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Title: Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley ISBN: 0-8061-3639-1 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 2004 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.06 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Blood of the Propehts a worthy read
Comment: This book should be read by anyone interested in Western Americana and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Bagley has performed yeoman service with his treatment of the tragedy at Mountain Meadows. His research has opened important opportunities for objective evaluation. Important new material includes, among other sources, both Brigham Young's encouragement to the Paiutes to attack immigrant wagon trains and John Hawley's memoirs of Mormon attitudes immediately after the attack in the southern counties of Utah Territory. Although Hawley denies that he participated in the massacre, the evidence seems credible that two of his brothers were at the scene as was Hawley, no later than the afternoon of the slaughter of the prisoners.
Recent forensic evidence on immigrant remains brings into doubt the charge that the Paiutes killed the majority of women and children, as been stated by various Mormon sources. Point-blank gunshot wounds to bodies of women, children, and infants point to the Mormon militia being far more active in the killings and contradicts their statements they killed only the men and older boys.
Whether Brigham Young actively ordered the wagon train's destruction remains circumstantial. However, his behavior at the time provides a basis for his indictment at the very least on grounds of conspiracy and failure of leadership.
The real question remains: "Would priesthood holders in Southern Utah destroy a wagon train of non-believers without Young's explicit approval?" Any serious student of LDS history knows the answer.
Rating: 5
Summary: BOTP Is A Marvelous Work
Comment: Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows is not for thefaint-hearted, or those who want a popular "read", of this sensational or lurid event of the American West. Rather, it calls mightily to the professional historian and the serious layperson. Its words strike to the heart, and appeal to the gut, of human experience. The author's authentic voice as a great storyteller emerges swiftly in the prologue, "The Mountain Meadow", and continues to inform the book to its end.
Bagley magnificently narrates, interprets, and deconstructs the myth, legend, and lore surrounding the events and subsequent retelling (often false or misinformed) of the massacre. It meets the imperative that good history writing inherits the criteria underpinning good literature. Impeccable, exhaustive research with a clear, fresh narrative and interpretative style makes the book a must read for those truly interested in the tragedy and its subsequent versions of its retelling. All future works must meet the bar that Bagley has set; Blood of the Prophets convinces the objective reader that Brigham Young's words, intent, and actions were clearly revealed on the meadows.
If you truly desire to know the truth about Mountain Meadows, buy this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: Prodigious Research, But Misses Official Correspondence
Comment: I liked Bagley's work as the product of years of effort and the assembly of some new material. However, the book is very weak in the assessment of official documents, probably its greatest defect.
When Blood of the Prophets concludes that the LDS Church reached a "deal" in September 1876 with the Justice Department which would require the government to cease any further investigation of the massacre in exchange for the scapegoating of John D. Lee, Bagley misses two important things. First, he ignores federal case law which would have made any such deal a nullity and unenforceable. A federal prosecutor cannot offer a deal like the one Bagley describes without the approval of a judge or a president.
Second, he ignores official correspondence from 1876 to 1884. In that correspondence, government lawyers express the feeling that it would be wise not to make their investigation public, as it would alert possible suspects. The investigation, in the end, proved ineffectual. Nonetheless, the government pursued it for years. A president, a secretary of war, three attorneys general, several marshals, and a federal judge all weighed in on the prosecutorial effort from 1876 to 1884. A presidential pardon was secretly offered Lee to turn against Brigham Young in 1877 -- months after the date Bagley tells us a deal was made to ignore the prosecution of Brigham Young and others. A reward was offered by the Department of Justice in 1884 for the apprehension of massacre perpetrators who were fugitives.
Bagley's theory of a "deal," however, is the central theme of the book.
There really is, not yet, any definitive treatise on the massacre which adequately handles the official documents.
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Title: The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks, Jan Shipps, Fuanita Brooks ISBN: 0806123184 Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: American Massacre : The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 by Sally Denton ISBN: 0375412085 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 17 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: No Man Knows My History : The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn M. Brodie ISBN: 0679730540 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Mormonism Unveiled by John D. Lee ISBN: 0826327885 Publisher: University of New Mexico Press Pub. Date: September, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith by JON KRAKAUER ISBN: 0385509510 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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