Utah Books

Utah gives so much, yet, asks for so little. Same with this book. I think they coulda got twelve bucks for it easy.

I have to confess that I've always thought that there were some strange things going on here. Although there is not very much crime in Utah, there are some very unusual crimes. And the mixture of religion and the desert does breed some pretty bizarre offshoots of mainstream churchs, particularly the LDS church, which is still the dominant religion and contributes to the dominant culture, Mormonism. Harris is a former member of the LDS church, and there is some Mormon bashing here, but he really spares no one with his irreverant wit.

Maybe you have to be from Utah to really grasp the truly priceless, unabashed, eccentricities that exist there, but I found this book to be incredibly entertaining and a fascinating insight into Utah's quirks (yes, it's all true). I had the best time with this book in Moab, late night story-telling; I started laughing so hard I cried and could hardly finish what I was saying. Recommended dosage: 1 bottle of wine before reading for optimum results.

A very thin 100 pages of okay anecdotes about Utah. Try to check it out of the local library.

I recommend this book to any and all people who think Utah is a goody-goody whitebred all american boring cookie cutter town. some stories in here made me laugh till i cried. Read this book immediately, even if you don't care a thing about Utah. Trust me, you will!!!

I found this book to be very informative on a factual and personal level as I am one of Hickman's descendants. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early days of Utah.

Interestingly enough, this book was written by a lady who found out that she was related to Mr. Hickman. This is a man who was a bodyguard for both Joseph Smith as well as Brigham Young. There is the forever question, Were there Danites?" And, if so, "What were they? And, what did they do?" This is a well thought out book. Her report is mostly documentary with personal pursuasions regarding the validity of certain things said by Mr. Hickman in his autobiography. I feel as though the author has a pretty good common sense approach in applying her rearch and explaining her reasons for accepting or rejecting certain statements make by him. I read it as a companion book to "Wild Bills'" autobiography. An excellent read for me.

"Wild Bill" Hickman And The Mormon Frontier is a fascinating biography of William Adams ("Wild Bill") Hickman, by his descendant, Hope A. Hilton. Wild Bill was one of the most notorious figures of the 19th century American frontier. A Mormon (who was eventually excommunicated) married ten wives under the Mormon doctrine of polygamy, and who fathered thirty-five children, served as a spy for church presidents Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, and operated as a guerilla of the Utah war. All of this and much, much more, accurately depicts a colorful western figure's life is plainly presented, and makes for a fascinating look at the Old West within the context of the Mormon community in the western frontier that was to eventual form the states of Utah, Idaho, western Nevada, and northern Arizona.

Bill Hickman was one of the most interesting rogues in Mormonism. A self¬styled enforcer for the church, his career is deserving of a high-caliber biography. Unfortunately, "`Wild Bill' Hickman and the Mormon Frontier" is not of high caliber.

Bill Hickman grew up in Missouri and in 1838 affiliated with the Mormon church, quickly becoming a member of the Danite vigilante group that terrorized dissidents. Migrating to Utah, Hickman continued his violent lifestyle, where his activities included, among others, guerilla operations in the 1857-1858 Mormon War. Hickman admitted to the murders of several people, suggesting that he had been taking orders from Brigham Young. When his activities became embarrassing to the church, Hickman engaged in a game of power politics, playing Mormon and government officials against each other. He was successful for a time, but his violence eventually made him persona non grata in both camps. In 1872 he published an expose, "Brigham's Destroying Angel," which implicated the Mormon leadership in his misdeeds. Hickman finally died in 1883 in obscurity near Lander, Wyoming.

Hilton's book has several problems. As one example, there is a disturbing lack of documentation. She declares in the preface that footnotes "can be distracting," and that she "instead tried to provide enough information within the text to allow the reader to locate the appropriate reference in the bibliography" (p. xi). Unfortunately, locating sources is nearly impossible in many cases, especially in instances where it would be most useful.

