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Title: The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking the History of the Old West by Stewart L. Udall, David M. Emmons ISBN: 1-55963-894-X Publisher: Shearwater Books Pub. Date: June, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: How the Mormons Won the West
Comment: A good book and well worth the read. The author does indeed speak of some of those forgotten pioneeers who were so important to the westward movement. It is understandable, as he clearly discusses him Mormon roots, but it seemed at times as though the book could well have been entitled, "How the Mormons Won the West." The Mormons were indeed an important factor, and
for the most part, did act responsibly in settling the West. I thought, however, they perhaps were given an overly large role in the book. He does, at times, let some of his liberalism creep into his writing. Nonetheless, a good read and I will look for other writings by the author.
Rating: 4
Summary: Homesteaders, Religion, and the Winning of the West
Comment: Sturart Udall, the author of this history, served four tems as a Congressman from Arizona. He served eight years as the Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He is also, as this book shows, a thougthful student of the history of the American West. He combines a breadth of study with a personal touch and with stories from the experience of his family in the West that adds to the eloquence of his book.
"The Forgotten Founders" covers a great deal of terrain in a brief compass. Udall's goal is to show the importance of individual settlers in establishing the American West. Udall writes (p.37):
"A shortcoming of histories that concentrate on broad outlines of events is the absence of human faces and stories of ordinary folk that would reveal what animated individuals and families and indicate the experiences they had. Yet only by considering individual human experience can we begin to develop a sense of what these men and women faced and an idea of the magnitude of their achievements."
Udall's approach has a distincly Jeffersonian cast in emphasizing the role of small yeoman farmers to an independent citizenry. He discusses and quotes Thomas Jefferson to good effect (p. 135). Jefferson said:
"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests, by the most lasting bonds."
Udall also emphasizes the importance of religion as a motivating and civilizing force in the West's early development. He focuses poignantly upon the experience of his own ancestors, early adherents of the Mormon Church and influential in the development of the Mormon Church in Utah. His discussion culminates in a lengthy and forthright discussion of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857. John D. Lee, Udall's great-grandfather was instrumental in this unhappy event and was executed in 1875 for his role in the massacre.
Udall gives substantial attention to Catholic and Protestant efforts as well. He correctly points out that in a secular age, many people tend to denigrate the importance of religion as a motivating factor for people. The settlers of the West did not share some of the modern skepticism and cannot be understood apart from a consideration of the importance of religion to their lives. I was reminded particularly of Willa Cather's "Death Comes to the Archbishop." Udall discusses Cather (p 187) but might have considered her picture of Catholicism in the West in more detail as it supports his argument.
In emphasizing the role of the small settler and of religion, Udall downplays the role of explorers such as Lewis and Clark and fur traders. He also tends to denigrate the role of the California gold rush of 1849 as having a lasting impact on Western development. He criticizes and downplays the importance of capitalist development of the West in mining, grazing and other large-scale activities following the Civil War. He is critical of the U.S. Military's efforts in "pacifying" the Indians. He also debunks popular sterotypes of the West that Hollywood and popular culture has fashioned elevating characters such as Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp to a legendary status.
Udall has important things to say about the human and environmental costs of the gold rush and of the mining and grazing industries. In particular, he points repeatedly to the mistreatment of the American Indians and also to the mistreatment of Chinese immigrants in the early history of the West. But at times he seems to me to confuse his point that Western development, in terms of the gold rush and the development of capitalism, say, had deleterious effects on the West's development with the point that they had no role to play in this development at all. This latter position appears to be overstated, even on the evidence of Udall's book. Udall also gives too little attention to the integration of the efforts of the settlers with the efforts of the capitalists, the gold-rushers, and the Army. These parties may have been working with related goals and not separately as Udall too often assumes.
Professor David Emmons of the University of Montana has written a fine introduction to Udall's book. Professor Emmons's own book, "The Butte Irish: Class and Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925" figures prominently in Udall's discussion (p. 157) of alternatives to the development of the profit-obsessed company mining town which various communities in the West were able to use on occasion.
This is a good study which is valuable in its emphasis on the efforts of individuals and on the importance of religion to the settlement of the West. It is an introduction to this important area of American history.
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Title: These United States: Original Essays by Leading American Writers on Their State Within the Union by John Leonard, Diane McWhorter ISBN: 1560252855 Publisher: Nation Books Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Quiet Crisis by Stewart L. Udall ISBN: 0030431506 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: January, 1963 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians by Jake Page ISBN: 0684855763 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 02 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Marketing Your Business: A Guide to Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan by Ronald A., Ph.D. Nykiel ISBN: 0789017709 Publisher: Haworth Press Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction by James Alex Baggett ISBN: 0807127981 Publisher: Louisiana State University Press Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $55.00 |
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