Customer Reviews

Massacre at Mountain Meadows

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

After I read this book I attended a book signing where all three authors were present. Apart from signing the book, they gave a 45 minute lecture. Richard Turley informed the audience that when Ronald Walker was approached, 7 years ago, to begin work on this book, he (Ron) said that he would not be involved with the project unless complete disclosure of the massacre was the proposed goal of the book. That goal was achieved.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows is, as has been pointed out by other reviews, written by 3 faithful Mormons. However, they do not hide any fact, no matter how poorly it reflects on the Mormons of the time. For instance, concerning Brigham Young they write: "We believe errors were made by . . . Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders, . . . and most of all by settlers in southern Utah who set aside principles of their faith to commit an atrocity. At each point along the chain of acts and decisions--especially in Iron and Washington Counties--a single personal choice or policy might have brought a different result" (p. xiv). The "errors" committed by "Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders" are not glossed over, or hidden behind the skirts of any LDS public relations committee. The men who wrote this book completely admit and demonstrate, through their writing, that the culpability for the murders can never be placed at the feet on one particular person. Indeed, the writers allow the reader to determine, by a full disclosure of facts, how much blame Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders deserve for the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Though the three men who wrote this book are faithful LDS members, they condemn the Mormon murderers and absolve the Arkansas emigrants: "The emigrants did not deserve what eventually happened to them at Mountain Meadows. The massacre was not inevitable. No easy absolution for the perpetrators is possible. Their later posturing and rationalization could never overcome one irrefutable fact: All the purported wrongs of the emigrants--even if true--did not justify the killing of a single person" (p. 115).

This book is one of the best researched and well written books on an aspect of Mormon Church and American History. The writing is superb, the flow of the text and ideas are very readable, the ending--though known to the reader beforehand--is as gripping as any novel on today's market.

Those who simply focus on the culpability of Brigham Young in the massacre miss the undercurrents that were at work in Utah during the 1850s. One man, not even if he is prophet of a Church, "during a time of uncertainty and possible war" (p. 115), hundreds of miles away from the actual killing site, in an era where the fastest way to convey information was via horse and letter, could cause so many followers to violently kill men, women, and children. The proof is in the pages of this book. There were forces at work that we, in the comfort of our air conditioned homes and relatively peaceful surroundings, cannot possibly understand. This book gives us a glimpse at how "some of the Mormons, like other men and women throughout history, did not match their behavior with their ideals" (p. 115).

In conclusion, for those clamoring to know the truth surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre need to read this book. Those who accuse the LDS Church of withholding facts and figures to keep their members in a trance of belief need to read this book. Mormons believe that truth aleviates suspense and doubt and this book of truth does just that.

The Mountain Meadows massacre of September 1857 where more than 120 men, women and children traveling from Arkansas to California were killed by Mormons and their Indian allies is one of the great massacres of American history, up there with Waco, the Oklahoma Federal Building, 9/11, some of the famous massacres of striking workers and of course, Little Big Horn. It was indeed a viscious massacre and since it took place much blame has been tossed at Mormons in general in a series of Xenophobic books that seek to indict the church and its leaders. This is not surprising as the hatred for the travellers who were killed at Mountain Meadows was an anger felt across the Mormon country of Utah, but the savage outburst of butchery was carried out by individuals, not a collective.

It is to these individuals and the culture of the times that three LDS authors have turned, using church archives, to paint a fair pciture of what took place that day and in the time leading up to it. The Mormons had been persecuted when they had lived peacefully in Missouri and the old Northwest. There different ways, of polygamy, and their new religion, set them apart. Their prophet was murdered and their people driven from one place to another. When Utah beckoned as a promised land it was no surprise that many were annoyed to find that following close on their heals were the same people who had driven them out of Nauvoo and other settlements.

Anger and resentment turned to revenge, against people who certainly did not deserve revenge. This book paints a good picture of this clash of cultures and the massacre that resulted. A truly important contribution to the history of the American West.

Seth J. Frantzman

I have read other books by Ron Walker. He is a compelling writer and storyteller of history. Because he stays close to the story, the events speak for themselves. The evidence that Brigham Young never did order the massacre is compelling. My personal test when weighing evidence is this: How many rhetorical acrobatic tricks did the author have to do to make his point? In his book "Blood of the Prophets," Will Bagley uses implication, theory, and what I see as a thin veneer of historical objectivity. I feel he went into the project convinced that BY was guilty. In contrast, Walker et al use little to no rhetoric except for the purposes of constructing a compelling human drama. They look at the evidence and objectively and frankly implicate several church leaders; that's news when readers realize this is book has quasi-sponsorship from leaders in the Mormon faith. But they do not implicate Brigham Young, because the evidence for such is not compelling in the least. Considering the sheer amount of researchers and resources behind it, along with the exceptional ability of Walker to distill the literally truckloads of documents into a fine story, it becomes clear that this book is the new standard.