The author also fails to organize the work into a coherent form. For instance, in a chapter entitled "The RLDS in Utah," less than a full page is devoted to that subject, and the remainder is concerned with other Hickman activities not related to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

But these are minor difficulties compared to central questions left perplexingly unexplored. Hilton's inability to deal with the difficult issue of what was fact and what was fancy in "Brigham's Destroying Angel," despite a promise to do so in the preface, was disappointing. Was it written out of spite? What basis in fact did it have? Additionally, and it is fundamental to considering the career of Hickman, what was his relationship to Brigham Young? Young was clearly aware of Hickman's lawlessness but still used him to carry out dangerous assignments, until Hickman's reputation became so colored that it significantly hurt the church. Hilton does not know or does not care about Young's role in murders and other felonies apparently committed by Hickman. Did Hickman carry out his activities at the direction of the church? The work is unclear on such crucial questions.

"`Wild Bill' Hickman and the Mormon Frontier" is a mildly interesting book, but a full understanding of this man's career awaits additional work. Hickman remains a subject in need of a good critical biography.

Wild Bill Hickman and the Mormon Fronter is an action-packed biography of the author's grandfather that puts together the life of one of Utah's living legends. Not much has been written about Bill Hickman in book-length form. Though a direct descendant of the subject of the book, Hope Hilton remains detached and avoids the glorification syndrome so often seen with family history writing. Bill Hickman led a colorful life, a life that many would consider to be the antithesis of the ideals which are espoused by the Mormon church. Hilton maintained that Hickman "killed more men than he saved." In this biography one learns that Brigham Young may have been responsible for ordering some of the killings allegedly perpetrated by Hickman. Hilton obtained much of her information from Hickman's autobiography Brigham's Destroying Angel, which Hickman wrote following his apostasy from the Mormon church. Therefore, much of his material might be questionable, as his autobiography was written during bitter times. The author takes the reader through every major phase of Hickman's life, from the east to the west coast, and finally ending with Hickman's death, couched in relative obscurity. I would recommend this book to all those who enjoy a touch of rebellion and excitement.

The book contains many good hiking routes, but lacks the kind of detail and descriptive writing about the amazing landscapes (waterfalls, canyons, rivers, prehistoric ruins, cliffs, and other landmarks in general) that you would expect from such an incredible area. I don't know if this is the author's fault or the publisher, but I'm inclined to avoid books from either in the future. Also, like other reviewers have said, the maps are cheesy, and not very useful. DO NOT go on a trip to the area with only this book - you need either a book with much better maps, or even better, a detailed topographical map. If you're looking for a guidebook on this "new" area, I suggest finding another book.

The Falcon Guides are the best source of reading material that I have found for hiking into unfamiliar areas. Their discription, maps and milage/elevation gain graphs are wonderful. There books contain a great deal of information.

On trying to follow the guide to one of the hikes, the Yellow Rock/Box of Paria River, we were fortunate to meet a BLM ranger as we were about to set out. It became clear that we weren't where we thought we were, and had we continued on, would have entered a confusing and unmarked maze of canyons instead of the entrance to the Box. This is the fault of this book - the maps are poorly labeled and confusing, and the directions (which usually start out by referring you back to some other hike, a poor strategy for a guide book) were, in this instance, just plain wrong, giving incorrect mileage to the point where we should have been. The two locator maps at the front of the book are especially bad, the first oriented perpendicular to the other covering the east part of the region, the second one showing the western part. They should be combined into one map across both pages, show the monument and park boundaries and have some kind of legend, along with better labels.
What we ended up using as a reference for the rest of the trip, on which we did four hikes, was, in fact, a place mat from a breakfast place in Escalante, which turned out to be much better organized, concise and accurate. On the front is an easy-to-understand map, clearly labeled, and on the back are brief descriptions of the principal backroads and the hikes along each one. This handy little sheet is actually easily found in most businesses in the area, for free.
Of course, a restaurant placemat doesn't give the level of detail contained in Mr. Adkison's book, which has several useful features, including good categorical summaries for each hike such as elevation gain and loss (including a line graph depicting this), difficulty ratings, hiking time, etc. It was inaccurate in one of those categories for the Yellow Rock hike, stating that no permit was required; the ranger corrected us on this count as well.
If this book were reorganized in the same manner as the place mat, with the good map of the back roads - there are several key ones: The Burr Trail, Hell's Backbone, and Cottonwood Canyon - and then listed the hikes attainable from each one, then it would be a lot more useful.

