Rating: 
Summary: 35 pages of endnotes with sources
Review: The purpose of this review is to politely correct a misleading assertion made by another reviewer (review from 8/13/03). This reader claimed the book lacked footnotes.In reality, there are about 35 pages of endnotes (pp 245-279), and also a bibliography listing well over 200 sources including books, U.S. government documents, periodical and newspaper articles, LDS church documents, papers, diaries, manuscripts, and letters. Technically true, there aren't footnotes (it would indeed be nice to see the sources at the bottom of the page where they're referenced). However, prospective readers should know that the book provides an abundance of documentation for its claims. This is the first book I've read about Mountain Meadows, so I don't feel qualified to talk about whether or not Ms. Denton draws fair conclusions from her sources, or whether she makes use of the most appropriate sources. In conclusion, I recommend this book to other readers, as long as they know this book provides only one of several opposing viewpoints about this chapter in U.S. history.
Rating: 
Summary: Important Book
Review: This book is terrific. Not only it is great history, it is wonderfully written. Denton has tackled a great stain upon the history of the Mormon church--the massacre of more than 100 members of a wagon train headed west in 1857. She traces the history of the Mormon church to help explain both how its members could and would be nervous about outsiders, and how its leaders then tried to cover up a case of cold-blooded murder. When you are done reading it--and you will finish it; it is impossible to put down--you will have a better understanding of how this church became important and how and why it remains so mysterious to so many.
Rating:
Summary: BITTER FRUIT
Review: Two books have recently been published about cold-blooded murders in Utah, and figuring prominently in both is the LDS church -- the Mormons. Jon Krakauer's UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN is about recent murders and the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart committed by Mormon Fundamentalists who, though excommunicated by LDS authorities for practicing polygamy and other deviation, claim to be following the original teachings of church founder Joseph Smith. Sally Denton's subject in AMERICAN MASSACRE is the near-annihilation of the Fancher-Baker wagon train at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah on 9/11/1857. That barbarous act, the slaughter of 120 men, women, and children may have been authorized by church leaders was was certainly carried out by Mormons who believed they had official sanction for their acts. The two authors display contrasting strengths as writers. Krakauer is the better prose stylist, but Denton has put together a more unified story. Krakauer succeeded in getting members of the Fundamentalist Mormon community (including the murderous Laffertys) to talk freely about the murders they say God told them to commit. He gives the reader an unspairing, intimate view of the crime and the criminals, like that of Mailer in THE EXECUTIONER'S SONG. Krakauer admits readily in interviews that he relied heavily on secondary sources (like historian D Michael Quinn)for his depiction of the historical aspects of Mormonism. Denton has done far more original historical research for her book; from reading diaries and oral histories in Arkansas (where the Fancher party originated) to combing through the National Archives, US Army records, and those of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She reconstructs the trial of John D Lee, the only person convicted of the atrocity, from court records, his diaries, and contemporary newspaper accounts. Denton provides chapter notes and an extensive bibliography to support her scholarship. Denton resurrects a number of little-known non-Mormons who figured prominently in Utah Territory at the time of the massacre and after. Like Thomas L Kane, scion of a politically prominent Philadelphia family, who acted as Brigham Young's intermediary and apologist to three US Presidents. Like Territorial Judge John Cradlebaugh, who initiated the first investigation into the Mountain Meadows massacre. A more famous nemisis of Brigham Young was General Albert Sidney Johnston, who led US troops in the "Utah War" of 1858 and assisted Cradelbaugh in his investigation. He would die five year later at Shiloh fighting for the Confederacy. I recommend both books. At a time when Islamic religious extremism is on everyone's mind, we need to be reminded that the United States has produced and is producing its share of dangerous zealots. Krakauer refers to the Fundamentalist polygamists of southern Utah as "the American Taliban". In AMERICAN MASSACRE one can trace the roots of the religious fanaticism that bears bitter fruit in UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN.
| 
