Mountain Meadows Massacre

 
 

American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 11, 1857 by Sally Denton Book Description: In September 1857, a wagon train passing through Utah laden with gold was attacked. Approximately 140 people were slaughtered; only 17 children under the age of eight were spared. This incident in an open field called Mountain Meadows has ever since been the focus of passionate debate: Is it possible that official Mormon dignitaries were responsible for the massacre? In her riveting book, Sally Denton makes a fiercely convincing argument that they were. The author–herself of Mormon descent–first traces the extraordinary emergence of the Mormons and the little-known nineteenth-century intrigues and tensions between their leaders and the U.S. government, fueled by the Mormons’ zealotry and exclusionary practices. We see how by 1857 they were unique as a religious group in ruling an entire American territory, Utah, and commanding their own exclusive government and army.  Denton makes clear that in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, the church began placing the blame on a discredited Mormon, John D. Lee, and on various Native Americans. She cites contemporaneous records and newly discovered documents to support her argument that, in fact, the Mormon leader, Brigham Young, bore significant responsibility–that Young, impelled by the church’s financial crises, facing increasingly intense scrutiny and condemnation by the federal government, incited the crime by both word and deed. Finally, Denton explains how the rapidly expanding and enormously rich Mormon church of today still struggles to absolve itself of responsibility for what may well be an act of religious fanaticism unparalleled in the annals of American history. American Massacre is totally absorbing in its narrative as it brings to life a tragic moment in our history.  Hardcover from Knopf

Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley Hardcover from Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd)

The Mormon Mountain Meadows Massacre: From the Diary of John I. Ginn by Steven E. Farley Hardcover from 1stBooks Library

Red Water Fiction by Judith Freeman Hardcover: 336 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.09 x 9.48 x 6.60 Publisher: Pantheon Books; (January 22, ) ISBN: 0375420924

Hiking and Exploring the Paria River : Including The Story of John D. Lee and Mountain Meadows Massacre by Michael R. Kelsey Paperback from Origin Books Sales, Inc.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Legend and a Monumental Crime by William Wise An extraordinary account of the murder of innocents by religious zealots. Paperback from iUniverse.com

The Wine-Dark Sea of Grass Fiction by Marilyn Brown Hardcover: 385 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.11 x 9.35 x 6.32 Publisher: Salt Press; (November 30, ) ISBN: 1555175295

The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks, Jan Shipps Paperback from Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd)