|
 |
|
“Establishing Zion is a masterpiece of critical scholarship and represents one of the few attempts to objectively reveal the role of the Mormon church in the American west during the years 1847 to 1869. Recognized by the academic community as one of the foremost authorities on the settlement of the trans-Mississippian West, Campbell fortunately brought to completion this prestigious work just prior to his death in 1986.” —Fred Gowans, Professor of History, Brigham Young University
“A readable and scholarly analysis of the development of Utah from 1847 to the coming of the transcontinental railroad. It is written with clarity and with exceptional insight into the workings of the Mormon system of settlement and may contain some surprises for readers accustomed to the traditional histories. It is the best interpretive study of early Utah yet to appear.” —Brigham D. Madsen, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Utah, and author, The Shoshoni Frontier and The Bear River Massacre.
|
|
|
“Eugene Campbell earned the reputation of being a careful and forthright interpreter of the American West and the Mormon experience. Establishing Zion, his final work, is a distillation of some of the best recent research in pioneer Mormon history. Anyone interested in the early history of Utah and the Mormons will benefit by reading his synthesis.” –D. Michael Quinn, research fellow, Henry E. Huntington Library, and author, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
jacket flap
Unlike previous writers, for whom early Utah was an enlightened, genteel New England society displaced by religious persecution, Eugene Campbell describes a rugged people at the frontier of the nineteenth-century American West. Like other immigrants, Mormon pioneers fought Indians—sometimes taking scalps—battled mountain men, and supported vigilante justice. Responding to what he believed was harassment from federal judges, Brigham Young wrote to Utah’s representative in Washington, D.C., “Tell Mr. Franklin Pierce that the people of the territory have a way—it may be a very peculiar way but an honest one—of sending their infernal, dirty, sneaking, rotten-hearted, pot-house politicians out of the territory, and if he should come himself it would be all the same.”
In the late 1850s, United States president James Buchanan sent 2,000 troops to the desert territory to subdue the reportedly rebellious Mormons. Angry Utahns responded by waging guerrilla warfare and adopting a scorched-earth policy. After the military campaign, Mormon settlers continued to assert their independence in other ways—by refusing to associate with Gentile outsiders, by fixing wholesale and retail prices, and by capitalizing on the homogenous, regimented structure of their community to import half a million immigrants to the new zion.
|
|
|
 |
Eugene E. Campbell was a professor of history at Brigham Young University until his retirement in 1980. He is the co-author of Fort Bridger: Island in the Wilderness, Fort Supply: Brigham Young’s Green River Experiment, and The Life and Thought of Hugh B. Brown. His articles on Western American and Mormon history won awards from the Utah State Historical Society and the Mormon History Association. Dr. Campbell helped found the Mormon History Association and also served as a consultant to the National Endowment of the Humanities. He completed work on Establishing Zion: The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869 shortly before his death in April 1986.
|
|
|
|
title page
Establishing Zion
The Mormon Church in the American West, 1847-1869
Eugene E. Campbell
Signature Books
Salt Lake City
1988
copyright page
Copyright © 1988 Signature Books, Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah.
Signature Books is a recognized trademark of Signature Books, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved.
Cover and book design by Smith & Clarkson.
Cover Illustration by Rob Magiera.
All photographs are reproduced courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society Library; Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah; and Photo Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, Eugene E., 1915-1986
Establishing Zion: the Mormon church in the American West, 1847-69 / Eugene E. Campbell.
p. cm. Bibliography: p. Includes Index.
1. Mormon Church—Great Basin—History—20th century. 2. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—Great Basin—History—19th century. 3. Great Basin—Church history. I. Title.
BX8611.C28 1988 289.3'79–dc19
ISBN 0-941214-62-1
|
|
|