We used Hiking Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Glen Canyon Region for several hikes this summer and, despite some shortcomings, I would recommend it.
The trail descriptions are pretty realistic and give a good idea of what to expect on the hike. Based on these descriptions we picked our hikes and were never disappointed. The book describes the general character of the terrain, what you can expect to see, how difficult the hike is likely to be, etc., followed by a decent trail description.
Where the book needs improvement are the maps. The maps are OK to get a general idea, but NOT A SUBSTITUTE for proper planning of your trip. First they are a bit simplified (which is OK), second they are sometimes wrong (which can get you into trouble). The map for the Boulder Mail Trail, for example, has an incorrect scale bar which makes the hike appear much shorter than it really is (the text gives the correct information).
However, using this book as the sole information for your hike is not the smartest thing to begin with. In combination with the deLorme (or Benchmark) Utah Atlas and Gazetteer and a series of large scale topographic maps (USGS, Trails Illustrated) we never had any issues finding the trailhead or loosing the trail. So, consider this and similar books as a source of ideas, but do your homework, get the right maps etc. and you'll be fine.

Couldn't put this book down. The writing style allows you to relive a part of American history. I felt like I was there; laughed, cried, felt great empathy for these early Mormon pioneers and the steadfastness of Porter Rockwell. Where can I get Volume 2?

The legend of Orrin Porter Rockwell grows with each telling. Accordingly I have read nearly everything I could find about the man.

I just completed all four volumes of "The Porter Rockwell Chronicles" by Mr. Dewey and found the story well researched and riveting.

However, I had to give the series only 3 stars because every one of the books is riddled with more typos and malapropisms than the bullet holes found in the corpses of Porter Rockwell's alleged victims! Mr. Dewey either needs to tune up his act or at least fire his proofreaders.

Dewey's writing style also continually strays from Rockwell's period to modern expressions like "freaky," "stoned out of his mind," and, my favorite, "Just hypothetically speaking..." It's a well-known fact that Rockwell couldn't read so a scenario with him using words like "hypothetically" was a bit hard to swallow.

Still a great story. If you don't mind chewing through the gristle of the terrible writing then go for it. If not, check out Harold Schindler's excellent biography, "Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder" or Dewey's own excellent biography of Porter Rockwell.

This book captures the spirit and emotion of Rockwell's life better than any others I have read. It not merely details his life, but goes into the background and personality that made him one of the Mormon West's most colorful characters. The only complaint I have with the book is that it relies mostly on diaglogue to carry on with the story. Sometimes this is a bit distracting. However, it remains by far the most excellent (and accurate, from what I have studied) novel on Rockwell's life.

The legend of Orrin Porter Rockwell grows with each telling. Accordingly I have read nearly everything I could find about the man. I just completed all four volumes of "The Porter Rockwell Chronicles" by Mr. Dewey and found the story well researched, historically accurate and totally riveting.

However, I had to give the series only 3 stars because every one of the books is riddled with more typos and malapropisms than the bullet holes found in the corpses of Porter Rockwell's alleged victims! Mr. Dewey either needs to tune up his act or at least fire his proofreaders.

Dewey's writing style also continually strays from Rockwell's period to modern expressions like "freaky," "stoned out of his mind," and, my favorite, "Just hypothetically speaking..." It's a well-known fact that Rockwell couldn't read so a scenario with him using words like "hypothetically" was just a little hard to swallow. I have no problems with creative license but draw the line with expressions that go well beyond period vocabulary.

Still a great story. If you don't mind chewing through the gristle of the terrible writing then go for it. If not, check out Harold Schindler's excellent biography, "Orrin Porter Rockwell: Man of God, Son of Thunder" or Dewey's own excellent biography of Porter Rockwell.

THE HORSEMAN

I am pleased to have the opportunity to recommend to all of my family and friends the book entitled Alaska's Women Pilots Contemporary Portraits by Jenifer Fratzke. The book is well written and the author has captured the very essence of the adventures, fears, and obstacles to be overcome by women in the male dominated world of Alaskan Bush Pilots. Stories of the author's own flight experiences and stories dictated to her by the other female pilots portray a vivid picture of truly living the adventure and what it must have been like to take the risks to pave the way for future women pilots.

Thank you, Jenifer for sharing your experiences and those of others with us. I look forward to reading more of your works. N. Gilles

Addendum, December 2, 2007.

