utah native and son of immigrant Jews built his for tune, altered Salt Lake City’s cityscape, and gave back to the community “[He] worried that he might leave the world before his account was in the balance, ” Don Gale writes in his unabashedly delightful book, Bags to Riches: The Story of I.J Wagner A Utah author and broadcaster, Gale parallels the derring-do of one of Salt Lake City’s “favorite sons” and noted “gadfly” with the city’s coming-of-age

I.J. “Izzi” Wagner was a major influence in urban development at a time when downtown Salt Lake City, riddled with a proliferation of railroad tracks and billboards, was in need of a f ace-lift. He not only helped eliminate the tracks but, f acing down criticism which went on for decades, reduced the amount of conspicuous signage

Wagner volunteered on multiple city and community boards. His mother’s sage advice coupled with his tenacity earned him praise as “the catalyst, advocate, leader,” and “conscience” behind such projects as the Salt Lake Inter national Airport and the Salt Palace Convention Center His char itable bent emphasizing diversity and tolerance helped build the Jewish Community Center which bears his name.

Gale writes Wagner’s “word was his bond,” his handshake his contract. In 1990, that concord coupled with the donated site of his childhood home gave credence to the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

Izzi’s parents Rose and Harry Wagner were from Northern and Eastern Europe and ar ived in Utah in 1913 with three dollars to their name. Their small adobe home on 144 West Third South had neither sewer line nor running water and was surrounded by a brothel, a small hotel, and several street-level bordellos. When Harry arrived home with used flour sacks in hand, Rose knew they had the ingredients for a viable business: the Wagner Bag Company.

Izzi hawked out-of-date papers to out-of-towner s when he was six year s old. Later, he worked at Maurice War shaw’s fruit stand. He played the violin, took boxing lessons to defend against those intolerant of his ethnicity, and learned how to dance. When Harry died suddenly in 1932, the family was in debt, and seventeen-year-old Izzi left his schooling at the University of Utah to take over the company.

Over the years, childhood friends became business partners; successes reinforced others and much land was bought up around downtown. Wagner Industrial Park was among the first of its kind in Utah.

During World War II, Wagner joined the Marines. A mosquito bite and malaria saved him from becoming a Pacific casualty in the bloody battle of Tarawa. In 1942, he married the love of his life, Mormon vaudeville dancer Jeanné Rasmussen, and by 1953, his company employed seventy people, produced fifty-thousand bags a day, and imported millions of yards of burlap from India. When Wagner Bag Company merged with St. Regis Paper Company in 1960, the undisclosed amount of money ensured each family member a “comfortable” life.

Bags to Riches, a chronology of Wagner’s verve and experiences, reads like a tribute rather than a scholarly biography With unbridled enthusiasm for a dear friend, Gale occasionally tumbles into excessive flatter y and repetition. The inclusion of Wagner’s stereotypic slur about Jews getting the best price is unfortunate.

An ancillary to Gale’s generous portrait is his well-seasoned comprehension of the complexities of business and its power broker s. Using practical prose, anecdotal accounts, and musings gleaned from five years of daily conversations with Wagner, Gale offer s rare insight into the waning genre of businessmen who value tzedakah as well as their millions. A good man, indeed, a good read.

EILEEN HALLET STONE Salt Lake City

Thunder Over Zion: The Life of Chief Judge Willis W. Ritter.

By Patricia F. Cowley and Parker M. Nielson. (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2007. xii + 372 pp Cloth, $34.95.)

THUNDER OVER ZION: The Life of Chief Judge Willis W. Ritter is an affectionate and engaging portrait of an unusually controversial Utah figure who wielded extraordinary power over the legal affair s of Utah for almost three decades. It is well-researched and well-written and should be read by anyone with an interest in Utah legal history. The reader should be forewarned of the book’s flaws, however.

Patricia Cowley, married to a Utah lawyer, started the book and completed most of the research. When her health did not permit her to finish the work, Parker Nielson, a Salt Lake City lawyer, completed the project, utilizing (and extending) Ms. Cowley’s research and his own extensive personal experience with Judge Ritter.

