Rating: 
Summary: The Story That Won't Die
Review: Juanita Brooks said it first: "Nothing but the truth can be good enough for the Church to which I belong." Will Bagley says it better: "Church leaders might wish until the end of time that the [Mountain Meadows Massacre] matter could be forgotten, but history bears witness that only the truth will lay to rest the ghosts of Mountain Meadows." Bagley, following the tradition of Brooks, has done a yeoman's job in compiling the most complete story of the tragedy of September 11, 1857 to date. And yet, without the Mormon Church accepting responsibility for the role of Brigham Young ... and George A. Smith, the doctrines of blood and vengence begun with Joseph Smith, Jr., and the obedience required under the threat of blood atonement by local church leaders, the story will continue to haunt the lives of Mormons living in southern Utah, and will continue to come up again and again in the work and thinking of thoughtful historians, both in and out of the Church. The only way to give rest to the ghosts of Mountain Meadows is to face the truth. And that the Church has not done. Bagley is convinced that Brigham Young was more than an accessory after the fact (Brook's official, published opinion), and was in fact partly or wholly responsible for initiating the crime. Unfortunately for Bagley and the rest of history, the so-called "smoking gun" has yet to turn up. To date, no letter signed by Brigham ordering the destruction of the Fancher train has been discovered ... He draws this conclusion from a scanty array of circumstantial evidence, including a vague reference in Dimick Huntington's diary in which he alleges Brigham authorized the southern Paiutes to help themselves to the emigrant's livestock. This "proves" nothing, but it adds to the perception that Young MAY have known, and MAY have ordered or approved of the attack on the train. If you are looking for verification that the Church's highest leaders can be implicated in this tragic affair, it ain't here. But SO MUCH else is here that the reader feels reasonably confident filling in the gaps on their own, or, in the words of John D. Lee, "putting the saddle on the right horse." Bagley does a wonderful job in creating the context, both for the Fancher train and the Mormons at the time of the massacre. The reader gains great insight into the power of the prophecy that the Lamanites (Native Americans) would cast off their "curse" and unite with the saints in ushering in the millenium. Thus the Indians were seen as "the battle axe of the Lord," held firmly in the hand of...Brigham Young, Indian Agent for the Territory of Utah. Bagley also paints the picture of the unquestioned obedience required of the saints to...Brigham Young, and his strict belief in the need for "blood atonement" for certain sins, including apostacy, adultery, and no doubt spilling the blood the prophets and apostles, such as Parley Pratt. Pratt, beloved apsostle of the early church was killed by the jealous husband of one of Pratt's wives (yes, you read that right...she was married to two men at the same time, and not the only woman in the church to be polyandrous...) in Arkansas, the home state of the Fancher party. And you are also treated to witness the manipulation of the legal system in Utah to impede, distort, and generally disrupt the prosecution of the men on the field at Mountain Meadows by none other than...Brigham Young. ... But as Bagley points out, for the Church to concede that Brigham or George A. Smith, or other high-ranking "Prophets or Apostles" had any involvement what-so-ever, it must risk shaking the faith of many of it's members who believe these men walk and talk with God daily, and take their orders from him. ...history is seldom written so well!
Rating:
Summary: A Massacre, The Controversy, and an Authoratative History
Review: On 11 September 1857, a wagon train traveling from Arkansas and headed to California, was ambushed in a valley in Southwestern Utah. The Mountain Meadows Massacre involved the slaughter of 120 men, women, and children, and although the technology of massacres has now far overtaken it, it was one of the worst mass murders in US History. No one disputes these facts, but there is a good deal of dispute about the details. _Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows_ (University of Oklahoma Press) by Will Bagley, who writes for the _Salt Lake Tribune_, gives details, but since the book demonstrates the involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the massacre, it will be a controversial effort. Bagley shows, however, that the church has long campaigned to keep details of the massacre hidden, and he gives documentation that the reason for this is that leaders of the church provoked the killings and members of the church committed them. Even though stories of Mormon complicity in the massacre were present immediately afterwards, and have been demonstrated by historians in this century, the church has continued to deny culpability. The deniers will have to contend with this big, well documented book. It cannot close the issue forever; one of the lessons of Bagley's history is that history itself can never be fully written. This is to the chagrin of Mormon leaders. At a memorial ceremony in 1999, president of the church Gordon B. Hinckley declared that it was "time to leave the entire matter in the hands of God" and ordered: "Let the book of the past be closed." Fat chance. Bagley knows what he is up against. The fate of the Fancher party's wagon train from Arkansas until its doom can only be reconstructed from problematic reports: "Almost every acknowledged 'fact' about the fate of these murdered people is open to question." However, Bagley has firmly placed the massacre within larger church history. He demonstrates why the Mormon leaders viewed the presence of Arkansans going through the state as an outrage against them. He shows how they were already expecting a showdown by the US Army because of their famous polygamy, their refusal to install a reliable court system, and Brigham Young's tendency to make pronouncements like "I live above the law and so do this people." When the Fancher party passed from Salt Lake City into the impoverished southern Utah, interpreters were available to rally the Indians, and