This book is a wet dream for wiseass, arrogant agnostics like myself. It's ostensibly about (a) the history of Mormonism; and (b) the brutal murder of a mother and her 2-year-old daughter by a couple of Mormon Fundamentalists who strayed way too far from the flock in the early 1980's. However, the deeper subject is the uneasy coexistence of faith and reason, and how the two have trampled each other throughout history. Without reading this book, you're probably aware that Mormonism is one of the kookiest religions out there. Magic reading glasses and peepstones, plural marriage, historical anachronisms in the Book of Mormon, church-sanctioned racism and homophobia, the questionable morals of the religion's founding fathers...it's all laid out very well by Krakauer. But he also gives Mormonism the respect it deserves as the world's fastest-growing religion, and rightfully so. After all, just because the big JC didn't walk the earth in the time of printing presses, who's to say it's any quirkier than the oldest religions (or Scientology, for that matter), or that the founding fathers of the thousands of religions that have popped up throughout the ages were any more god-like. The bottom line is faith: you either have it or you don't, and sorry, we're never going to know who’s right until we drop dead (and btw, if the wiseass atheists and agnostics are right, what fun would that be? How can we brag about it if it all just goes poof? DAMN YOU, COLLEGE EDUCATION/DISCOVERY CHANNEL!!! JESUS SAVES!!!). Faith and reason do not coexist. But, as the murder story demonstrates, sometimes they have to form an uneasy truce in figuring out when "faith" devolves into "crime" or "insanity." Not as easy a task as you'd think.

Man, look at that review: I'm so ostensibly cool! Who said that English major was worthless?

My father's family is obsessed with Mormons, I think it's fair to say. Well..not Mormons. Most of the Mormons I've known have been perfectly regular people. If you're Mormon, please forgive me if that sounds callous. We are, however, obsessed with Mormonism, and have been since my aunt and uncle took a trip to Salt Lake City many years ago and came back with something we call "The Mormon Movie".

"The Mormon Movie" is like the axis point of a fascination that's gone on for years and is easy to explain: we're Lutherans. As Lutheran, in fact, as they come. My grandfather co-founded the church my parents grew up in, and my dad and uncle were both pastors as younger men. My mom's family went to that Lutheran church, too, her mother was the choir director. The story goes on. So for us, the stories of rites and rituals, of Jesus visiting the Americas, of holy underwear, of plural marriage, almost seemed too fantastical to be true.

Despite the inaccuracies of some of our perceptions of the LDS, this curiousity definitely added to my interest and enjoyment of this book, which is not so much a criticism of the Mormon Church as a look into how its history led to some very gruesome murders. LDS, of course, was not too thrilled with it, but I thought the book does a pretty evenhanded job of presenting facts more than opinions. I read it for my father's book club, and we had a debate about how fair he was being. But we also argued about how valuable participation in a religious institution is in the first place, or how corrupting it can be (I should add that the murderers in this book were part of a few different sects of Mormonism that were NOT part of the LDS). At any rate, it made us think and debate a lot, and it made us angry. That alone, I think, is a good reason to pick this one up.

Isn’t it funny, an amazing coincidence, how the commandments of God so often match the desires, ambitions and bigotries of His self-proclaimed prophets? Feeling horny? That’s cool, God is down with polygamy, bone away to your heart’s content, sin-free! Like drugs? So does God! Smoke up, bro! Hate women? God is so totally over those uppity chicks, dude. Racist? Oh boy this is your lucky day, God is totally racist! Not racist? Wait, God changed his mind, he was just fooling ya. Did that guy just flip you off? The nerve of him. Wait a sec, what’s that God, oh, that guy that just pissed me off is Your enemy and it’s ok to kill him? Nice.

Though I am an atheist, I’ve never had a problem with the idea of religion and faith. I think that people have a right to believe whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t harm others. A tepid position maybe, since it can be very difficult to determine exactly what constitutes ‘harming others’, but I just can’t get behind the rabid condemnation of all religion. Faith, to me, should be an entirely personal thing. I’ve always been suspicious of anyone claiming to have special access to the Truth. I have a really, really hard time understanding the mindset of a true zealot, because there is not a single area of life in which I don’t have some doubts. I simply cannot fathom the mind of a person who claims to KNOW, without a shadow of a doubt, that God has spoken to them. And for that reason, this book was a difficult read for me.