I am happy to report that the publisher of this inaccurate book has agreed to withdraw it from publication and to destroy all remaining copies. I consider this to be principled and proper reaction to the circumstances and I want to thank the Utah State University Press leadership for its ethical behavior in this matter.

James Bishop, Peoples Republic Of China.

Alaska's Women Pilots
ISBN 0-87421-583-8
Jenifer Lee Fratzke

On page 34 of that book you will find the following text.

The day I got fired, Jim and I went to lunch. He drank two beers and wanted to go flying with me. I had become only because I had scared the hell out of myself numerous times a pretty good instrument pilot. Jim liked to fly with me because he felt comfortable with my knowledge. But I didn't want to fly with him because he'd been drinking. It was a bad situation. I no longer respected him.
He said, "Yes, you will fly with me."
"I can't deal with your drinking," I said
He said something like, "Well fine, I didn't drink."
"What are you talking about?"
"Are you calling me a liar?"
"I'm not calling you anything," I said. "I don't respect you any more."
"You're fired."
"Thank you."

I am the "Jim" of which that passage speaks.

It is entirely false and libelous, charging as it does that I fired Tamar Bailey for refusing to fly with me after I had been drinking.

She was not a current pilot in any aircraft at our airline at the time she was fired. She had opted to become our Operations Manager during that season and had promised that she would not expect to be given a currency ride in the DC 6. As Operations Manager, it was to be her task to coordinate aircraft operations instead of fly. When, at the last moment before our summer workload was to begin, she demanded that she be given a multi-thousand dollar check ride in our line aircraft or she would quit; she was fired. There was no `lunch.' She was fired telephonically.

Legal documents associated and concurrent with her request for unemployment payments will document my statements and may be still obtainable from the State of Alaska.

In any event, the episode was witnessed by a variety of people still available to me and I will accept nothing less than a published, complete retraction and expression of regret if you want to avoid a law suit for liable. All unsold copies of the book must be withdrawn from the market at once. It is inexcusable that the facts in this passage were not checked before publication.

Thanks for a great book of personal experiences! Kudos from another woman who is in a field that has traditionally had few women - computer science. I had never heard about bush pilots; much less women who would brave the cold and isolation.

Besides enjoying for myself, I bought copies for my adventuresome daughters - another example of women who worked for their goals!

this is a great reference to use when walking/hiking with your dog. the directions are easy to follow and all the trails are very dog friendly.

Beware. This book wasted HOURS of my time, and all because it is poorly organized, inaccurate and carelessly put together. Although it does list some dog-friendly trails, here are the 4 major problems I had with it:

(#1) Provides inaccurate/incomplete driving directions to at least two trailheads (I haven't tried them all). Did the author bother to drive her own directions? Doubtful.

(#2) Lists at least one dog park that has been closed for about a year. The book I bought has a copyright date of 2005, but in June of 2005 when I tried to find to one of the fenced-in dog parks listed in the back of the book, I could not locate it. Three young men who lived in the area told me the park had been closed for 10 months. Another woman corroborated their story and said it had closed over a year ago. The fences had been torn down, and it now looks like an unkempt, abandoned lot.

(#3) Illogical organization. Why would someone who wants to walk their dog need to see the trails listed *alphabetically*? Why not by region? Let's think about this. When deciding on a dog-walking venue, the very first thing I need is a general sense of where the trail or park is so I can determine if I have enough time to make the trip. Is this a half day outing or something I can squeeze in after dinner before dark? The author does NOT provide a diagram or map to show the general location of the trails. This forces the reader to wade through all of the trail descriptions before heading out.

(#4) The author assumes the reader knows the area and can fill in the gaping holes she leaves in her work. While the roads in the Salt Lake City area are logically named/organized according to a basic grid, that is a general rule, and there are many exceptions. Avoid this book unless you want to buy your own maps and put in some significant research time, or if you are already very familiar with the area (in which case, you probably don't need a book like this).

The back cover of this book says the author is a resident of Sandy, UT. Since she lives here, the lack of accuracy is inexcusable. (Even if she didn't live here, she could have consulted maps before sending this thing to the printer.)

