Book Notices

They Call It Home: The Southeastern Utah Collection.

By Ken Hochfeld and GaryL. Shumway. (The authors, n.p., 2013. v + 105 pp. Cloth, $45.00.)

Through half-page black-and-white images, this picture profile book provides a charming look at San Juan County and its residents. Ken Hochfeld captured the images in 1972–1973 when he was a student at California State University Fullerton. Hochfeld spent time in the community getting to know the residents for his project and that is evident in the comfortable, natural way they responded to his camera. Years later, Gary L. Shumway, a southeastern Utahn, produced brief biographical or historical notes to accompany some of the photographs. Shumway notes in the introduction that—as a rough, dry place—southeastern Utah was not a desirable spot to settle, but that those who did created a sense of home and community. The goal of the book is to convey that feeling through the daily lives of residents at home, work, and celebratory events. The quality of Hochfeld’s images, as well as the candid context of the images supported by Shumway’s text, achieves this goal nicely. Of particular note are the images of the Navajo reservation and some of its people, as well as the Blanding “town picture” Hochfeld took on July 4, 1973, which demonstrates both the diversity and unity of this community.

Ruby’s Inn at Bryce Canyon. Images of America Series.

By A. Jean Seiler.(Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2013. 127 pp. Paper, $21.99.)

This book focuses on the story of Ruby and Minnie Syrett and their tourist lodge business. An abundance of photographs with captions gives a fascinating look at the couple and their family, the historic lodge and its development, guests at the lodge, and activities around Bryce Canyon.

New Perspectives in Mormon Studies: Creating and Crossing Boundaries.

Edited by Quincy Newell and Eric F. Mason. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2013. 248 pp. Paper, $24.95.)

This volume stems from a 2005 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) seminar, “Joseph Smith and the Origins of Mormonism: Bicentennial Perspectives.” The collection includes nine essays culled from the many generated by the seminar, and it serves as a sampler of the current Mormon Studies movement, heir of the New Mormon History of the 1970s to the 1990s (see chapter 9). Topics range from an approach to Joseph Smith’s political economy to a theological treatise on the enigmatic biblical figure of Elias to an article on development of the Ex-Mormons for Jesus/Saints Alive in Jesus movement. Utah historians will be particularly interested in the essay on BYU’s internationally visible work on various Dead Sea Scrolls projects, the foreword, and the introductory essay on the story of the seminar itself. The authors argue that awarding a NEH seminar to a group proposing to examine the origins of Mormonism signals another milestone in the development of Mormon Studies as a viable field for academic inquiry.