That isn’t a criticism. Krakaeur is an engaging and informative writer, and he lays out the general history of the Mormon Church and many of it’s fundamentalist offshoots, as well as the gruesome double-murder of a mother and her infant daughter by fundamentalist Mormon brothers, with clarity and precision. Though I’m sure, from a Mormon point-of-view, there are many things to criticise (I’m vaguely aware of some controversy surrounding this book and it’s reception by the LDS community), and it isn’t terribly difficult to determine what Krakauer’s opinion is, I think he made an effort to present things as fairly as possible. He uses officially sanctioned LDS accounts as well as other independent sources in his recounting of the history of the cult, from it’s inception through to it’s formal abandonment of polygamy. He interviews a wide range of people, letting them speak for themselves, in their own words, interjecting only for clarification, or when their claims are contradicted by other accounts, or basic facts. He very methodically and convincingly lays out exactly how and why a pair of brothers might come to believe that God has commanded them to commit murder, and his account of the murders themselves are raw, brutal and powerful.

My difficulty instead came from simply having to spend time with these people. I’m not a good debater. I lose my temper quickly, which makes it difficult to articulate my points coherently, which then further frustrates and angers me, but at least I can sometimes have the satisfaction of venting my ire. But reading the thoughts and opinions of people I strenuously, venomously disagree with robs me of even that. I want to throw the book across the room. I want to rant and rage at these smug, self satisfied assholes, and shatter their ludicrous, harmful beliefs. I want all this knowing that it won’t help, that for you simply cannot reach people like this, and that only compounds my anger and frustration. The inability to admit to mistakes is a common part of the human condition, and isn’t limited to religious people, but the sheer depth of delusion portrayed in this book, and the amount of suffering and harm it has caused and continues to cause, was infuriating to me. And that made the book difficult to read at times, particularly when Krakauer, meticulous to a fault, goes perhaps a little overboard with the details.

Thankfully, Krakauer ends things only a slightly satisfying note. Does the enlightenment and hard-won intellectual freedom of a single person outweigh the heinous cycle of violence, misogyny, indoctrination and abuse repeated throughout the book? No, of course not, but it’s at least a reminder that, no matter how fervent the faith, there will always be some who question it.

From page 324-25 (my book)
And both believed completely in the principle of plural marriage [polygamy] – even though they have not engaged in polygamy themselves. ‘We’ve considered it many times’ Pamela says, ‘There have been many, many women who could have been part of our family... I could live the Principle [fundamentalist Mormonism] more easily now that I’m older’... She says the real basis for her faith ‘is spiritual. It’s all about the spirit that exists in your heart... I tell you when you feel that spirit – the real spirit – there’s nothing like it. You’re full of fire inside’

OK.
The book is about this feeling – the spirit that Joseph Smith felt in the 1820’s when he single-handedly started his religion – Mormonism. It resulted directly from his visions and indirectly from the freedom of the marketplace allowed in the U.S. Constitution for religion. And the author also describes the spirit that the Lafferty brothers had – a vision that told them to murder a woman and her one and a half year old baby.

The author tells us how Mormonism started in the U.S. – and how it was distinctly of the U.S., but yet apart. Mormons were persecuted for their beliefs, for their separateness – and were forced to flee across the U.S. and finally settled where now resides the state of Utah. This separateness is ingrained into them – possibly similar to Judaism, in that they feel different from the mainstream community or country they reside in. Adding to this separateness is the fact that Joseph Smith (the founder) was murdered by a mob in Illinois. Mormonism is now one of the fastest growing religions and has spread significantly across North America – into both Mexico and Canada.

