While the author provides a lot of documentation, I could not help sensing an LDS bias to the whole affair. ( )

I write this in 2012, when Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee for President -- a Mormon nominee, and one whose Mormonism has been at least occasionally an issue. I find it very surprising that, in all this discussion, I have never heard the words "Mountain Meadows Massacre" used. For a massacre did take place at Mountain Meadows, a century and a half ago, and Mormons did take part, and in all the time since, there has been suspicion that the Mormon church was officially involved. The only way we can know for certain is to see the records of the Church, and these are hidden from the public.

Which makes this book historically very important. This was the first book to really try to take a critical look at the murder of dozens of "gentiles" on September 11, 1857. The author -- herself a Mormon -- was subjected to great anger by her church for raising such a delicate subject, even though she never reached absolute conclusions about the guilt of the church (a point on which many others have been less delicate).

So how good is the history? It depends on what you want. This is, frankly, a very disorganized book, opening with two Author's Statements and a Preface before it gets to the actual book. It concludes with many appendices which aren't even cataloged in the table of contents; you just have to go to the end of the book and start paging through them. The 1991 edition sandwiched this mess between a foreword and an afterword by a different author. It's a hard book to use, and not especially easy to read. But the research is impeccable, the conclusions appropriately cautious. If you just want a general outline of the affair, another book will be easier. But if you are willing to do the work to read the book, this is the fountainhead of more than fifty years of modern research -- research which, in 2012, could become significant if anyone ever asks the first Mormon presidential nominee what is his opinion about the Mormon Church opening its records.

(Disclaimer: The present writer is not a Mormon. Nor have I any idea whether the Mormon Church had a direct role in the Massacre, although it seems pretty clear they helped cover it up. I'm not particularly concerned about whether they are guilty or not; not only is everyone involved dead, but so are their children and grandchildren. But I do think we should have the truth.) ( )