The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking The History Of The Old West [Paperback]

Stewart L. Udall (Author), David Emmons (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 155963894X | ISBN-13: 978-1559638944 | Publication Date: March 5, 2004 | Edition: 1

Former secretary of the interior and native westerner Stewart L. Udall draws on extensive research and his vast knowledge of and experience in the American West to offer a provocative new look at one of the most important chapters of American history. He presents a fascinating and wide-ranging overview of western history and those who have written about it, challenging conventional wisdom on subjects ranging from Manifest Destiny to the importance of Eastern capitalists to the role of religion in westward settlement.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of spirited essays is, says its distinguished author, his "final" book. But since serious works of thought like this rarely issue from the pens of former cabinet members, we should hope not. Udall, who served as Interior Secretary under presidents Kennedy and Johnson and before that as a congressman, is no typical politician, having written many serious books, among them the celebrated Quiet Crisis (1963). This one takes on what Udall considers the harmful myths about western U.S. history, myths that put the wrong people (fur traders and gold miners) and the wrong subjects ("Manifest Destiny" and armed violence) at the center of the history of the Old West. With a lively and sometimes personal take, he wants us to replace old folk tales with "reality"-with the known stories of a greater diversity of men and women, natives and newcomers, who gave the West its distinctive character. Udall is particularly compelling when writing of his own and his wife's great-grandparents, among whom was the Mormon who led the infamous Mountain Meadow Massacre of 1857. Unfortunately, this only tends to replace one set of "heroes" with another, "the forgotten founders" who take center stage here only as strong, religious, fearless, hard-working folk without shortcomings. The trappers, miners and politicians who did in fact play a role in the West are elbowed almost totally out of the picture. Nevertheless, Udall's version of the West's past fits well with recent scholarly views, and many who read this book because of its author's renown will gain solid knowledge and much pleasure. Maps, photos.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"...an impressive new book... [The Forgotten Founders] is a gem that encompasses virtually every aspect of the development of our region." -Rocky Mountain News; "[Udall] offers a convincing argument that it wasn't the cavalry, fur traders, prospectors, gunslingers or rallroad builders who tamed the West; it was 'courageous men and women who made treks into wilderness and created communities in virgin valleys.' Udall's spare prose adds impact to his words." -The Seattle Times"

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (March 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155963894X
• ISBN-13: 978-1559638944
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #340,401 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Homesteaders, Religion, and the Winning of the West, January 9, 2003

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking The History Of The Old West (Hardcover)

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.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars How the Mormons Won the West, July 27, 2003

By 

Winfield Scott "winfieldscott" (Fort Scott, KS United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking The History Of The Old West (Hardcover)

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.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but flawed at times, September 18, 2011

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Adam Rackis (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking The History Of The Old West (Paperback)

A good history of the founding of the west. I liked that the author dispelled the many myths of the old west, largely perpetrated by Hollywood; however, his tone often sounded a bit pleading. The author had ancestors who settled the west, and he seemed desperate at times for his readers to understand how specious Hollywood's portrayals are; it was almost off-putting at times.

Having said that, the book was otherwise well-written, and the above criticism applied to a minority of the book, so I'd still recommend it.