Publishers Weekly
01/30/2023
Turley (In the Hands of the Lord), former assistant historian of the Church of Latter-day Saints, and Jones Brown, director of Signature Books, deliver a meticulous history of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its decades-long consequences. In September 1857, members of the Latter-day Saint community of southern Utah killed more than 100 travelers en route from Arkansas to California, sparing only 17 children. Turley and Jones Brown tease out the tensions that incited the massacre—fears of federal invasion of the territory, general animosity between the Mormon community and the state—and recount the eventual murder trial of John D. Lee in 1874. Lee and others denied any involvement and blamed local Paiutes for the murders; meanwhile, federal authorities were hampered by a lack of funds. In the end, only Lee was convicted in a complicated series of trials that aimed to disenfranchise Mormons amid rising anti-polygamy sentiment. Though sometimes bogged down by dense, dry prose, the authors draw revelatory links between local effects of the massacre and national anxieties about religion and political volatility, giving readers a comprehensive, complex understanding of the era. This should become the definitive account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its fallout. (May)
From the Publisher
"This haunting, exhaustively-researched account stands as the definitive study of the long afterlife of the Mountain Meadows massacre." — Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Washington University in St. Louis
"Vengeance is Mine is a riveting account of how justice was pursued and evaded during an era of national transformation. With moving prose and a brisk narrative, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown's tale reveals much about both nineteenth century Latter-day Saints as well as the American nation against whom they nearly waged war." — Benjamin E. Park, author of Kingdom of Nauvoo"A harsh, painful story of the tragic aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre reconstructed from a decades-long investigation of the sources, Vengeance Is Mine is an unflinching account of investigation, cover up, and suffering. Turley and Brown have made startling discoveries that put the story in a new light without relieving the perpetrators of guilt. A complex, enthralling historical narrative." — Richard Lyman Bushman, author of Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling"This impeccably researched and eloquent book tells a story about crime and punishment in a western territory in the years immediately before and after the Civil War. It is a story about the entanglement of local and national politics, about religious zeal and bigotry, and about barriers to achieving justice in a bitterly polarized society. It is a story for today." — Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870"In Vengeance Is Mine, Brown and Turley clarify and fill in the narrative spaces in the aftermath of the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre. Using legal transcripts and other primary documents, they unravel the tale of how American Indians were blamed and then used to deflect attention from the principal orchestrators of unimaginable violence. This story reflects events in Mormon history while contextualizing religious and systemic racial attitudes of the nineteenth-century American West. This is a book not to miss." — P. Jane Hafen (Taos Pueblo), co-editor of Essays on American Indian and Mormon History"[T]he authors draw revelatory links between local effects of the massacre and national anxieties about religion and political volatility, giving readers a comprehensive, complex understanding of the era." —Publishers Weekly"[A] capable work of scholarly detection." —Kirkus Reviews"Based upon years of extensive research, Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath is a masterpiece that examines not only the catalysts and culmination but also the consequences of one of the most infamous episodes of both Latter-day Saint and Western U.S. history-the Mountain Meadows Massacre...Learning the hard lessons of the past will help us make a better future for ourselves and others. To that end, I am pleased to highly recommend Vengeance is Mine. Who should read it? Everyone! If you are unsure whether you should buy it, do yourself a favor and do it. Read it, weep over it, wrestle with it, and I believe you will be a better person-one more genuine, merciful, tolerant, and thoughtful-by the end." — Sam Mitchell, Association of Mormon Letters"Turley and Brown have accomplished a remarkable feat in capturing so much primary source material and delivering a highly readable text that has lessons for all of us. If you end up finding yourself weeping or not being able to sleep, then the authors have accomplished what they set out to do, making you feel for this senseless tragedy. Vengeance is Mine is worthy of our concentrated attention." — Kevin Folkman, Association of Mormon Letters"Vengeance Is