Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows: Amazon.ca: Will Bagley: Books

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From Library Journal

In 1857, over 100 men, women, and children in a wagon train from Arkansas were murdered in southern Utah by local settlers aided by Southern Paiute warriors. For 50 years, Mormon historian Juanita Brooks's The Mountain Meadows Massacre has been the standard work on the subject. Here, independent historian and Salt Lake Tribune columnist Bagley claims only to extend Brooks's work. But by using documents not available to Brooks and by following her example in pursuing the truth wherever it led him while not going beyond the available evidence, he confirms her private opinion that territorial Mormon leader and governor Brigham Young was heavily involved in both the massacre and its cover-up. In the process, Bagley has produced the new standard work on the massacre. This well-written and well-thought-out analysis is essential for all libraries with collections on the West or the Mormons.
Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Description

The massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857, was the single most violent attack on a wagon train in the thirty-year history of the Oregon and California trails. Yet it has been all but forgotten. Will Bagley’s Blood of the Prophets is an award-winning, riveting account of the attack on the Baker-Fancher wagon train by Mormons in the local militia and a few Paiute Indians. Based on extensive investigation of the events surrounding the murder of over 120 men, women, and children, and drawing from a wealth of primary sources, Bagley explains how the murders occurred, reveals the involvement of territorial governor Brigham Young, and explores the subsequent suppression and distortion of events related to the massacre by the Mormon Church and others.

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Beyond the Rocky Mountains in the vast reaches of the American West lies the Great Basin. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

20 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

3.8 out of 5 stars (20 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars Prodigious Research, But Misses Official Correspondence, Mar 7 2004

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R. Crockett (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Hardcover)

I liked Bagley's work as the product of years of effort and the assembly of some new material. However, the book is very weak in the assessment of official documents, probably its greatest defect.

When Blood of the Prophets concludes that the LDS Church reached a "deal" in September 1876 with the Justice Department which would require the government to cease any further investigation of the massacre in exchange for the scapegoating of John D. Lee, Bagley misses two important things. First, he ignores federal case law which would have made any such deal a nullity and unenforceable. A federal prosecutor cannot offer a deal like the one Bagley describes without the approval of a judge or a president.

Second, he ignores official correspondence from 1876 to 1884. In that correspondence, government lawyers express the feeling that it would be wise not to make their investigation public, as it would alert possible suspects. The investigation, in the end, proved ineffectual. Nonetheless, the government pursued it for years. A president, a secretary of war, three attorneys general, several marshals, and a federal judge all weighed in on the prosecutorial effort from 1876 to 1884. A presidential pardon was secretly offered Lee to turn against Brigham Young in 1877 -- months after the date Bagley tells us a deal was made to ignore the prosecution of Brigham Young and others. A reward was offered by the Department of Justice in 1884 for the apprehension of massacre perpetrators who were fugitives.

Bagley's theory of a "deal," however, is the central theme of the book.

There really is, not yet, any definitive treatise on the massacre which adequately handles the official documents.

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5.0 out of 5 stars When ordinary people did terrible things, Jan 23 2004

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Geoff Pietsch (Gainesville, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Hardcover)

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.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Mental Motives known over 100 years later? Nay.., Dec 11 2003

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SoloBoshek (Rincon, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Hardcover)

If people are honestly reading this book, and taking it to heart to be a "true" "solid" book, worth reading, then they are just about as ignorant as Simon was when he offered money to Peter to purchase the power of God, as stated in the book of ACTS. This author claims to know the mental motives of a man that lived over 100 years ago! How can you say that Brigham Young was feeling this... or thinking that... When in all actuality, YOU CANT READ DEAD PEOPLES MINDS! Not even journals can "tell" you there thoughts and feelings. So that right there should tell you that this author was biased when producing this book. And when it comes to "TRUE HISTORY" A biased document can not be trusted.

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Most recent customer reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars A Biased Treatment By an Intelligent but Prejudiced Author!
I read this book anticipating an honest and unbiased treatment of an important and tragic event in Utah and Mormon history. Read more

Published on July 19 2004 by NanaNeece

2.0 out of 5 stars Well written fiction.
While the book is based on a real tragady in history I felt the book was written to sell books. Having studied this particular event and even visiting the sites I found several... Read more

Published on Jun 7 2004