I've had this book for about a month and I've probably wasted 8-10 hours getting lost or, having learned my lesson the first time she sent me on a wild goose chase, pre-researching accurate directions to trails. And now I am using more time writing this review because this book was so maddening, I felt compelled to warn others. Time is precious and scarce to most people I know. This book does not respect the time of its readers. But I will say that it does list 19 trails all over the area. I've not seen any other place to get this info. So, it's a good start, but certainly not a convenient, easy to use reference.

Useful fun and fascinating book about hiking in the Salt Lake area. I especially liked the references on hiking times.
She really knows the trails ! My dog loves it also .

I was very disappointed with this purchase. Since several pages were missing and there has been a lot of highlighting going on, I don't think that the description of the book as "like new" was truthful. Would not recommend that you purchase anything from this seller.

PRODUST WAS SHIPPED AS PROMISED. BOOK WAS IN GREAT SHAPE, PRATICALLY NEW. WILL DO BUISNESS AGAIN

The Mappes/Zembaty reader has everything one would want in an introductory primer on ethics and social policy. The editors have collected well-argued and important essays by philosophers, jurists and laymen on most of the politically charged topics of today, from abortion to pornography to environmentalism. Unfortunately, the book has not been updated to include any treatment of behaviors made newly possible by the Internet; perhaps a newer edition will accommodate this angle.

While the premise of this book is to use BY to show how the American west expanded, it is deeply flawed by being largely uncritical of the absurd foundations of the Mormon "church". The author lays out what Joseph Smith made up out of whole cloth and called a religion, but then does not go in depth about how preposterous it is, and never really gets into why BY bought into the whole fraud.

This is a somewhat controversial work but American history buffs who seek a refreshing literary anomaly in an effort to wean themselves from mundane and traditional fare will enjoy Bringhurst's Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier (Library of American Biography Series) (Library of American Biography). Conversely, those who find themselves unable to cite the correct date for the outbreak of the American Civil War would probably do well to steer clear of this one until they have achieved a more firm grasp of "Manifest Destiny" as well as at least a cursory knowledge of the various early religious movements in America. The reason for this caution is that Bringhurst casts a very broad net which solidly captures the peripheral history of the period.

Brigham Young was a controversial figure even before he first achieved fame as the second renowned leader of the Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a.k.a. LDS Church). Joseph Smith was the founder and "Prophet" of this religious movement, Young's predecessor.

Bringhurst apportions the travels and diverse activities of Brigham Young in digestible, logically-contrived morsels. This chronicle can be encapsulated into the following episodes:

1. Brigham Young and the Mormons during the Joseph Smith leadership.

2. The "planning period" following Smith's death.

3. The pre-migration (to Utah) period.

4. The post-immigration or settlement period (Salt Lake City).

Young was born in Vermont in 1801 and reared in an environment which Bringhurst describes as, "...austere, ascetic Methodism." It was Mormonism which eventually provided him with a springboard to renown since he was quite willing to work diligently toward that end. Young continued to build upon his own ranking within the Mormon Church until 1844 when Joseph Smith was murdered.

For the next thirty-three years Brigham Young became the principal Mormon Leader even though his leadership was intermittently contested by certain fringe members of the original congregation, a group which spilt off the main body and became known as the "Reorganized" Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (which was ultimately renamed the "Community of Christ" Church in 2001). This group abhorred polygamy and it is chiefly that very doctrine of the early LDS Church which haunted Brigham Young until his death in 1877.

Young's legacy is manifest today. His establishment of the Mormon Trail was subsequently compacted by the mass migrations of sect members from England as well as those from the "home bases" of Kirtland, Ohio and Nauvoo, Illinois. Salt Lake City similarly stands as a monument which reflects the political, economic, and religious engineering of Brigham Young and Bringhurst brings all this to light.

Bringhurst does dispel some erroneous Brigham Young mythology but he effects this in a way that, by simply reading the book, we cannot discern Bringhurst's own religious persuasions, (albeit, his rabid interest in his chosen subject probably does reveal this actuality.)

Perhaps it's relevant to state here that I am not a member of any of the aforementioned churches so, my view of this biography is unclouded by any personal agendas. A fine book -- it's not a page-turner but I still recommend it for appropriate readers, those who harbor an interest in such works.

"Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier" is a fine, brief biographical study of the Mormon leader who succeeded in taking leadership of the single largest faction of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints following the death of founder Joseph Smith Jr. in 1844. Written by one of my close personal friends, so I am not an unbiased reviewer, this book captures well in the relatively short text the life of this remarkable leader who took his followers to the Great Basin, created a theocratic society on the western frontier, and established Mormonism as a major homegrown North American religion. Newell G. Bringhurst is professor of history at the College of the Sequoias in California, and the author of several important books and articles on the history of Mormonism.

He gives full credit to Brigham Young's genius and creativity as a religious leader, and to his commitment to what Young viewed as the core teachings of Joseph Smith. After a discussion of Young's birth and early history, Bringhurst traces his career from his conversion to Mormonism, his experience in the travails of the church's early history, his call as an Apostle in 1835, his mission to England, the assassination of Joseph Smith and his succession to president of the church, the westward exodus to Utah, the creation of a theocratic empire in the Rockies, controversies with the federal government, and his eventual death in 1877.

In several areas Bringhurst offers suggestive explanations of important aspects of Young's life. For example, Young embraced plural marriage in the 1840s as a religious tenet of Mormonism, despite its controversial nature within the U.S. and his personal difficulties with several of his wives. Bringhurst notes suggestively that plural marriage might be explained as a collective mid-life crisis of Mormon officials in the 1840s. He asks, could the religious connotations associated with it have been way to legitimize lascivious behavior? "Perhaps polygamy," Bringhurst speculates, "was the product of a so-called `middle-age crisis' that Smith, along with other Mormon leaders, experience by the late 1830s and early 1840s. The taking of plural wives, particularly young, attractive ones, represented an effort to recapture youthful vigor and vitality" (p. 54). Of course, such a suggestion requires considerably more research before being advanced as a legitimate theory, but it is certainly something worth exploring. Bringhurst's short biography of Brigham Young is laced with such intriguing observations.

"Brigham Young and the Expanding American Frontier" is not the last word on the history of Young, but it is a very fine synthesis of what we understand about this critically important nineteenth century American. Criticisms of Bringhurst's book that it fails to take to task the "absurd foundation" of Mormonism is both unfair and unfounded. It is a worthwhile short biography of Brigham Young, an accessible history of the Mormon Church in its formative era, and a model of historical writing for a broad audience. One can go further with any number of other works, and after reading this one I suggest moving on to the much more detailed biography by Leonard J. Arrington, "Brigham Young: American Moses" (hardcover from Alfred A. Knopf, 1985;, paperback from University of Illinois Press, 1986).

In this superbly researched and well written book, Donald Moorman chronicles the American war that most Americans don't know. A decade after Brigham Young led the Latter Day Saints out of New York and Illinois, where they'd been persecuted and martyred, they succeeded in creating a theocratic state in Utah Territory. By the mid-1850s, tension was building between the US government and the Mormons. The latter insisted on appointing their own judges, and wanted only Brigham Young as their territorial governor. Federally appointed judges, claiming that the Mormons were undercutting their authority, resigned and returned to Washington with tales of autocracy and polygamy that outraged and titillated the nation. Indeed, in the 1856 presidential election, the new Republican party ran on a platform that condemned the twin "infamies" of slavery and polygamy.

Hoping in part to distract the nation's attention away from the growing North/South crisis, President Buchanan decided that he had to reassert federal authority in Utah, and he dispatched a small army to quell Mormon independence. Headed by Albert Sidney Johnston of Shiloh fame, and including a good score of officers who would make names for themselves in the Civil War, the army eventually made it to Utah, established Camp Floyd about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, and "occupied" the territory between 1858 and 1861. The army never fired a shot in anger. The "war" was settled diplomatically. But before the settlement, the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred (1857) in which over 100 members of a California-bound wagon train were slaughtered by hysterical Mormons.

Moorman's history (contrary to an earlier reviewer's estimate) is remarkably fair. He documents the misunderstandings between Mormons and Gentiles that led up to the crisis without grinding any doctrinal ax. His description of the tedium of life at Camp Floyd, the horror of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the excitement (sometimes deadly) of a frontier life, and the army's very real achievements in mapping new western-bound trails makes for an entertaining and instructive read. Highly recommended for those who know little about frontier history or the years immediately prior to the Civil War.