This was a good book and is much more open and candid than I expected. Going into this book one must realize that it is a book written by LDS church employees or former employees. One is currently an assistant LDS church historian (Richard Turley). So there is a heavy bias in this book and there are plenty of times when that bias comes out.

I must admit that this book feels like a LDS response to Bagley's book Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. The authors do not put the full responsibility on Brigham Young, which is to be expected from their bias and the overall lack of evidence.

I am quite frustrated by the fact that they didn't even mention the cover-up of the Massacre in this book. I have attended several book signings with some of the authors and listened to some radio interviews with them and they do state that a second volume is in the works. And that the second volume will be focused on what happened after the Massacre including the cover-up, John D. Lee becoming the scapegoat for the church, Brigham's direct involvement in the cover-up and many other controversial subjects.

I would have given this book a higher rating, but to not even mention the cover-up was a huge disappointment to me. While I do think it is important to study and really try to understand what led up to the event, it is equally important to understand what happened after the Massacre. So to the real question, according to Turley, Walker & Leonard, how innocent is Brigham Young in the Massacre? Well, I guess we will have to wait for the second volume to find out because they didn't even address the cover-up in this book. I am anxiously waiting for the second volume (if it ever gets published).

I found the book unflinching and brutally honest. It is too easy to discount historical evidence when presented with an outsider, dissident, or publicity-seeker's agenda, but what this book lacks in color, it more than makes up for in cold, documented, details.

As a latter-day saint, this book made me look at a group of brave, noble people I identify with and have long admired as a group--Mormon pioneers--and showed how even they could choose to perform unspeakable evil. I only hope that non-mormons who read this book overcome their natural desire to separate themselves from the atrocity by blaming it on the faith of the murderers. This two hundred page tour through the heart of darkness is much more enlightening and educational in the context of our shared humanity. However, I am sure that, like me, almost all readers will strain every mental muscle they can to convince themselves that they would have sided with those few who stood up to the mob mentality and machinations of the time. There were, obviously, too few at the time to make a difference.

For this reason, I would have liked to have seen more detail about the rank-and-file who, whether they chose to take shovels or rifles to Mountain Meadow that day, are now condemned to have their names listed in appendices like this book's for all history. There is probably little about these less prominent men in the historical records, but what exists would be interesting to know: If only to recognize the no doubt common lives they led up to that point.

I used to think that, if I could have a fantastical wish fulfilled to participate in and change one event in history, I would succor the handcart-toting Saints facing starvation on the Great Plains in the Winter of 1856. This book made me wish instead I could have had a voice in Cedar City in September 1857.

This book is an astute history of a painful episode in Mormon history: the massacre of an immigrant train in southern Utah while it was on its way to California in September 1857. This has been a difficult subject for members and leaders of the LDS Church to deal with, but these three Mormon historians and scholars write with candor and great detail about the incident in ways that will not necessarily be entirely comforting to their co-religionists. I recommend the book highly. REB

As a non-Mormon I was curious as to how 3 LDS members would treat this subject. I found the book to be as fair and honest an account as possible given the passage of time and the reluctance of the perpetrators to create a historical record at the time. The subject is covered in great depth and where the evidence of some assertion is thin, the authors so state or reveal in the notes that they did not include the info and the rationale for why. Most telling is that fully one third of this book is composed of the exhaustive research notes which will allow any doubter to go to the original sources and see for themselves.

I also found that the authors went to great effort to provide the political and social context of the event for both sides. This does not so much excuse anyone's conduct as it provides the reader an understanding of a tumultuous time set just a few brief years before the nation was torn apart in civil war.

As to some of the less academic and more emotional reviews seen here, ignore them. This is both a good historical treatment of the event and a great read.

With all the hype that this book received before publication, I had high hopes for it but found myself disappointed. While new material was uncovered, particularly the Andrew Jensen interviews with many of the murderers, they add little or nothing to what we already knew. Equally disappointing was the authors nuanced treatment of Brigham Young's responsibility. While emphasizing that the Prophet didn't order the massacre, a reasonable conclusion, they only addressed his acknowledged complicity in creating the environment that allowed this to happen, in the most general terms. This stands in stark contrast to their harsh and very specific blame of leaders in Southern Utah (who, incidentally, are almost always referred to with their military titles rather than their ecclesiastical titles.)