Because it is such a new religion (in contrast to, for example, Christianity) it is much easier to analyze its commencement and development. The author takes us through these stages and we are shown the peculiarities of the Mormon religion. Its’ doctrines are outlined in the “Book of Mormon” written and inspired by Joseph Smith. And then there were add-ons. These were further revelations of Joseph Smith and of his successors. The most controversial was of polygamy. Joseph Smith had this one, but it was only added on posthumously a few years after his death, mostly due to its controversial nature. His first wife also was not particularly willing to legitimize publicly the relationship her husband was having with his younger girlfriends.

The ability of members to experience revelations is both a strength and weakness of the religion. It allows change, but also gives its members a free rein to experience their own revelations. These revelations are suppose to originate from God and suppose to take precedence over the rule of secular society. And Mormons are expected to act on these revelations. And they do. A later revelation caused them to renounce polygamy.

As I was reading this book about the many “inspired revelations” that kept happening to various people over many years, another word for “revelation” occurred to me which was “daydream”.

As in all religions, splinter groups started to form which claimed to have the purer form of Mormonism. This happened more so after the official Church renounced polygamy. There are now several fundamentalists Mormon colonies spread far and wide across North America where leaders have had the revelation and now practise polygamy. Besides simply not adding up in terms of an equal distribution of male and female partners, in many cases polygamy is simply a lame excuse for predatory males to acquire underage brides. The author gives us several examples.

I do feel the book, by emphasizing the Lafferty brothers and their awful crimes, overlooks the mainstream Latter Day Saints Church. One could argue the Laffertys’ do not represent The Church of the Latter Day Saints. We do learn that the main Latter Saints Church is hierarchical with an emphasis on obedience, that women do not participate in the upper management of the Church (and how different is that from any other religion?) , and also that revelations (there is that mystical, magical word again) continue to play a significant role.

I also felt the author gave undue emphasis to the writing rants of the Lafferty’s. The origins of Mormonism were far more interesting. It is like the author veered off to talk about the lunatic fringe – and to some extent was successful in tying this to the overall Mormon religion – so this still makes the book very worthwhile.

Page 272
Utah has been called the ‘fraud capital of the world’ by the Wall Street Journal... The uncommonly high incidence of fraud is a direct consequence of the uncommonly high percentage of Utah County residents who are Mormons. Michael Hines, director of enforcement for the Utah Securities Division warned, "People need to realize that God is not a good investment advisor".

Page 331 – DeLoy Bateman [an ex fundamentalist Mormon]
But some things are more important than being happy. Like being free to think for yourself.

Usually a fan of Krakauer and his writing, but this book became insufferable in parts. The main problem here is that it reads (or listens in my case) as a jumbled mess. There are so many people to keep track of and so many historical facts, geographical locations, sects, families to follow that it's impossible to keep it straight (other than maybe Joseph Smith and Brigham Young).
The book tries to pull you in by framing the crimes committed by the Lafferty brothers through this historical backdrop of the LDS church that gave way to Fundamentalist LDS sects. The story of the Lafferty brothers and their version of Fundamentalist doctrine was not compelling enough to hold my attention, for me to care about them when Krakauer came back to them every few chapters. My favorite parts about this book was the early history of Mormonism (Joseph Smith and how he gained followers) and then the discussion about Dan Lafferty's mental state and if the courts should handle extreme religious belief as insanity or not.

I've read four Krakauer books including this one and this is easily my least favorite.

this book is quite different from what i thought it would be. i was excepting ‘in cold blood’ true crime vibes, and that is present, but much of the book explores the history of a particular religion and how extreme religious belief can sometimes inspire violent actions.

while the in-depth history sections were not my favourite (ive never been a history person, no matter the topic), i love JKs writing. theres just something about it that makes me feel like he could take any subject and make it accessibly readable.

what i did find the most interesting were the numerous cases mentioned that exemplified such intriguing, albeit horrific, behaviour, particularly surrounding polygamy - the books main topic. from the lafferty murders to the abduction of elizabeth smart and even the events of 9/11, i appreciate the time JK takes to include these. i find the psychology behind these religiously motivated crimes to be so interesting, so that was my main motivation for reading this book.

overall, not my favourite JK book as there were some parts that bored me, but still excellent writing and storytelling that is quintessentially krakauer.