Mine does what any sequel does best: expands what is presented in the first iteration, deepens the audience's understanding of what is being presented, and concludes threads considered in the first text. Vengeance Is Mine connects readers more to one of the main figures in the massacre-John D. Lee-expanding his narrative and outlining the effect his trial had on not only him and his family but on American politics, the treatment of Latter-day Saints, and the Church that nestled itself in the Salt Lake Valley. Because it is both a good standalone and an excellent sequel, I recommend readers taking either path when reading: taking up the first book; if they are interested in a deep dive into the massacre, or reading this text on its own, since it provides the same main points that the first book does." — Adam McLain , Association for Mormon Letters"This is a book worth reading." — Amanda Ray , Association for Mormon Letters"I would say that anyone connected to Latter-day Saint studies should have this book on their bookshelf by the end of the year-it is no exaggeration to say that all historical studies of the Mountain Meadows Massacre converge in Vengeance is Mine." — Greg Seppi, Association for Mormon Letters"Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath is a stunning achievement… Brown and Turley's book is a phenomenal, breathtaking step toward communal learning." — Conor Hilton, Association for Mormon Letters"I would say that anyone connected to Latter-day Saint studies should have this book on their bookshelf by the end of the year-it is no exaggeration to say that all historical studies of the Mountain Meadows Massacre converge in Vengeance is Mine." — Greg Seppi, Association for Mormon Letters"Vengeance is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath is a stunning achievement... Brown and Turley's book is a phenomenal, breathtaking step toward communal learning." — Conor Hilton, Association for Mormon Letters"In addition to providing the definitive narrative of the legal wrangling that followed the massacre and their useful demolition of several myths, the great work Turley and Brown do here is their contextualization of the massacre's investigation in the politics of the nation and the Utah territory." — Matthew Bowman, Nova Religio vol 27.2"This is a superb treatment of a massacre that has unfairly blackened the Latter-day Saints for more than a century. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals." — Choice"Turley and Brown have given us a well-researched, well-reasoned, and well-written text on a massacre that has unfairly blackened the entire Latterday Saint people for more than a century and three score years." — The Journal of Mormon History"It must be stated that Turley and Brown completed in this book the kind of scholarship that could scarcely be dreamt of, let alone produced, even a generation ago. It is well done "hard history," and for Utah, it is a much-needed healing history." — Brad Westwood, Utah Historical Quarterly
Kirkus Reviews
2023-02-23
A follow-up to the acclaimed 2008 historical true-crime book Massacre at Mountain Meadows.
In 1857 in Utah, a wagon train bound from Arkansas to California came under attack. It was not the only wagon train to suffer siege and murder, write historians Turley and Brown, but it was unusual in its brutal end, with more than 120 men, women, and children killed. “These assaults were motivated by political wrangling over federal and local rule and tensions between church and state that reached a deadly peak in 1857 but roiled Utah for decades,” write the authors. It has been long supposed that Brigham Young ordered the massacre, and many historians have further suggested that only Mormons disguised as Native Americans carried out the crime, even as contemporary Mormons blamed it on local Paiute Indians exclusively. Turley and Brown sift through a vast trove of documentary evidence to show that the massacre was the product of many hands, and while only Maj. John D. Lee was punished for it—killed by firing squad, fittingly enough, on the very site of the crime—many Mormon leaders deserved the same end. Complicating the crime were several factors, including the need for federal troops to pacify the restive frontier, troops unavailable during the Civil War, and the reluctance of officials to stir things up after the war was over. Interestingly, inquiries conducted by Mormons themselves helped solve some of the mysteries surrounding the events, even if Lee bore the brunt of the punishment and other guilty parties walked. The supposition on the part of federal authorities that the Mormons were reluctant to “punish their own murderers & high offenders” was only partly true. Turley and Brown turn in some interesting side notes, as well—e.g., that Russia parted with Alaska not just because of Seward’s cash offer, but also because they were afraid that Mormons would flee Utah and invade Russia’s American holdings.
While of interest mostly to specialist historians, this is a capable work of scholarly detection.
