Customer Reviews

Mormon Country (Second Edition)

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This book consists of a collection of 28 beautifully-written essays that focus on Mormon life and the wide range of Gentiles who lived in Mormon country in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Stegner has made a broad range of topics fascinating: the basics of life in a Mormon community; the avid converts who moved to Utah from Europe and Hawaii; the notorious Mountain Meadows massacre; the bizarre Deseret Alphabet; the story of Short Creek, AZ, where a polygamist community, protected from the law by geography, flourished briefly in the early 20th century; the wild mining towns; Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; John Wesley Powell's river explorations; a paleontologist who devoted his life to dinosaur hunting in the desert; and the story of Everett Ruess, who mysteriously disappeared in the desert.

Stegner, a Gentile, seems to have considerable affection for the Mormons and their accomplishments as well as the ruggedly beautiful landscape of Utah. Although the book was originally published in 1942, it is still fascinating reading for anybody traveling around or living in Mormon country who would like not only a better understanding of the history and culture of the people who managed to tame a desert that most settlers only grudgingly trudged through on their way to greener points much further west, but of the many others attracted to that same desert for fortune-making, exploration, crime, science, and glorious solitude.

This book consists of several essays that address various facets of Mormon history and Mormon culture, especially in the West and in Utah, though many of the things Stegner writes about aren't Mormon at all but just take place in predominantly Mormon areas.
The author touches on the interesting Deseret alphabet--a bizarre, phonetic alphabet that Mormon leader Brigham Young tried to get all Mormons to learn--on missing artist-explorer Everett Ruess, on the settlements along the Colorado River, and on the effects Mormon culture had on local Indian tribes.
Stegner seems to really like and admire the Mormons, though he was never one himself, and his book is almost always fair, and at times even loving, to them.
This is an enjoyable read for anyone interested in these parts of the West, particularly in Utah and the Colorado Plateau. It's also well indexed and can be easily used as a reference. It's one of Stegner's best, for sure.

This book is an easy to read collection of essays and stories about the people and places in "Mormon Country". Stegner has one section of the book that deals exclusively with the Mormons and a second section that focuses in on the "Gentiles", which the name the Mormons give to non-Mormons.

This is the fourth book I've read in recent months dealing with Mormonism (others: Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven", Jack Earley's "Prophet of Death", and Fawn Brodie's excellent biography of Joseph Smith, "No Man Knows My History"). I decided to read this book because it was written by Wallace Stegner and because it seemed to me to be a less sensaionalistic and lurid account of Mormon life (both Banner of Heaven and Prophet of Death dealt with Mormonism and violent crime).

I was not dissapointed, although I can't say that I was particularly impressed, either.

This book takes the form of 28 little stories. As you would expect, some are great and some are merely so-so. I felt like the book served as a good survey of "Mormon Country". Stories like "Arcadian Village", which describes the last gasp of Mormon collectivism and "Chief of the Islands of the Scene", which describes the conversion efforts of Walter Gibson in Hawaii, illuminate aspects of Mormon history that had heretofore escaped me.

Because the book itself was written in the 40's, many of the interviews Stegner conducted consisted of "old timers" talking about events from the late 1800's and early 1900's. This gives the book a "living history" quality that is, in my opinion, it's most outstanding attribute.

Stegner is certainly sympathetic to Mormon society. His story "the Fossil Remains of an Idea", which is a genial account of polygamy in Short Creek (now Colorado City), was shocking in its good natured attitude towards polygamy. That is about the ONLY thing which can be said to be "shocking" about this book.

This is a good background resource for readers interested in pursuing self-study of Mormon society.

As a non-Mormon, I have always been fascinated with a faith that has remained strong and isolated, even when it resides in the midst of much misunderstanding. Much of this secrecy seems to be intentional. In Mormon Country, Stegner breaks through a part of this secrecy and gives the outsider insight into who the Mormons are and how they live. There is not much about their faith, but much about their lives and society.

Since the book is now over sixty years old, it reflects a time that has been lost. It tells stories that may well have been first or second hand accounts of the founding of the Mormon Country. The writing is crisp and moves easily. This is interesting reading for anyone interested in getting a basic understanding of wh the Mormons are and how they live.

Prof. Stegner has written an objective and informative book on Mormon ideas and how they are practiced in Utah. Although a non-Mormon, his respect for his subjects has rightfully gained their confidence on many topics. Yet, this is not a "white-wash". Mr. Stegner combined history and contemporary practices to provide a very insightful presentation of this intriguing society.