↠ 3.5 stars

Also read my review here: http://bookbum.weebly.com/book-review...

TRIGGER WARNING: rape, incest, domestic abuse, child abuse, animal abuse, child murder

I’m speechless. (OK, maybe not). What the heck did I just read? You’re telling me this is n  non-fiction?n ...How? HOW? This isn’t just some freak incident either, people live like what’s described in this book, I’m baffled by it. I mean I’m a little baffled by strict religious following anyway (no offence meant) but Mormonism is just on another level.

The story of Mormonism is so strange because Joseph Smith was a fucking control freak and swindler but also the way society got away with treating him and his followers was awful. You really can’t pick a right and wrong side, they’re both pretty terrible.

This book's main focus is on how people's strong faith in Mormonism makes them believe they're above the laws of the land, so they go and commit crimes they think are justified and right. For example, Dan and Ron Lafferty, who truly believe God has spoken to them and told them they need to kill their brothers wife and young baby. A deed done by them so brutally, the poor baby was basically beheaded. Clearly this book isn’t for the faint hearted.

One of the saddest moments in this book is when Krakauer meets a Mormon family and their young daughter (I think she was between 8 to 12) comes into the room with floor plans of her dream house, where she's drawn out several different rooms for the other wives of the husband she is going to share. How awful is that, to believe that you must share your husband with other women, because for men of the Mormon faith, women are just child bearers, nothing more. Joseph Smith actually declared God said "women shall be man's handmaid". For this young girl to be planning her life with a shared husband and feeling that's normal, even feeling happy about it, is a terrible, terrible thing to think about.

This took me around 3 months to finish, not only because I accidentally left this in my dad’s suitcase when I came back from Spain, but also because this was such heavy non-fiction reading. Not only did it describe, in gruesome detail, the crimes committed by those under the Mormon faith, it was also a long historical timeline of how Mormonism was created and has grown to where it currently sits today. (Did you know, there are currently more Mormons on this planet than Jewish people?) Not to mention the confusion it causes when trying to remind you who everyone is and how everyone is related, because they’re pretty much all related through marriage.

This is certainly an interesting read. I'm sure you’ve heard about Mormon’s and the Book of Mormon and polygamy, etc, but never really looked further into it. Well, for those of you that would like to look further into it, then this is the book for you! It's incredible to read all about how Joseph Smith magicked up Mormon faith and how gruesome and evil polygamy really is.

I really recommend this book for all of you who love learning about religions or just love to have some random shocking facts to dish out around the dinner table. A seriously interesting, if not disturbing read.

Since Donald Trump took office, Iceland responded by protecting its secular culture. The Icelandic government declared that all religions are considered mental disorders and banned all religious practices.
The Icelandic Psychological Defense Act (IPDA) made it illegal for any American televangelist to set foot in the country. The Iceland Heritage Defense Act (IDHA) strictly prohibits Christians from entering several locations and tourist sites, like libraries, women health centers, Starbucks, hot water springs, and Richard Dawkins Monument to Reason.
In 2019, Iceland placed the Southern Baptist Convention on its list of terrorist organizations, for using fear of eternal torment to achieve political goals.
Visitors who aren’t vaccinated due to religious reasons are prohibited from entering the country. They can be sick elsewhere.
Iceland’s Parliament chose to warn its citizens of the inherent dangers of taking the ‘Good Book’ seriously, and warning labels must be put on all Bibles. Taking the Bible literally can lead to irrational decision making; reading the Book of Revelation is positively correlated with speaking in tongues and other psychotic events. This new statute also demands that every Bible sold must be wrapped in plastic to keep small children from picking up the book and reading verses like Psalm 137:9 “Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks”.
Reading the Bible has also been shown to cause an outbreak of Donald Trump.

This story about Iceland is of course false. It was originally published on the Patheos website in its satirical section called ‘Laughing in Disbelief’ (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/laughin...), however it became a hoax on social media, with users believing it and commenting on the story as though it was real.

But why am I telling you this story?