The book provides substantial information about Willis Ritter’s background and somewhat dysfunctional upbringing and it provides possible insights into the irascibility that often surfaced during his judicial career. When his parents divorced, he stayed with his father and his brothers went with his mother, whom he rarely saw thereafter. When Ritter’s father was unable to adequately provide for his son, Willis moved in with his uncle and aunt, Willis and Mary Adams.

It is exceptional that Park High School’s class of 1918, consisting of eighteen graduates, included not only Willis Ritter, but also Roger Traynor, future Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court and one of the most prominent and well-respected judges in the country for many year s. Traynor was valedictor ian, Ritter salutatorian.

Ritter owed his appointment as a federal judge to Senator Elbert Thomas, an important mentor who had been Ritter's political science teacher at the University of Utah and on whose campaigns Ritter worked tirelessly. When Tillman Johnson, who had served as the sole federal judge in Utah for thirty-three year s, finally decided to retire at the age of ninety-one, Thomas kept a promise to nominate Ritter for the post. The difficulties over the nomination, including the always-difficult religious and political tensions in Salt Lake City, make for a compelling tale.

Thomas, a Democrat and practicing Mormon, was encouraged to appoint John S Boyden, who, like Ritter, shared political affiliation with Thomas and, unlike Ritter, religious affiliation, and was apparently tor n in deciding whom to nominate. According to the biography, recently-elected Arthur V. Watkins, a Republican and Mormon, employed Ernest Wilkinson and others in an attempt to make sure that Ritter was not appointed.

It is in the description of confirmation proceedings that the biases of the book become most evident. Senator Arthur Watkins, "Rube" Clark (LDS church J. Reuben Clark), Ernest Wilkinson, and John Boyden are all demonized in turn, using terms that do not do the book justice. Examples include referring to Watkins and Clark and their “minions,” (89) their “lies”(119), their “clever stratagem of deception to manipulate the Senate Judiciary Committee”(142) and to Boyden as “devious,” (104) as the “ master manipulator,”(108) and as one who exhibited “paranoia.”(147). These terms either need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt or toned down. There is little doubt that Watkins and Wilkinson and Clark used hardball political tactics in an attempt to block an appointment they found objectionable, but naming chapters 10 and 11 “Smear” and “Watkins’ Folly” is over statement.

Chief Judge Ritter’s judicial career, with all its controversies and attainments, is described at some length, though the controversies are under stated Ritter ultimately is described as one who was an "unyielding, tireless bulwark against oppression by those in power, secular or religious." (304) The book does not always directly address the problem of who would protect attorneys and litigants from the oppression of Chief Judge Ritter, a man with enormous secular power The biographers are not blind to Ritter’s faults, but find greater faults in his antagonists.

Ritter appears genuinely to have been brilliant and, in the context of certain legal concepts, particularly in the criminal area, far ahead of his time. His decisions were referred often to when the United States Supreme Court afforded defendants important rights and protections that have now become familiar to everyone in the United States. Not surprisingly, the book’s analysis of Ritter’s important rulings is excellent.

The book contains a few unexpected editing gaffes. “Eugene” McCarthy’s anticommunist crusade is referenced (158) and a reference to “Heber Grant Ivins,” (48) clearly LDS church leader Anthony W Ivins, should have been caught by a careful editor. Both names are correctly referenced in other passages in the book.

The author s suggest that many of the character flaws exhibited by Judge Ritter and some of the troubles he encountered in his marriage and family may have been triggered by “the injustice of attacks during his confirmation” or “may have been the effect of alcohol abuse in later years.”(294) A more plausible explanation is that, as some suggested at the time of the confirmation hearings, Ritter's temperament was not suitable to a life-tenured federal judge. Elbert Thomas feared this and should have followed up on his fear s. My guess is that, while trial lawyer s like having smart judges, the vast majority, if they had to choose between brilliance and f air ness in a judge, would choose the latter It is too bad that Utah’s principal federal judge for thirty years exhibited mental acuity but did not always exhibit the equity and the appearance of fairness to which all should be entitled.

In spite of its flaws, this biography is ultimately a worthy contribution to our history that provides both infor mation and insights into one of Utah’s most interesting characters.

KENNETH L. CANNON II Salt Lake City