Book Notices

Compiled and edited by Susan Elizabeth Howe and Sheree Maxwell Bench (Provo:Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History and Association for Mormon Letters,2004.xxv + 122 pp. Paper,$9.95.)

Discoveries is a collection of personal poems by eighteenth and nineteenth century Mormon women.The book evolved from a reader’s theater and exhibit project sponsored by the Women’s History Initiative team of Brigham Young University’s Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History. Some poets,such as Eliza R.Snow,May Swenson,and Emma Lou Thayne,will be well known to readers;others,as the title of the book suggests,will be pleasant discoveries.Topics relate to the stages of women’s lives,and the poems are dramatic,humorous and descriptive.A biography for each poet can be found in the concluding portion of the book.Also included are selected images from Songs and Flowers of the Wasatch, a book of poems and flower paintings created for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

By William Bright (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,2004.xviii + 600 pp.$59.95.)

“This work is the first comprehensive dictionary of the origins of US placenames,used in English,which have American Indian origins or associations”(p.3).Each of the more than twelve thousand entries includes location by state and county,origin,meaning,and,when applicable,the source for the information.The author is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Anthropology at UCLA and Adjunct Professor Linguistics at the University of Colorado.

By Robert N.Smead (Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2004. xxxii + 197 pp.$29.95.)

From abrojo and arroyo to mesquite and mustang and concluding with zopilote and zorrillas,you will find the meaning and pronunciation of hundreds of Spanish terms that are an essential part of the American cowboy’s vocabulary.As Richard W.Slatta observes in his Forward,“The rich bounty of Spanishorigin words gathered into this volume provides an enlightening view into the origins and cultural workings of the western cattle industry.The absorption of such a large number of ranch-related words from Spanish into English offers striking evidence of the importance of that heritage to the history of the American West”(ix).This interesting publication is funded in part by a grant from the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies,Brigham Young University.

By Will Bagley (Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2002.First paperback printing, 2004.xxiv + 493;Paper,$24.95.)

Reviewed in the Spring 2003 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly, Will Bagley’s award winning study of the Mountain Meadows Massacre is now available in a paperback edition from the University of Oklahoma Press.

edited by Newel G.Bringhurst and Darron T.Smith (Urbana and Chicago:University of Illinois Press,2004.172 pp.$34.95.)

This fine set of essays by nine scholars examines the status of African Americans in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the twenty-five years since the lifting of the ban excluding black male members from holding the priesthood on June 9,1978.

Edited by well-known Utah historian Newell G.Bringhurst and Darron T. Smith,an African-American member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and instructor at Utah Valley State College and Brigham Young University, the essays discuss such issues and questions as the historical and scriptural origins and defense of the ban,the experience of African American Latter-day Saints before the 1978 revelation,the extent to which church leaders have addressed issues of racism,how white LDS members compare with other whites on race issues,and the extent to which an acceptance of diversity can be observed in contemporary Mormon life.In addition to the editors,other contributors include Alma Allred,Ronald G.Coleman,Ken Driggs,Jessie L.Embry,Darius Gray, Cardell K.Jacobson,and Armand L.Mauss.

By Roger L.Nichols (Norman:University of Oklahoma Press,2003.xxii + 288 pp.Paper,$17.95.)

This one-volume narrative provides the general reader and student of American history with a broad overview of the indigenous people,beginning with their origins through the end of the twentieth century.The volume includes a chronology of important events,maps,and photographs.Today,American Indians are stronger in numbers than they have been after many decades of disease,conflicts,federal government policies,and suppression of their traditional cultures and identities.