Well, for starters, for the shock effect. I anticipate that some readers will be shocked more by reading this false story than by reading the story of the cruel murders by the Lafferty brothers which is the theme of Jon Krakauer’s book. It was just another murder inspired by fundamentalist belief - nothing new here. If that’s the case - if you felt shock while reading that false story - then it should make you stop and think…

Secondly, to compensate for the total lack of humor in the book. Seriously, reading Krakauer’s book isn’t fun at all. When I picked up this book, I expected that I at least would chuckle somewhat while reading about prophets and their divine revelations. I couldn’t. Mostly I felt annoyed by what I read.

Further, I believe that potential readers deserve to be warned about the danger of reading this book. At some point, I couldn't help thinking 'Oh my goodness, suppose this sort of crap is true for all religions, and by extension for the beliefs that define most people's lives’.
I don't think any other book could succeed in making me feel more skeptical about religion in general than this book did. The documented history of Mormonism was quite eye-opening, and I couldn’t help imagining similar origins of other religions.
Of course, religious fundamentalism was fundamental to (pun intended) the violence and repression recounted in this book, but where exactly do you put a moral limit on religiosity?
Honestly, the realization of living in a world rife with religious superstition, combined with my aversion of the current delusional ‘leader of the free world’ made me want to throw up.

Most importantly though, at some point in the court case against Ron Lafferty, the court first needed to determine if he was mentally competent to stand trial. Was Ron in his right mind? Was he crazy or sane?

“Saying that anyone who talks to God is crazy has enormous implications for the whole world of religion. It imposes a secular view of sanity and means that all religions are insane.
This issue was especially germane for Latter-day Saints, given the unusual importance Mormons have always placed on communicating directly with the Almighty. Their entire faith is based on talking to God.

This case potentially had great ramifications for the manner in which American courts would deal thereafter with violent crimes inspired by religious belief.
If Ron Lafferty were deemed mentally ill because he obeyed the voice of his God, isn’t everyone who believes in God and seeks guidance through prayer mentally ill as well? In a democratic republic that aspires to protect religious freedom, who should have the right to declare that one person’s irrational beliefs are legitimate and commendable, while another person’s are crazy? How can a society actively promote religious faith on one hand and condemn a man for zealously adhering to his faith on the other?”

That was really interesting because his defense lawyer said, "Look, how could someone with these extreme beliefs — talking to God, God tells him to kill his sister-in-law and her baby — that's clearly insane." And the prosecution said, "No, no. People have extreme religious beliefs all the time." I mean, most of us believe something that to outsiders would be preposterous — parting of the Red Sea, the virgin birth, going to heaven.

The prosecution prevailed. Ron Lafferty was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. However after spending 34 years on Utah's Death Row, Ron died a natural death last year.

Almost as disturbing as the story told in this book, is the misconception so many people have apparently taken from this book. If you want to be educated about a group of people who can murder, claiming it is in the name of God, or that God told them to do some horrible act, read this book - or one about Charles Manson. For those who want to be educated about "Mormons", pick something else to read.

I'm not saying that you should have favorable opinions about Mormons / the "Mormon" church (and I'm definitely not saying that you should have favorable opinions about certain LDS politicians), but at least have educated opinions.

(I have slightly edited this review to read better and re-shelved it under 'history of non catholic Christianity' and while I know many would barely regard the Mormon church as a Christian church it is, at the very least, a Christian heresy - October 2023)

I've read a fraction of the reviews posted and will only say that as a Irish man living in the UK and who considers himself to have a 'European' outlook I do not have any of the fierce attachments that those who both loathe and love this book demonstrate. I don't believe in religious organizations as anything but human organizations which are faulty and bound to fail to live up to any ideal and I regard members of religious groups in the same light. It doesn't surprise me and it doesn't disappoint me that people belonging to organized religions do awful things - I take for granted that some of them will. It doesn't surprise me, only religious peoples surprise surprises me and their inability to accept, never mind admit, that they they are flawed beings susceptible to error. What I thought particularly admirable in this book was that it examined a particular nasty crime and related it to the history of the religion. Why the examination of the history of the Mormon Church and how a particular crime can be to relate to what has happened in the past as well as the present does not surprise anyone who has read anything of the history of religions. That history makes it almost explicable, ugly, nasty, mean, horrid, brutal, anyone of numerous adjectives but surprising is not one of them. Why others find this so difficult to accept is hard for me to understand. Individuals may be holy and individual members of religious organisations may be eminently worthy, good and estimable but the organisations built around them or by them are always disappointments - those claiming divine dispensations or continuing guidance by what Gore Vidal so accurately referred to as 'sky gods' are usually the worst.

