Utah in the twentieth century / edited by Brian Q. Cannon and Jessie L. Embry.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cannon, Brian Q.

Embry, Jessie L.

Charles Redd Center for Western Studies.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Politics and government.

Social conditions.

Utah--Social conditions--20th century.

Utah.

Utah--History--20th century.

History.

Utah--Politics and government--20th century.

Physical Description:

ix, 412 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Logan, Utah : Utah State University Press, [2009]

Summary:

The twentieth could easily be Utah's most interesting, complex century, yet popular ideas of what is history seem mired in the nineteenth. One reason may be the lack of readily available writing on more recent Utah history. This collection of essays shifts historical focus forward to the twentieth, which began and ended with questions of Utah's fit with the rest of the nation. In between was an extended period of getting acquainted in an uneasy but necessary marriage, which was complicated by the push of economic development and pull of traditional culture, demand for natural resources from a fragile and scenic environment, and questions of who governs and how, who gets a vote, and who controls what is done on and to the contested public lands. Outside trade and a tourist economy increasingly challenged and fed an insular society. Activists left and right declaimed constitutional liberties while Utah's Native Americans become the last enfranchised in the nation. Proud contributions to national wars contrasted with denial of deep dependence on federal money; the skepticism of provocative writers, with boosters' eagerness for growth; and reflexive patriotism somehow bonded to ingrained distrust of federal government.

Contents:

I. Getting to know the place: image and experience. The disappearance of Everett Ruess and the discovery of Utah's Red Rock Country / Stephen C. Sturgeon ; "The famous Blue Valley" and a century of hopes / Kristen Rogers-Iversen ; Selling sleep: the rise and fall of Utah's historic motels / Susan Sessions Rugh ; Bernard DeVoto's Utah / David Rich Lewis

II. Connecting to the nation: Utah and the U.S.A. "Proud to send those parachutes off": central Utah's Rosies during World War II / Amanda Midgley Borneman ; Educating the Mormon hierarchy: the grassroots opposition to the MX in Utah / Jacob W. Olmstead ; The WPA versus the Utah church / Joseph F. Darowski ; The battle over tariff reduction: the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, Senator Reed Smoot, and the 1913 Underwood Act / Matthew C. Godfrey

III. Voicing government: politics and participation. Public opinion, culture, and religion in Utah / Wayne K. Hinton and Stephen Roberds ; Utah's denial of the vote to reservation Indians, 1956-57 / Brian Q. Cannon ; "We are not seeking trouble and so will just go along quietly just now": the IWW's 1913 free-speech fight in Salt Lake City / John S. McCormick and John R. Sillito ; What is the best way to govern a city? / Jessie L. Embry

IV. Growing challenges: people and resources. Utah's public schools: problems, controversies, and achievements, 1945-2000 / James B. Allen ; From Cadillac to Chevy: environmental concerns, compromises, and the Central Utah Project Completion Act / Adam Eastman ; The volatile Sagebrush Rebellion / Jedediah S. Rogers ; Utah's recent growth: the St. George/Washington County example / Douglas D. Alder.

Notes:

"A project of the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780874217445

087421744X

9780874217452

0874217458

OCLC:

316018987