the book gives evidence that Young himself had encouraged the Indians to seize the valuable stock of the well-supplied wagon train. Various church officials of the region organized the Indians, and painted themselves up to look like Indians; this happened without a doubt, though church officials will disagree that it happened to the extent that Bagley has well documented. All, saving some children under seven years old, were slaughtered in separate scenes of bloody chaos. The questions about Brigham Young's involvement before the massacre will always remain, and Bagley shows how the Mormons have argued that their prophet could not have committed any such evil. The evidence he gives here is plain, however. Bagley not only gives a history of the massacre and its aftermath, but also a history of the histories about it, graciously noting how much he has depended on the work of Mormon historian Juanita Brooks. Bagley has confirmed most of Brooks's findings, and has new material to report. This is not just newly-found fading documents from dusty archives, although there is plenty of that. He can summarize new forensic evidence, from a dig to make a new memorial at the Mountain Meadows site in 1999; the bones, some of women and children, had not been damaged by the clubs or tomahawks of Indians, but by the bullets of Mormons. Bagley's smooth narrative makes fascinating reading, and his well-referenced arguments clear up much of what happened at Mountain Meadows, before, during, and after the massacre. He writes that although there is much obscure in the matter, "Its causes and effects are not an impenetrable mystery." He shows that those who think of themselves as God's anointed have chosen to rely on mystery and have failed to admit or atone for crimes that history has made plain.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting subject matter, boring book
Review: Other reviewers have discussed the subject matter of this book amply and well, so I'll avoid that aspect of the book. I was (and still am) very interested in the subject matter so I anxiously looked forward to getting my hands on this book. It was obviously very well researched, but contains too much detail that is not essential, and, quite honestly, very boring. This results in reading material that goes on and on and on and on. A true lover of books, I trudged through this morass of words and was able to glean the points that the author was trying to convey. I found myself dreading the book; I didn't want to pick it back up when I set it down. A shorter book that pinpointed the main issues with a more "reasonable" amount of background detail would have been preferable and much more enjoyable. I am a firm believer that good written history should be fun to read, not hard work. All that said, this is an important book of history. I just cannot justify recommending this book at its current price. Wait until it comes out in paperback to purchase.
Rating:
Summary: When ordinary people did terrible things
Review: Recently I've read Jon Krakauer's book which deals partly with the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and Sally Denton's book which focuses entirely on it. Will Bagley's "Blood of the Prophets" is the definitive source, to date (and until the Mormon Church makes all its archives available to scholars), on this shocking, almost incomprehensible event.
I've given it 5 stars because of the throughness of its documentation, but I do believe serious inquirers should consult other sources for a fuller description of the oppression which the Mormons had experienced, culminating in the lynching of Joseph Smith and his brother. Such knowledge makes the Mountain Meadows Massacre of a large wagon train, largely by the Mormons, no less horrifying and no less indefensible, but at least slightly explicable.
As I immersed myself in the bloody events of 1857, I was sadly aware that the willingness of ordinarily decent people to do terrible things in the name of their god is not unique, of course, to some Mormons of the mid-19th century. And it is not unique to Islamic extremists today, as evidenced by Krakauer's book about recent Utah murders-in-the-name-of-god and by the killing of Christians by Christians in Northern Ireland. Religions, which inspire so many good, generous actions, also are the justification used by some people to commit the most terrible acts.
Rating: 
Summary: Smoke and Mirrors to Slander Brigham Young
Review: So lets see if this makes sense:
-Mormons are forcibly expelled by Missouri Militia (Gov. Boggs infamous "Extermination Order") in 1838;
-They are again expelled by Illinois Militia in 1846;
-They flee to the desert wastes of the Great Basin where no one else wants to settle, and they struggle to survive;
-Republican John C. Fremont runs for President in 1856 on a platform to abolish "the last vestiges of barbarism", namely slavery and polygamy;
-Democrat James Buchanan is elected President in 1856 and certainly won't do anything about slavery;
-But Buchanan pre-empts the Republican issue against Mormons by finding a pretext of a bogus "Mormon Rebellion" to send the "Utah Expedition" or Johnston's Army to "quell" the insurrection;
-Utah Territorial Governor Brigham Young--fearing (with just cause) the worst--orders what turns out to be a bloodless defense by Mormon Raiders, who force Johnston's Army to winter in Ft. Bridger, Wyoming;
-This delay permits cooler heads in Washington and Salt Lake City to resolve the matter peaceably in 1858;
-It should be obvious the Mormons were esteemed as Indians by the general U.S. population at that time: better to kill them than to deal with them.
Into this context, Will Bagley presumes to channel Governor Brigham Young's thoughts regarding the Mormon's September, 1857 "war strategy" against the hostile U.S. Government/Army. Bagley speculates that Young ordered the massacre of the Fancher wagon train to in some way intimidate the U.S. Government. This is utterly preposterous. Obviously, Bagley believes Gov. Young to be either exceptionally stupid or perhaps suicidal to deliberately give Buchanan and the Army the very pretext necessary to terminate the "Mormon Problem" once and for all. A person so biased to believe such nonsense perhaps can also conjure the tunnel-vision necessary to believe in the tooth fairy.