This was Professor Donald Moorman's life's work, prepared for publication by his colleague Gene Sessions after Moorman's untimely death in 1980. This little-known work should be read along with Yale Professor Norm Furniss' earlier The Mormon Conflict 1850-1859, Juanita Brooks' earlier Mountain Meadows Massacre, and Will Bagley's later Blood of the Prophets. Reading these books together will show how competent historians can see and discuss the evidence of controversial historical accounts quite differently from one another.

Moorman's work, however, is quite unique. He was a non-Mormon living in Mormon country. His book is brightly written, more so than the other works. He does not attempt to make judgments on controversial issues where there is insufficient evidence to do so.

Camp Floyd and the Mormons documents the army President James Buchanan marched against Utah to put down a purported rebellion of Mormons in 1857. The book discusses, in quite entertaining fashion, Mormon resistance and the subsequent peace negotiations and presidential amnesty. It also discusses collateral results of the conflict, such as the Mountain Meadows Massacre in which Mormons and Indians massacred a 140-person wagon train in southern Utah.

What makes this book unique is that Moorman appears to have had access to archived Mormon Church material which Juanita Brooks claimed in her biography to be denied. Moorman's book explains the Mountain Meadows Massacre succinctly and in a very balanced manner. This book is a must for students of the American West.

Don Moorman was not LDS,but he did get access to LDS church archives. After reading this poorly written, rambling apology it is clear the church leaders saw little danger. Granted the book was written several years ago, but some of the omissions are egregious. The authors accept unchallenged many of Brigham Young's public pronouncements and don't dig beneath the surface. They often use castigating language when referring to anti-mormon federal authorities in Utah without balancing that against what caused their antipathy and suspicion. Judge Brocchus comes off as an irrational opponent of the Saints, but no attempt is made to show what motivated Brocchus' verbal assault on the Saints while addressing their semiannual conference. The fact that Young and others had viciously slandered the President and other federal officals they disliked is curiously omitted. The analysis of Mountain Meadows is very weak. Mention is made of how appalled Brigham Young was on hearing of the massacre but no mention is made of his ordering the destruction of the original monument US troops erected over the grave site. They do however admit Young and the church kept a tight veil of secrecy on the act for 20 years. The authors go to considerable lengths to show the Arkansas wagon train in a bad light, i.e. poisoning wells and generally raising hell. Even if that were true (and it is certainly not proven), it does not excuse the despicable acts of cold blooded murder that followed. The US troops who marched to Utah in 1857 are often made to look like ruffians spoiling for a fight. Perhaps some were since they had been attacked numerous times by Mormon militia members and saw there provisions stolen or destroyed. In their eyes it was treason pure and simple, but the authors give the soldiers little or no sympathy. In fact most of the sympathy vote goes to the Mormons and particularly Brigham Young. Young denies that blood atonement exists and the authors choose not to examine that obvious falsehood. I suppose one could say some of the criticims are beyond the scope of the book, if so why did the authors mention them at all? I expected a much better effort than what the University of Utah calls "a comprehensive analysis of the history of frontier Utah..."

I love this author, and loved the first two in the Series. I cannot figure out why Mr. Johnston put so much from the Chinese characters perspective in the story. I ended up scanning over those sections and was glad I did- it really didn't go anywhere at the end.
this was by far the most graphic of the series, almost too much description- but I get squeamish easily.
the anti Mormon sentiment is strong too.

This book is an exciting tale of a trio of farmers seeking revenge on the wife-stealing, friend-killing, antagonist, Jubilee Usher. The three main characters; Jonah(the dad), Jeremiah(Jonah's son), and Two-sleep(an indian friend of theirs); are trying to get back at Usher for stealing Jonah's wife and Jeremiah's mother, Gretta. As soon as they find him they will kill him. During their journey they come across many adventures inluding almost getting hung; being involved in saloon shootouts; and even suffering minor gunshot wounds. At the end,however, they do finally find usher and crucify him on a cross that he made. They keep their pride and manage to get Gretta back alive and well. I reccomend this book to anyone who likes adventure and wild wild west stories!

This was a very interesting book because it had the ability to keep you focused on the objective at hand and still transform you from one setting to another in a very fluid manner. The way everything ties together is masterful. Be sure to read the two previous books before this one so you will be able to enjoy this work as it should be enjoyed.