Especially disappointing was the brief treatment of the influence of the violent rhetoric of Church officials during the "reformation" of 1857 and complete omission of the "oath to avenge the death of the prophets" as if these were insignificant.

I was astonished at the authors repeated assertion that their book was not written to respond to Will Bagley's "Blood of the Prophets." The notion that Mountain Meadows Massacre would be the highest priority for the several million dollars of Church money spent on this research while the Joseph Smith Papers languished for lack of funding just doesn't make sense unless someone at very high levels didn't want Bagley to have the last word.

I agree with an earlier reviewer's comment that it would have been better for the authors to put the end notes on the internet and provide us with the whole story instead of making us wait (I'm told it will be years) for Volume II.

Bottom line is that though well researched, there's nothing new in terms of conclusions that Juanita Brooks didn't tell us over 50 years ago.

At last we have solid ground on which to stand regarding the terrible events of the massacre at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah over one hundred and fifty years ago. This book informs our judgments with fact from documentary evidence of the records of those who knew best what happened, living in the days and years surrounding the catastrophe.

Regarding events of great pain, we use words like catharsis, reconciliation, and closure to describe our progress to a level or manageable ground. We are served along the way by time and truth to bind the wounds and staunch the bleeding. My thanks go to the authors for giving us that necessary truth.

One might suspect a pro-Mormon bias but this book feels evenhanded. No attempt is made to excuse and culpability is placed where it is found. There are no pretty pictures. In fact the book takes us firmly into the horror in its opening words with the revulsion and fury expressed by an army officer as he entered the valley a year and a half later assigned to `bury the bones of the victims of that terrible massacre'. While evidence shows that Brigham Young did not order the massacre, it does not excuse his rhetoric as creating an atmosphere of violence (99). A promised second volume will examine his and others' roles in any later cover-up.

Making full use of deep resources close to home in what have been restricted-access Mormon archives in Salt Lake City as well as sources and documents farther afield, and having the will to embrace the difficult task, Walker, Turley, and Leonard have laid bare the details of those events. With thoroughness and candor they began a project into very dark days, determined to follow the evidence wherever it led. Their research was scrupulous, thorough, and rigorous: the narrative is 230 pages, followed by 150 pages of notes--an enormous amount of citations and references. Their telling doesn't flinch in recounting scenes of savagery.

Knowing on one hand there was a risk among some whose faith might be shaken by the terrible discoveries and on the other, among those claimed there was still more to be exposed, the authors chose simply to let their findings speak. "Brutal," "gruesome," "unforgettable:" the adjectives used to describe the scenes are inadequate even from this distance of time but it is all the language we have to tell the unspeakable events.

The authors place the events in a sociological context by briefly comparing the Utah massacre to other horrific deeds done in the name of religion. The consequences of minds unfettered and unrestrained, fed by internal fires of passionately held belief can be seen throughout history and particularly in our present day as formulae for certain disaster.

The book is not gentle but it is compelling and its scholarly nature does not overwhelm the reader. As Richard Bushman stated on the book jacket, `Though I knew the end from the beginning, I began to sweat as the narrative approached its fatal climax. The authors won't let us turn our gaze away from the horrors of that moment'

Now, today, with all the blood--emotional, verbal, and actual--that has been let in this tragedy, there remains a handful of determined detractors who regardless of evidence laid before them, demand stridently for more. With eyes fixed on perceived prizes large, of all Mormondom, and small, of one man, their clamor becomes increasingly querulous and petulant as truth reverberates with each page read.

Stages of grief and healing do not call for forgetting. No one should forget. The urgent message of history is `Remember.' Our remembering must have the moral reflection that directly effects our lives and the world in which we live. Remember what was and never repeat such days.

It is necessary to remember as you read this book that it is written by three LDS historians. It is also necessary to know that while these authors completely exonerate Brigham Young, others who have access to the same information do not. As a descendent of Captain John T. Baker, I vehemently disagree with the authors' attempts to climb inside the minds of those murdered at Mountain Meadow and accuse them of a prejudice against Mormons making them participants in their own demise. This was Captain Baker's 3rd trip through Utah territory enroute to California - if anything, the wagon train would have found it very confusing and demoralizing that the Mormons they had traded with and had become friends with on previous trips suddenly refused to trade or sell them needed supplies. This is a book written by Mormons, for Mormons exonerating the Church and once again blaming the victims.