Bagley's research for the most part is good, if not tedious. His conclusions and analysis are preposterous--particularly the parsing of Gov. Young's order to Iron County to leave the wagon train alone. Bagley's caricature of Mormon Society as not being capable of doing anything with or without direction from Brigham is also groteque, ridiculous and utterly false. Bagley works all the tired Mormon sterotypes possible to rationalize his bias.
As the great-nephew of Juanita Brooks, Bagley's presuming to carry on the truthful inquiry she initiated is a farce. Brooks did not have an axe to grind, as Bagley obviously does.
Rating:
Summary: New facts about old encounter
Review: This book brings us back to the Mountain Meadows Massacre
in 1857 of emigrants passing through Utah on their way to California . Author Bagley give convincing evidence of Brigham Youngs knowledge, that the Massacre was given the blessing of the Mormons . It has long been assumed that Indians had perpitrated the crime with a few Mormons dressed as Indians involved, and that they acted alone. This book brings new light.
This book is a best seller in Utah and will be well on its way to being a classic . It is going into the second printing I was told by a University of Oklahoma Press official . The first edition if you can get one is noted by the error on page 148 ,
( twin tears instead of twin years ). The University of Oklahoma printings are done in small quanities and sell out in a short period of time, I expect this to be in paperback by next year . A great chance now to get a classic that will be a collectors item soon .
Rating: 
Summary: Difficult to know....
Review: This book may deal chiefly with the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but researchers and scholars will find no better primer on what life in territorial Utah was really like. I've been trying to understand why my great-great-grandfather's first wife left him to elope with a soldier from the Utah Expedition, and this book is the most helpful source I've found. Bagley undertook this work knowing that the Massacre and its unflagging aftermath cannot be interpreted without a thorough understanding of Brigham Young. In the third chapter, my eyes popped out when I read, "Brigham Young loved his office as governor of Utah and the salary and power that went with it, but he was never comfortable with his role as prophet." This was the preface to a series of staggering insights into Young's inner workings. On the 200th anniversary of Young's birth, Bagley published a sagacious appreciation of the prophet's career in the Salt Lake Tribune. Let's hope Bagley is gearing up to produce the definitive biography of Young that for over a century has been crying out to be written.
Rating:
Summary: A Brigham Young Tome in Bagley's Future?
Review: This book may deal chiefly with the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but researchers and scholars will find no better primer on what life in territorial Utah was really like. I've been trying to understand why my great-great-grandfather's first wife left him to elope with a soldier from the Utah Expedition, and this book is the most helpful source I've found. Bagley undertook this work knowing that the Massacre and its unflagging aftermath cannot be interpreted without a thorough understanding of Brigham Young. In the third chapter, my eyes popped out when I read, "Brigham Young loved his office as governor of Utah and the salary and power that went with it, but he was never comfortable with his role as prophet." This was the preface to a series of staggering insights into Young's inner workings. On the 200th anniversary of Young's birth, Bagley published a sagacious appreciation of the prophet's career in the Salt Lake Tribune. Let's hope Bagley is gearing up to produce the definitive biography of Young that for over a century has been crying out to be written.
Rating:
Summary: Blood of the Propehts a worthy read
Review: This book should be read by anyone interested in Western Americana and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Bagley has performed yeoman service with his treatment of the tragedy at Mountain Meadows. His research has opened important opportunities for objective evaluation. Important new material includes, among other sources, both Brigham Young's encouragement to the Paiutes to attack immigrant wagon trains and John Hawley's memoirs of Mormon attitudes immediately after the attack in the southern counties of Utah Territory. Although Hawley denies that he participated in the massacre, the evidence seems credible that two of his brothers were at the scene as was Hawley, no later than the afternoon of the slaughter of the prisoners. Recent forensic evidence on immigrant remains brings into doubt the charge that the Paiutes killed the majority of women and children, as been stated by various Mormon sources. Point-blank gunshot wounds to bodies of women, children, and infants point to the Mormon militia being far more active in the killings and contradicts their statements they killed only the men and older boys. Whether Brigham Young actively ordered the wagon train's destruction remains circumstantial. However, his behavior at the time provides a basis for his indictment at the very least on grounds of conspiracy and failure of leadership. The real question remains: "Would priesthood holders in Southern Utah destroy a wagon train of non-believers without Young's explicit approval?" Any serious student of LDS history knows the answer.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading!
Review: Well, since there are so many excellent reviews already been written, there is little that I can add outside of this, I believed this book and the one by Juanita Brooks will probably the standard for this subject matter for some times to come. I have long been interested in the event of one of the greatest mass murder ever occured in American West but so little was known about it. But this much is pretty clear by the author, in a modern criminal justice system, Brigham Young would be doing prison time. In 1850s, Utah was ruled by a theocracy - no serious student of LDS history could ever considered that event such as this could be authorized or even be considered without the head of that theocracy knowing about it. I would considered it quite ironic that 19th century version of the 9-11 was perpetuated by another religious minded people, lashing out in blind hatred,
|
