Unpopular sovereignty : Mormons and the federal management of early Utah Territory / Brent M. Rogers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rogers, Brent M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Representative government and representation--Utah--History--19th century.

Representative government and representation.

Religion and politics--Utah--History--19th century.

Religion and politics.

Latter Day Saint churches--History--19th century.

Latter Day Saint churches.

Utah--History--19th century.

Utah.

United States--Territories and possessions--Politics and government.

United States.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--History--19th century.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (401 pages)

Place of Publication:

Lincoln ; London : University of Nebraska Press, [2017]

Summary:

Charles Redd Center Phi Alpha Theta Book Award for the Best Book on the American West 2018 Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Book Award from the Utah State Historical Society 2018 Best First Book Award from the Mormon History Association Newly created territories in antebellum America were designed to be extensions of national sovereignty and jurisdiction. Utah Territory, however, was a deeply contested space in which a cohesive settler group-the Mormons-sought to establish their own "popular sovereignty, " raising the question of who possessed and could exercise governing, legal, social, and even cultural power in a newly acquired territory. In Unpopular Sovereignty, Brent M. Rogers invokes the case of popular sovereignty in Utah as an important contrast to the better-known slavery question in Kansas. Rogers examines the complex relationship between sovereignty and territory along three main lines of inquiry: the implementation of a republican form of government, the administration of Indian policy and Native American affairs, and gender and familial relations-all of which played an important role in the national perception of the Mormons' ability to self-govern. Utah's status as a federal territory drew it into larger conversations about popular sovereignty and the expansion of federal power in the West. Ultimately, Rogers argues, managing sovereignty in Utah proved to have explosive and far-reaching consequences for the nation as a whole as it teetered on the brink of disunion and civil war.

Contents:

Imperium in imperio : sovereignty and the American territorial system

Intimate contact : gender, plural marriage, and the U.S. Army in Utah Territory, 1854-1856

Missionaries to the Indians : Mormon and federal Indian policies

Confronting the "twin relics of barbarism" : the Mormon question, the Buchanan administration, and the limits of popular sovereignty

The Utah War and the westward march of federal sovereignty, 1857-1858

The U.S. Army and the symbolic conquering of Mormon sovereignty

To 1862 : the codification of federal authority and the end of popular sovereignty in the western territories.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780803295858

0803295855

9780803296442

0803296444

OCLC:

964410865