Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 60/Review: The Red Hills of November
This book tells of Mormon pioneering in southern Utah between 1857 and 1904. As in most Mormon ventures, the church leaders encouraged and directed the settlement in Washington County, Utah. The leaders and the pioneers intended the region to be a center of cotton culture and textile manufacture. Most of the book is devoted to the history of the more or less fruitless efforts to establish these industries. Like the settlers at James town two hundred fifty years before, the pioneers of Utah's "Dixie" nearly starved because of a too intense effort to produce commodities which the home authorities wanted. Although some good cotton yields were finally obtained, the transportation costs limited the profits on the crop.
The whole effort illustrates the impracticality of many of the early efforts at industrialization in the enclosed Basin. Utah was too far from markets and too far from supplies. In time the cotton venture was reluctantly abandoned. In the meantime the residents secured a living through sorghum, alfalfa, livestock and other crops.
Although the project of a Mormon "Dixie" was church inspired and directed, the account shows clearly enough that the authority of the hierarchy was limited both by circumstances and by the individualism of the settlers. Brethern could be ordered to grow cotton, but if they couldn't grow it they wouldn't try, and that was that. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints appears to be somewhat less monolithic than many historians have supposed.
The final chapters deal with the church, its affairs, and such topics as recreation, culture, civic activities, folklore and myths. This segregation is not altogether realistic since it is more true of the Saints than of others that religion was closely related to all other aspects of life. To remove ecclesiastical affairs from the main stream of the narrative is to distort the total picture. For example, consider the brief but excellent discussion of the second United Order of Enoch. The account of this experiment in utopian socialism should certainly have been taken up in its rightful chronological position, and not delayed until the end of the book.
To his credit, the author does not ignore controversies within the church, neither does he pass judgment on the heretics and apostates.
Brigham Young is handled sympathetically throughout, and appears to have been astonishingly ubiquitous. Young's quoted pronouncements are full of autocratic pomposity and obscure threats of damnation, but the Saints of the South seem to have treated him with respect and done about as they pleased. All of this is handled by the author in good taste and with fair objectivity.
The bulk of the book is arranged chronologically. Exceptions are the oddly arranged first chapter and the last two chapters. The book is heavily detailed, sometimes pedantically so. The material is not very well synthesized, but it is scholarly and insofar as can be tested, accurate. In spite of its few flaws, the book will prove useful to scholars and teachers, less so to general readers.
JOHN T. SCHLEBECKER
Iowa State College