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Reviews 279 Utah: A History. By Charles S. Peterson. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1977. ix + 213 pages, pictures, maps, index, $8.95.) Obviously, Charles S. Peterson was working under strict guidelines of format, perhaps content, when he wrote this volume. However, the book, it seems to me, is a kind of masterpiece in composition and condensation, even historical vision. The first half of the book is as compelling a piece of history as I’ve read. Through a brilliant and economical style, Peterson brings to life Utah’s “Process of Becoming.” Interestingly, Utah became in the years between 1776 and 1900—since then, as the book testifies, Utah has been un-becoming, so to speak. For after roughly 1900 Utah’s history, at least as chronology, has become increasingly dull, being formed and fostered by bland politicians, land grabbers, and in general, a people whose ultimate desire is to conform. Peterson well makes the point that the Utah territory was conceived by early explorers as an enigma — this mainly because of its inward-working drainage systems. Such inexplicable phenomena then led to the prediction of an outlet that must drain to the Pacific, which was the Buenaventura. The author then traces the physical, spiritual, and intellectual “progression” in the state, which finally carried the territory into the mainstream of the American Cultural Norm. Actually, then, Utah has moved from its place as a land of myth to a land of economic, cultural, and political mediocrity. There were few men left by 1900 to “match her mountains.” The point Peterson partially makes is that Utah’s history was governed from the outset by a mythic perception of landscape, a “lore growing from a thousand encounters, confusing though it often was, [which] helped to identify the country.” If the state then found its identity in myth, the settlement of Utah was destined for something less, for the bread-and-butter ways of a bread-and-butter people. Another important assertion penned by Peterson is that “the medium through which Utah’s aboriginal past met the future of America was the mountain man.” The sense of discovery that the mountain men ingrained in the area led, ironically, to expansion and a clear sense of territory, so that “during this period northern Utah and surrounding regions began to be American.” What is fresh and essential in this approach to Utah history is the notion that the area was already Americanized before the Mormons came. It is common knowledge that Mormons ha.d read Fremont’s reports to Congress, knew much about the area they were later to call a Promised Land, but the implications of such a knowledge transcend his­ torical considerations, for in reality the Mormons were in search of the American Dream, something early Church leaders would have bitterly disavowed. In these ideas and others, the book attains a kind of poetry: a historical rhythm is established for Utah’s becoming. But there is poetry also in 280 Western American Literature the single passage, for Peterson notes, when discussing Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, that “If Joseph’s appeal came from his unifying vision, Brigham’s power was forged on the anvil of migration by the blows of hard miles.” Obviously, the author’s economy of prose and clarity of purpose do much to make this a readable history. Also of prime importance is the fact that this volume appeals with integrity and sensitivity to two audiences, those of the scholar and the enthusiast. Possibly, this is the main achievement of the book; without popularizing, and without perpetrating historical vagaries and tedious prose, Peterson appeals to most would-be readers. In short, this is a model study: a history which relies heavily on the poetry of language and on a vision of the interweavings of events. Peterson is to be congratulated for his moving portrayal of a history that demands insight rather than chronology for a meaningful interpretation. RICHARD C. POULSEN, Brigham Young University Howbah Indians. By Simon J. Ortiz. (Tucson: Blue Moon Press, 1978. 42 pages, $3.95.) Like all the best American Indian writers, Simon Ortiz achieves origi­ nality by transforming a traditional heritage of song and story-telling...

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