So to this book, it is excellent and will be informative and rewarding to anyone who wants to understand the Mormon Church - the particular crime with which this book begins, murder amongst Mormons who still practice polygamy, is only one of a number of crimes looked into - another involved someone selling authentic documents relating to the early days of the Mormon Church which wanted to suppress them. The documents were fakes but the forger counted on the Church's silence - which he got until other events lead to murder and car bombs and I can't remember what else. The important fact with that crime, as the earlier one, is that the crime in itself was of less interest then what it said about the Mormons as an organisation and a faith. The author then goes onto to use these crimes as jumping off point to examine early Mormon history, potential murders committed and the attitude of the Mormon church towards native Americans (the attitude towards them and black Americans is one the church really doesn't like talking about because for so long the church sanctioned discrimination against them while now those communities are sources of converts. The change came about because of a 'revelation' to the 'Elders' of the Mormon church).

Well worth reading but this is not simply a true crime story and, although well written it is certainly not a new 'In Cold Blood' which for all its faults is a unique masterpiece if a flawed and problematic one.

Partially reread this book in 2021 to write this review.

Well, this is my second documentary this month. As I rarely read nonfiction, I will take it as an accomplishment.
The reason I decided to read it is because of the tv series of same title that I recently watched.
That adaptation is superb and well written, and the performance by Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man) is stellar.
But the tv show focuses only on the Lafferty family, which is what I really wanted to read about.
This book mentions a lot more.
There are many other cases of violence against women and children in the name of religion.
The men described here are completely selfish, racists and monstrous.
It was not an easy read, but I did find it quite interesting and informative.
As this is a documentary, I do recommend the excellent audiobook narrated by the author.

Audiobook: 13 hours (normal speed)

Ebook (Kobo): 477 pages (default), 129k words

This is on the whole a fantastic book, but it has one crucial failing that I found hard to overlook. The book presents ample evidence of early Utah Mormonism's culture of violence (and its continuation to today), using the Mountain Meadows Massacre as its prime example, but it completely breezes past the early Mormons' brutal massacres of indigenous peoples when they first founded Utah.

I understand this book isn't meant to be anything near an in-depth overview of Utah history, but if your book's subtitle is "a story of violent faith," it seems imperative to emphasize that the Mormon colonization of their promised land was founded on the brutal annihilation of the native population. Plus, the few natives who appear in the text are embarrassingly one dimensional; they come across as a homogenous group of passive, affable people willing to shrug and collaborate with the Mormons in return for horses, and that was just.....noooooooot the case. (The collaboration between some Mormons and some native groups *was,* of course, the case; the passive affability was emphatically not.)

This particular flaw stood out to me so strongly in part because I grew up in Provo surrounded by massacre sites that I was neeeever aware of. For instance, Battle Creek Canyon is a nearby popular hike that is (obviously) named for a "battle" (Brigham Young assembled a group of men to scour what is now Utah County for groups of indigenous people to murder in retaliation for cattle theft). Then there's the Bear River Massacre, which is particularly grisly: Mormons with a group of Californian troops killed 250 Shoshone, including 90 women and children. Per a Utah.gov source, "After the slaughter ended, some of the undisciplined soldiers went through the Indian village raping women and using axes to bash in the heads of women and children who were already dying of wounds [...] While the troops cared for their wounded and took their dead back to Camp Douglas for burial, the Indians' bodies were left on the field for the wolves and crows [...] Although the Mormon settlers in Cache Valley expressed their gratitude for "the movement of Col. Connor as an intervention of the Almighty" in their behalf, the Bear River Massacre has been overlooked in the history of the American West chiefly because it occurred during the Civil War [...] Of the six major Indian massacres in the Far West, from Bear River in 1863 to Wounded Knee in 1890, the Bear River affair resulted in the most victims, an event which today deserves greater attention than the mere sign presently at the site."

The Black Hawk War was another bloody conflict spanning years. The Tintic War, Paiute War, Posey War, and other Mormon/Utah settlers vs. indigenous wars finally culminated in the US government removing the native groups to reservations so the white Mormon settlers could take over the land and resources without opposition. There are historical markers off the freeways and highways referencing these wars, and you can visit the sites of two different forts in Provo and find a few references to massacres at different Provo parks (especially along the Provo river), but, like most Americans, Utahns don't typically pay attention to any of these things. And it's certainly not taught in Utah history or in Mormon Sunday school lessons about the pioneers. (tbh because the Utah legislature sets the history curriculum, Mormon religious instruction and Utah history education are basically the same sanitized, pro-Mormon text.)

All of this is to say: there's no dearth of evidence of massacres committed by Mormon settlers besides Mountain Meadows. And while Mountain Meadows absolutely deserves to be discussed at length--especially because the church continues to overlook, ignore, or outright lie about its culpability--the widespread massacres of Utah's indigenous population is the first, most obvious, and most horrific example of the early culture's history of violence that Mormons, Utahns, and even Mormon scholars overlook.

After all, by now, even most Utah Mormons have heard of Mountain Meadows, but next to no one in Utah (in my own experience growing up here in this (bad) religion and (bad) region, including going through the entire (also bad) Utah public education system) is aware of the massacres committed by their own (read: obviously MY own) pioneer ancestors against natives.

Like I said, I realize this type of oversight is endemic to colonial American society as a whole, but in a book specifically *about* Mormon violence and Utah's culture of violence, starting with the Mountain Meadows Massacre instead of the violent colonizing mission by saints who believed god sanctioned their violence is plain old run-of-the-mill racism with a side of liberal white benevolence vis a vis native characterization.

I also want to point out that the book directly mentions the white supremacist beliefs of the past and current Mormon church and discusses the fact that Mormons believe at least some Native Americans are "Lamanites" cursed by god. This belief enabled early Mormon settlers to kill natives with impunity (while creating an odd contradiction where "Lamanites" also had a special status in terms of conversion) , but it also led to the 50s-era Indian Student Placement Program, a church-sponsored program where Navajo kids were removed from their families and "placed" with Mormon families. A series of lawsuits were filed last decade from (now adult) children abused by their Mormon pseudo-foster families, and the program is also what led to Spencer W. Kimball's infamous 1960s observation that "Natives who participated in the program were gradually turning lighter, becoming 'white and delightsome.' 'The day of the Lamanites is nigh,' Kimball said, claiming that Navajo placement students were 'as light as Anglos' and, in one case, several shades lighter than parents 'on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather'" (sourced from wikipedia).

These types of built-in racist beliefs continue to do violence to indigenous populations, native Mormons, and Mormon people of color 150 years after Mormons first started killing indigenous groups in Utah. (@blackmenaces on TikTok do an excellent job documenting racism against Black students at BYU specifically and Mormonism generally.) And since the Laffertys were high-key invested in enforcing early Mormonism's high-key racism, even just a passing reference to violence against indigenous groups would've added a lot of useful context to the book.

Again, I really love this book--there's so much good information here, and I obviously still gave it four stars. It's a valuable book that I strongly recommend. But the scant references to natives in the text and the complete oversight of the widespread Mormon violence towards native populations is a huge (and disappointing!) flaw that I wish the author had rectified. Since he didn't, I'd recommend that once you finish this book, you fill in the gaps with books like Darren Parry's excellent "The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History," Joanna Brooks' "Mormonism and White Supremacy," John Alton Peterson's "Utah's Black Hawk War," David Treuer's "The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee," and Andrés Reséndez's "The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America."