Where others saw only sage, a salt lake, and a great desert, the Mormons saw their "lovely Deseret," a land of lilacs, honeycombs, poplars, and fruit trees. Unwelcome in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, they migrated to the dry lands between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada to establish Mormon country, a wasteland made green. Like the land the Mormons settled, their habits stood in stark contrast to the frenzied recklessness of the American West. Opposed to the often prodigal individualism of the West, Mormons lived in closely knit - some say ironclad - communities. The story of Mormon country is one of self-sacrifice and labor spent in the search for an ideal in the most forbidding territory of the American West. Richard W. Etulain provides a new introduction to this edition.
- ISBN10 0803293054
- ISBN13 9780803293052
- Publish Date 1 September 2003 (first published 1 December 1981)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Publisher University of Nebraska Press
- Imprint Bison Books
- Edition 2nd edition
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 362
- Language English