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American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857. By Sally Denton. (New York: Knopf, 2003. xxiv, 306 pp. $26.95, ISBN 0-375-41208-5.)
The Mountain Meadows massacre involved the brutal murder of an entire adult company of emigrants who happened to be in the wrong place (Utah Territory) at the wrong time (during the Utah-Mormon War). The main outlines of this ghastly incident have been well known since the 1950 publication of Juanita Brooks's remarkable study of how members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) turned southern Utah into a killing field on September 11, 1857. Many articles and books about the merciless slaughter have been published since, and additional massacre study continues. A meticulous and thoroughgoing account of what happened is being developed by three historians in the employ of the LDS Church who, with the assistance of a large research team, are preparing yet another volume on the topic.
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