A wonderful example of Wallace Stegner's writing in the early 40's. This is a precursor to his later work about the Mormon Trail...THE GATHERING OF SAINTS, I believe it's called. This is history written by a citizen of Utah who was not a Mormon. MORMON COUNTRY beautifully demonstrates his prose style, which is his lasting gift to us.

This edition is a nice presentation of a classic book. Though himself a "Gentile," novelist and history writer Wallace Stegner lived for many years in the Mormon-dominated country of the intermountain West. This book tells the story of this important cultural area in the western United States.

The book is hard to classify. It's not a traditional history, and certainly not an academic one because there are no sources or footnotes. Significant parts rely on oral history, while other chapters pass on anecdotes about famous people with wide circulation in the area. It's anthropological in some ways, but an anthropologist probably wouldn't recognize it as such.

Stegner was a novelist before he wrote history, and he knows how to tell a story. He's not a Saint but he's sympathetic to them as people. When he says something critical about their beliefs or culture, he qualifies it by pointing out parallels in Gentile society.

The overwhelmingly rural, agricultural society that he emphasizes has passed with urbanization. Yet one indication of his perceptiveness is that he identifies two small towns - - St. George and Moab - - as likely tourist destinations if they were ever discovered. The changes to those towns, and to Mormon Country and the United States, are a measure of the changes that have occurred since 1942. Even so, the book reads well and provides a great window into this cultural region.

We spent a summer in Utah. I bought this book to learn about the history of the areas we were visiting. I learned about the plight of the Mormons.

Mormon country idealizes early Mormon society. Much of this book focuses on the settling, sustaining and future of Mormon country. Once the Mormons were settled in the west, the "Gentiles" caused the Mormons hardships and were unwelcome in their towns. According to this book the Gentile was an intruder to the Mormon way of life. The author, Stegner, documents many unsuccessful attempts the gentiles made to settle in the west and over power the Mormons. Not until the ends of the book were any positive things said about Gentiles, some of who were detrimental influences in the west. In the beginning of the book the bias is strongly towards Mormons. As the reading continues it becomes more difficult to pinpoint Stegners bias. He speaks highly of non Mormons and their contribution to the west. I believe he admired the Mormon way of life, but understood that other ways of life exist that are as equally successful.

I believe that Stegners is bias towards Mormon society. It is clear that he esteems their ability to survive, endure and believe. His writing also shows that he understood that it was not only Mormons who settled the region. He speaks with respect about the endeavors of the gentile and the Mormon in different parts of the book. He has the ability to look at an event objectively and the ability to look at it judgmentally. It all depends upon the issue. The overall goal of the book is to show people to the history of Mormon society by exposing the past. Many Mormon authors would not include the Mountain Meadow massacre in their historical writing. The fact that Stegner did shows that he is objective. The book paints a clear picture of early Mormon life through the eyes of the Mormon.

Mormon Country is an opinioned and colorful depiction of the western history. The author was not trained in history, but he enjoyed and studied it. There are many parts of this book that were offensive, judgmental and ignorant. Other parts had beautiful, nonbiased descriptions of places, events and lives. It was difficult to swallow some of the topics discussed, but overall the book was well done. It is important to Utah history because it presents both small and large events to the reader. Because the book was written in 1942 it represents an old world view of the west. It is beneficial to obtain this point of view because it increases our understanding and awareness of the past events. The difficulties suffered by both Mormons and Gentiles were brought to light. Joining the two perspectives allows the reader to walks away with a new, nonbiased perspective of the western frontier.

Yes, Stegner has a beautiful gift of words. His love for the area is very well described in fun folk lore and historical legends that form Utah's rich heritage and history. Stegner claims to be a historian, giving credit to several other great Utahan and Western historians like Bernard De Voto.

But in his presentation of an attempt to explain the area and its unique people, he conveniently leaves out facts about historical events, like polygamy or tragedies like the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

Stegner is not a member of the church but pretends to be an expert or an authority. This view is misleading and the reader needs to be cautioned to view the book as opinion and satire. Stegner's growing up in the Salt Lake City area, but not being a member of the majority has led to many tensions. His commentary or tensions include his being against the LDS Church organization, which he uses only its nickname, "Mormon," against his love and admiration for what the people in the church have overcome, adjusted to, and have achieved.

Stegner loves the land and unique stories describing the culture, but he is not an authority, knowing everything. He is just one man trying to represent hundreds of thousands, not to mention it was written about 60 years ago, he writes well, but not objectively at all.

This is a collection of stories, which if one know the definition of story knows it isn't always fact, it's stretched. It seems he has taken the most far-fetched or extreme stories to represent a whole of religion and society. The area is unique in many ways, with many tensions in its history. My main point in writing is to point out Stegner's personal bias and tension with the people in the area.